Give it a good, strong push

I've purposely left some details out of this post because I don't think OSHA would approve of a tugboat captain letting us join him for a day on the job. We stayed right on the Mississippi River in Minnesota for several weeks and saw many tugs pushing grain, salt, gravel and empty barges up and down the river. Industry in action. Something we see very little of in Hawaii.

The skill of the boat captain was apparent as he shuffled barges around the river and swapped them out until he had the desired load all chained up and ready. We even had a chance to drive. Needless to say, it was the largest object I have ever had control of. I learned you have to start steering around bends early to keep the ship in the channel where the river is deep. The river's current pushes hard and with the barges, the ship is quite long. The captain had us pass very close to the buoys marking the channel and with all those barges out in front, it felt like each buoy was a mile away and you'd hit it for sure.

We learned how incredibly efficient this shipping method is. It takes very little fuel to push several train loads of product up the river. Since upstream locks were closed to prevent the spread of Asian carp, several thousand extra trucks are on the road every day to carry cargo north that used to be pushed up by the tugs.

What a great day we had. It was refreshing to see someone who loves his job, is good at it and is doing something productive and tangible. I feel lucky to have experienced that.

Here is a vide of Chris driving the tug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIcvSt0z71U

Chris inspects the engine

A tug heads down the river

I try my skills at steering the gigantic barges through the channel