Barge pushers after dark

What do the tug operators think happens to peoples vision when they shine their extremly bright spotlights directly on them for extended unwarranted amounts of time??Personally,it blinds me badly.This has happened more then once while we are both underway in opposite directions and I cant see a thing-Nothing in front of me but the bright light when its shined in my eyes.Tonight one looked like it was far downriver or about in my lap,I couldnt tell forsure because as soon as I came around a turn I was blinded.I never saw him jcompletely without his spotlight on to be aware of his course or distance from me,just blinding light.I personally think it is fricken dangerous.I am more maneuverable and can move out of their way much faster when Im not blinded.Shine it off to the side.I know whatthe moon was so bright I ddnt need a headlamp to even tie a hook

I carry a Q-Beam light and shine it back at them. Like flipping your high beams at some guy driving at you with his high beams on. Occasionally they get the message, occasionally they get pissed off and start yelling.

My guess its not even a thought in their heads. to many other things to worry about.

Have you tried sun glasses?

I flash them back with my 1000000 candle power spotlight to let them know I see them and the light will move on.

We got lit up a few times last night. Definitely rough on the eyes.

I flashed them back with my spotlight which but they just kept on beaming me.If I am running the main channel as they are I would think the nav. lights would be sufficient as to know what one or the other is doing,and I couldnt see theirs.As I understand it thats why they have the red and green nav. lights.If everyone used a big spotlight to see where the other was going there would be accidents all of the time on lakes especially where there are more people out at night.They do it at times when I am nowhere near the main channel which bugs me but when I need my eyesight as much as they do it really bugs me.Next time I will retreat until I feel I wont be barge dinner and wait for them to pass,but to me it just seems like common sense to not blind other boaters.Rant over,next time I will take it to them,lol.

They all have radar and the first thing they do is to light up the area where they see something on the radar screen to ID it.

If I’m moving I’ll pull in between two wing dams until they pass.

As much as I don’t like to be blinded, they need to see. It’s not like they can stop on a dime and the last thing I would worry about is offending a boater if I had that responsibility.

All it takes is one ding dong boater to come flying out of a cut and their career is over.

Don’t take me wrong, there are ding dong tow skippers out there too. Ask the captain of the tow that ran his tow into the wall at L&D #2 a couple years ago causing over $1 million in damage…wait… EX captain.

Lastly, if you’re out at night frequently pick up a inexpensive hand held marine radio. Things change when a person has direct communications with tows…(most of the time)

The boating regulations say that the larger vessel always has the right of way.

That being said, I hate being blinded by their lights also, but if I was driving the barge, I would want to tell what anything I saw on the radar was, identify it, and then check to verify what it was doing. I see no benefit to shining the barge captain with a light to blind him.

Dont get me wrong,Im not attempting to overtake the river from a barge by anymeans.I have no issue at all with giving them the right of way,however there may be times that I need to see where they are and where I am to do so which is sometimes difficult with a very bright light beamed in my eyes.Either way you look at it there is no benefit of us being blinded..I will pick up a raidio so I can chat it up with them,that way if needed my complaint goes directly to the source.

you i am going to defend the tow boat pilots. First of all i used to work on the river and at night there is not much difference between a boat and a buoy. With 1000 foot of tow in front of you plus another 400 ft of blind spot in front of that. I have been in the wheel house at night and any fishing boats look really small out there.

So if you don’t want to be blind by the light do what BK Said “If I’m moving I’ll pull in between two wing dams until they pass”. Or wait on shore they will be gone in a couple of minutes.

I felt a bite sorry for the tow TRYING to enter L&D #3 over the last two weekends.

The 5 horn blasts of “Danger/Doubt”, long horn blasts and the tow inching towards the lock with fishermen not wanting to move out of the way.

It was nutz.

Did you not know that the locks and dams were built for commercial traffic. The tows cannot stop on a dime, get out of there way

I’m thinking they can’t stop on 10 dimes!

Rob92761 wrote:

you i am going to defend the tow boat pilots. First of all i used to work on the river and at night there is not much difference between a boat and a buoy. With 1000 foot of tow in front of you plus another 400 ft of blind spot in front of that. I have been in the wheel house at night and any fishing boats look really small out there.

So if you don’t want to be blind by the light do what BK Said “If I’m moving I’ll pull in between two wing dams until they pass”. Or wait on shore they will be gone in a couple of minutes.

I agree and think this is a good approach. I can understand the barge crew and captain’s situation out there. Big barge, narrow channel, at night, and oh, you’ve got a bunch of little boats zipping around you.

Best thing to do if you’re getting lit up with the spotlight would be hail the barge on the Marine radio and just tell them your intentions. I’d just say something like we’re anchored out of the channel and will stay until you pass, or we’re trolling and will move clear of the channel now.

If I remember my radio quick reference right barges should be monitoring 9 and 13 all the time, but I’d be interested if anyone knows for sure which channels they monitor always.

Grouse

I haven’t heard about ch 9. Ch 13 and the Locks are on ch 14. Most of the time I’ll catch them on 14.

Surprising as it may seem, I’ve misjudged a barge at night more than once. Never to the point of being in danger, but just a couple of weeks ago on Pool 3 a barge came down that was 4 long by three wide. I got tucked in close to shore between some wing dams to let it pass. I thought it was just a short barge and then it seemed like out of nowhere, there was the front barge. It only had one little green light on one front corner and a red light on the other corner but they were very hard to see. It wasn’t a close call at all but it was like, wow… where that big thing come from. It’s also amazing how quietly they can come up on you.

True dat Boone!

I was on the MN side of the river waiting for a tow to pass before crossing the river to Everts a few years ago.

I think my client needed to use the restroom because he was quite agitated that I didn’t “just go”. I couldn’t figure out why he was so upset.

Turns out he didn’t see the barges that were just to our port. He was looking at the tow boat only that was four barges down stream.

He felt pretty sheepish once he realized crossing the river would have meant running into steel. LOL!

channel 16 and 13 navigational. Lock and dams channel 14 Channel 9 emergency Coast guard, warden, county sheriff ect monitor this channel