Having just installed AIS (Automated Information System) on the boats navigation system, I noticed a huge stack up at the Colorado River Locks on the ICW (more correctly the Gulf Intracoastal Water Way or GIWW). We are in a municipal harbor just north of the locks. There were 15 tows with about 28 barges waiting to transit the locks. I am not sure why a boat that pushes barges is called a tow but that is what they are called. Anyway, the locks consist of a set on the east bound side of the Colorado River (more like the south side) and a set on the west bound side (more like the north side). Each is capable of handling two “strung out” sets. Strung out means they are tied end to end . If the set is to be tied side by side or there are two sets of two, the tow has to park one of the two at floating moorings on the approach side and take one at a time through the locks. That means two trips. Put 15 sets in line and that makes for a long day and patience on the part of the tow crews. They have to wait for staging through the locks.
The barges are roughly 50 feet wide and 280 plus feet, more or less, long. This nation is served well by the trucking industry. Each truck carries about 20 tons. The barges carry about 1500 tons each, more or less. Along this stretch of the ICW, that usually means petroleum or the “enes” (a friend calls them enes such as benzene). As of about an hour ago, there were a bunch of tons stacked up at the locks. If, by chance we were just arriving at the locks, we could most likely count on a very long delay doing circles in the ICW and an early morning transit. Good to be on this side already. Now, between here and Key West there are about 25 lock sets. Methinks I will need to plan ahead.
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