Backing up into the Kanawha

Adam and I have taken a lot of pictures of the new Crounse Corp. boats -- the Linda Reed, Paula Ruble, Janis R. Brewer and Jackie Englert -- but we still need to see the Leslie M. Neal. Friday afternoon, we got to see the Paula Ruble again, and it gave Adam an idea.

The Ruble came down the Ohio with 12 coal barges loaded to 11 feet. It was moving kind of slow, so I expected it to make the tough left turn into the Kanawha. Instead, it looked like it was headed for a dock on the Ohio shore, just past the Silver Memorial Bridge. But the boat slowed down, and I realized that unlike most boats I've seen that turn into the Kanawha and let the Ohio's current help push the stern around, the guy steering the Ruble was going to back into the Kanawha.

That's what he did. Here are a series of pictures of that maneuver.

(All photos copyright Jim Ross and may not be downloaded, copied or printed without my permission).

In the third photo, you an see the prop wash along the side of the boat.

A few minutes before this, Adam and I and one of his friends had been in the Point Pleasant River Museum on the pilot simulator. Adam likes to think he has the turn into the Kanawha down pretty good, but I'm not so sure. I let him give me a lesson. It's a good thing for me my session timed out before I hit one of the piers of the Bartow Jones Bridge there on the Kanawha. After seeing what the Ruble's pilot did, Adam says the next time he's on the simulator, he will try backing into the Kanawha for himself.