Don't Play Chicken with a barge

[smendez]

At least the barge "deck hands" did a good job and kept the boat from going under it.

[raythompson]

The boat may have been stalled and could not move.

We have barges on the TN river (Watts Bar) that are typically 8 to 10 barges in a tow and I have always given them a wide berth. If you get close they blast the tug horn and it is loud. The waverunners like to scurry around behind the barges because of the wake.

[Matt Garcia]

Whats the story behind that image?

[smendez]

Not a whole lot of detail on this picture where I found it (http://www.Riverbills.com), other that it happened this past weekend at the Alton pool on the Mississippi River.

I agree with Ray that most likely, the runabout was unpowered (broken down, out of gas - who knows), and it simply drifted in the direction of the barge.

On that website, there's also mention that it takes some barges about 1 mile to come to a full stop. I would imagine that if that's true, it would be the bigger barges going downstream.

This is not something you see every day here on the mighty Mississippi. I was impressed that the barge crew was actually trained and equipped to keep the boat from going under the barge.