SephirothHeartless Ancient The One winge...'s blog: "Towboat stuff"

well things are going great working for marquette so far although no internet on the boat sucks just letting all know im still alive and miss you all. Hopefully will get laptop replaced soon and be back online asap hugz

To those who care on here who talk to me i have switched river companies to Marquette Transportation making way more money now than i was at WKN however this company doesnt have wireless on their boats like wkn. i am using the chief's computer to type this i will be on the boat about 60 more days and hope after that to get a wireless at&t card to make it where i can get online . hope to talk to you all soon i miss my friends

well here it is a year back on the river to me this is more than a job it is fulfilling a promise to my grandmother on her death bed that i would get back out here. over the last year i have met both good and bad people. this trip has been probably the hardest for me. there is alot of he said she said on this boat and enough drama to win an oscar. looking now i see there is no room for me to move up in this company into the wheelhouse where i want to get to. hence i have started applying at other companies cenac towing aep river artco ingram the list goes on and on. this is a bad time of the year to switch companies but with a little luck i will strike it with one of them that has a good tankerman or steersman program. i have come to find out that people out in this industry you cannot make friends with because the minute you go to another boat they talk behind your back. others feed off of this negativity and keep the pot stirred by constantly reminding you. i have made it clear to the mate and captain i will finish the next two weeks however these caterpillar boats are not for me they are too quiet and shove too many barges for my liking. i am a locking river deckhand not a heavy tow deckhand and 30 barges is just too many when your used to only 15. although another point was brought up to me that just all the more tells me to go else where is that i been here a year had 7 evaluations done not a one negative and am not making topped out deckhand pay yet the guys who come from job corps and ride 56 days who get hired on start out topped out. hmm sounds a little fishy. alot of issues are going to come to the surface this time off the boat as my intentions are to first talk to the crew dispatcher and if no satisfaction is given go to the company owner himself. to be continued after crew change.....

Lower Miss 955 Cairo 893 Tiptonville 736 Memphis 700 Tunica 663.4 Helena 587 Rosedale 540 Greenville 437.2 Vicksburgh 364.2 Nachez 233.9 Baton Rouge 232 Tiger fleet ACL 228 Port Allen 95.7 New Orleans Upper Miss 52 Cape Gerardeau 90 St Louis 217 Illinois River mouth Ohio river lock mile markers 963 lock 53 939 lock 52 919 smithland lock 846 john T myers 776 Newburgh lock 721 Cannelton lock 607 Mcalpine lock louisville ky 532 Markland 341 Greenup lock 277 Gallipolis lock 238 Racine lock 204 bellview lock 167 Willow Island lock 123 Hannibal lock Hannibal OH 83 Pike Island Yorkville OH 54 New Cumberland lock New cumberland WV 65 montgomery lock 34 Dashields lock 21 Emsworth lock 0 Pittsburgh PA

Ya know i understand this industry of towboating isnt a bag of cookies with a glass of milk but damn im sick of getting my ass chewed out for doing the same job as someone next to me who is lazy as hell and for some god forsaken reason he makes twice my wages. they bitch about what goes on at home wont help with the job yet somehow mysteriously keep their jobs. seems to be no end in site with this drama hence i have begun applying at every damn boat company i can think of to get away from wkn and all their bullshit. what good does it do when a captain puts you in for a raise saying you need to be making top deckhand pay and they continue to pay you green (inexperienced) deckhand pay because some guy on a power trip is a dispatcher and controls your wages? i cant seem to win for loosing its bad enough being stuck on a boat for 28 days but when you add in the lower pay and whining ugh im ready to throw my hands up.... any suggestions?

if you wake up with a tent in your blankets while onboard you just have to take the matter at hand. there is a hawaiian disease going around the river its called lackanookie. failure to have this disease treated results in catching the cabbage disease. that is where the stem wont hold up the head ;) blow up dolls are strictly prohibited on any vessel at any time. even though your out here for 28 plus days the cook is not your mother she dont wanna hear you whine nor is she going to sleep with you. and finally a friendly warning from the coast guard to all blonde women who somehow got into this industry sos does NOT mean spit or swallow. hope this crude humor makess you smile just a bit

well after a long hard decision im heading back to WKN in the morning to lineboat im sick of the gas being spent on going into the harbor 100 dollars every two weeks aint cutting it when you only work 5 days a week so this one was a tough one. ill be back on the same schedule of 28 days living on the boat 14 days off. oh well truth be said i miss it im a line boater not a harbor man anyhow.

to help some understand what i do i work on a towboat its a boat that pushes barges barges haul cargo from chemicals to grains and coal i work 28 days on 14 days off i live on this vessel for the time at work no its not a pontoon boat its a bit bigger. pleasure crafts think of this would you drive in front of a semi who is going 90 miles per hour? of course not so why would you cut in front of a boat shoving nearly 8 million tons? it cant stop on a dime. i am what they call a deckhand "for now" basically i keep up the maintenance of the boat inside and out as well as making sure the barges are wired togeather so we can shove them up and down the river. another useless fact. if you have ever seen a boat shoving barges and see some sitting really low in the water where others are high the bigger ones are empties try to keep that in mind that at least ten feet of that barge when its loaded is under the water hence dont cut in front of it it may be the last thing you do..