Another collision

[sailaway78]

Late last night, or early this morning, depending on which news you listen to, a 600' barge, coming into the Mississippi river from the Harvey locks, collided with an oil tanker. One barge which contained diesel, broke in half, and spilled 9,000 barrels of diesel into the river. From what I heard no one was injured. So once more we have the question of who is at fault. With another factor in the equation on this one. All boat traffic in this area is controlled by radio, just like air traffic control. Last time I came that way, they called me and told me to get out of the way, there was a tanker coming up behind me. Before I could even see it. So, it will be interesting to see what comes of all this.

 

[Chuck Creel]

you are correct in traffic control. under current river stage at carolton, its abt 10 ft i belive which equals a current of abt 4 MPH staute. Word I got, " and thats my usuall play ground and cargo ", is that the boat/barge was unable to get turned straight due to the curent pushing him sideways down the river.

Sometines on high river , I have to get an assist boat to turn me north bound with 600 ft of barges.

Don,t really know what happend but the AIS system and Radio traffic tapes will explain alot.



Happy sailing

 

[Nice N Easy]

Are you out of business

Are you out of business for a while. Radio news says the river is closed to all traffic until the clean up is complete. No mention of how long that will take.
Are you going to be sitting.

 

[CalebD]

Yahoo article says 400,000 barrels of oil

Ship collision shuts Mississippi River, spills fuel Reuters - 2 hours, 57 minutes ago

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A collision between a chemical tanker and a fuel barge on the Mississippi River spilled over 400,000 gallons (1,560,000 liters) of fuel oil and prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to close a 29-mile (47-km) stretch of the waterway around New Orleans, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

Go to yahoo news for full article.
As if the 'dead zone' in the Gulf isn't big enough already!

 

[Chuck Creel]

out of business

The dock I pump off at is in ST-rose which is north of harvey locks abt 20 miles.


I will either sit in Mobile or go ALL the way around to new orleans via the tenn tom, kentucky,, ohio river and back down the MS via Cairo , Il.

LOL

What a trip huh?

Can,t see them letting us sitt in Mobile for month or 2.


I,ll know more in day or 2.

 

[Nice N Easy]

The report I heard

I had the local news on the radio earlier, and they were saying 9,000 barrels was spilled. More than likely no one knows for sure yet. From what I understand, only one barge had lost it's oil. The others in the tow were OK. Are there compartments in them, or is it all one open area.

 

[Ken]

I hand gauged barges for gain / loss measurements

on the Mississippi back when I was a measurement engineer for an oil company. They do have compartments and baffles - mostly to keep the oil from sloshing around and to level the barge - so one compartment was definitely breached - can't remember now how much was in one compartment though because its been a few years but I think it was somewhere around 10,000 - 15,000 BBLs. One barrel of oil is equal to 42 gallons (not 55).

 

[Chuck Creel]

update on accident MS river

this i just recieved in mail today..

link below