It's back

The river is going back down in these parts, which means it's time to go look at the ...

Has anyone else ever wondered how many times a soft drink bottle hits the shore and floats away again before it reaches its final resting place?

The other three boats from Saturday

The wind knocked out the power at the house for about eight hours today. As I told someone, I'm glad I wasn't at the sticks pushing 15 empties today.

Anyway, here are the other three boats I saw Saturday while waiting for the Linda Reed and the Paula Ruble to slowly make their way up the river.

First, the Jacob Michael Eckstein.

Then the William R. Barr.

And the Steve Southern.

Later.

M/V Marathon downbound at Ashland

A few pics from yesterday. This is another of a fairly new line of boats that I want to see up close some day.

Photos of other boats, also seen yesterday, to come.

M/V Linda ... Ruble?

Yes, I like the five newest boats in the Crouse fleet — the Linda Reed, Paula Ruble, Jackie Englert, Janis R. Brewer and Leslie M. Neal. I try to photograph them whenever I can. Someday I will touch one, even if it's just to put my hand on the deck.

Today I got the chance to shoot two of them together. The Linda Reed and the Paula Ruble were coming up the river together. I figured one was pushing and the other was deadheading. The last I checked before leaving home, they were approaching Ironton, Ohio at about 2 mph. Slow, but manageable. As I went down the river, before I got to the Ashland bridges I saw a boat I just had to shoot. It was heading down the river, so I went over the bridge, walked out on the sidewalk bolted onto the side of the bridge and got my shot. And I waited for the Reed and Ruble.

Off in the distance, I saw coal barges rounding the bend. But it was a different boat. I wondered if the Reed and Ruble were taking it slow, so I drove the five miles or so down to Ironton. I got there right after they had passed under the bridge. Unless I wanted to try a shooting spot at Coal Grove, Ohio, that was probably under water, I headed back to Ashland.

I got photos of two more boats (photos of these boats will be in another entry after I process them) before I saw the Reed and Ruble round the bend ever so s l o w l y.

They had been hugging the Ohio shore. They moved across the river in this bend and hugged the Kentucky shore until they came to a complete stop with a lead barge pushed over near the bank. I was wondering if they were going to stay there for a while, but it was only maybe five minutes. Then they began the trip upriver again, traveling perhaps a little faster than the 1.5 to 2 mph they had been doing before.

I got off a few good shots.

After they passed under the bridge, I saw they were really close to the shore at the Ashland riverfront park, so I trotted down off the bridge — man, that was a longer trip than I thought it was — and drive two or three blocks up to the park. I got off a few snaps before the boats went around the bend.

The Ruble was deadheading, and it had those yellow things over the stacks. From the maps, it looked like the Reed dropped the Ruble off at a McGinnis dock before it headed to Catlettsburg. I assume it dropped its tow at Virginia Point Park at Kenova, West Virginia, before heading back down the river

More photos later, maybe. These are the ones I liked best at first review.

Lost ball found

Somewhere a child has lost his or her red ball decorated with white or yellow stars. 

If you know that child, tell him or her that at 3 p.m. today, Saturday, February 23, 2019, it floated down the Ohio River past Ashland, Kentucky.

M/V Robinson

Two boats

This evening I got to see two boats passing Huntington.

First was the Savage Voyager.

Trailing two or three miles behind it was the Linda Reed.

I had wanted to get a better overhead shot, but the Reed was moving pretty fast downstream in that current.

The Linda Reed is one of my favorites, by the way.

As for the Savage Voyager, I need to learn more about that class of boats. The Savage Marine boats are getting more numerous up this way.

Missed it by 90 seconds

When I was a youngster growing up along the Ohio River in the 1960s, there were two kinds of boats that came to mind when someone said the word "towboat". One was the Hillman series of boats nowadays identified with the M/V Charleston. The other was the series of Ohio River Company boats that are now known as turtlebacks.

Turtlebacks used to be all over the Ohio up into the 1980s at least. For three decades, there was often one when you went looking for boats. But things changed. Some of the boats were moved to other rivers. Or even to South America. Here on my part of the Ohio, about the only turtleback we see regularly is the O. Nelson Jones. It's worth a trip to the river to see when it's in the area.

There are a couple of others that come through here from time to time. This evening I learned the Charlie G, formerly known as the Wm. H. Zimmer, had been through here today. Tonight I learned it was down at South Point, Ohio, so I drove down to Catlettsburg, Ky., after dark to see if I could get a shot.

By the time I got to Catlettsburg, the Charlie G had already begun its trip downriver, and its pilot wasn't wasting any time. It was passing my spot right as I parked the car. So I drove a block down the street to attempt another shot, but I couldn't get my camera settings working in time. I managed to et off some dark photos that for now aren't worth sharing because there's not much in them.

I could have gone down to Ashland and tried to get something there, but I was already late to pick up someone. So I grabbed a few other images, none of which grabbed me, and left.

So I missed it by 90 seconds. For the photo I wanted, it was probably more like 90 minutes. I'm disappointed I missed the Charlie G tonight. Maybe next time.

I say that a lot these days.

M/V Janis R. Brewer

One thing's for sure ...

... I'm going to need a bigger lens.

M/V William B

Three photos of the M/V William B as it came out of the Big Sandy this morning pushing two loaded coal barges. I decided to get a little bit artsy with them. More photos from this morning coming later.

M/V Janis R Brewer at Catlettsburg

I went down to Catlettsburg, Ky., this morning to see the M/V Janis R Brewer while it was in town. Between it and a few other boats, I came back with too many pictures to process in one sitting.

So here we start with the Brewer, which had been over at the McGinnis dock at South Point, Ohio, and was on its way across the river to the former Boggs Landing.

I couldn't pass up this shot of the stack logo.

As I was about to leave, the captain or pilot came out of the pilothouse to breathe some of that fresh Kentucky air, I guess.

Here it looks like he saw me on shore and across the street snapping pictures. He was probably wondering why. Answer: I like this line of boats.

More to come.

Looking forward to spring and summer

When the hills are green and the light is good.

I was looking through some shots from last fall and I found this one. It's one of my favorite photos of my favorite bridge.

Towboat sinking at Gavin

The M/V Ed McLaughlin sank at the Gavin power plant at Cheshire, Ohio, in the Robert C. Byrd pool today.

If you're on Facebook, you can see pictures here maybe.

One more day of fog

This morning I headed down to Virginia Point Park, at the mouth of the Big Sandy River at Kenova, W.Va., to get a photo of the M/V Ginger Moller in the fog. It was foggy where I lived, and the weather hadn't changed much in the two days since I got those other fog shots, so it was worth a try.

By the time I got to the park, the access road was blocked and the park was closed by order of the Kenova Police Department. Maybe it was because the river was coming up. At that point, I didn't care. I wanted to get a shot of a boat in the fog before the weather changed, so I turned around and headed to Catlettsburg, Ky., on the other side of the Big Sandy.

While crossing the Billy C. Clark Bridge (more on that later) over the Big Sandy, I saw a towboat headed toward the Ohio. Seeing boats on the Big Sandy isn't odd, considering there's a refinery, a chemical plant and at least a couple of coal docks still on business on the lower few miles. The odd thing was that this looked like an Ohio River line haul boat, not a local harbor boat.

Despite the slow pickup in front of me, I got to the boat ramp at the mouth of the Big Sandy and waited. I was hoping the boat had not beaten me out. When I heard its engines, I knew it hadn't. I was surprised to see it was the M/V Bill Tullier of Florida Marine.

Here is a shot where I zoomed in ...

... and one where I zoomed out.

After the Tullier had passed, I went back up the hill, where I saw the Ginger Moller with a bunch of coal loads looking like it was getting ready to depart. I got this one as the fog got heavier. Within a few minutes, I couldn't the West Virginia side of the Big Sandy, and the river is not that wide.

After I left Catlettsburg, the drizzle that had started was getting heavier and heavier. When the rain stopped, the air was noticeably warmer. In a couple of hours, the fog that had covered the river for a few days was gone and the river had risen. My guess is that the cold water from upriver had passed us, plus the water from the rain that had fallen in the watershed was warmer, so the temperature of the river was to the point where its contact with warm air would not create any more fog.

Too bad for camera nerds, but good for people who work on the river, I guess.

M/V Cincinnati

As seen from Proctorville, Ohio.

Hey, look! A boat!

Changing weather means a foggy Ohio River. Just ask the people aboard the M/V Sandy Drake.

Let me back up a bit on this story.

This afternoon I was at Riverfront Park in beautiful downtown Huntington before I had to go pick up someone. There was a layer of fog hanging over the Ohio, so I got this picture of a pier of the Sixth Street bridge (real name Robert C. Byrd Bridge).

I was about to leave until far off I noticed the pilothouse and barges of a boat coming upriver, so I figured I would hang around and get a picture of a boat in the fog. Those are usually good photos if you have the right background.

The boat moved slowly, but it finally got to the bridge and from the look of the pilothouse and the sound of the engine I guessed it was a Crounse boat. Here the top of the fog was seven to ten feet higher than it was a few min

The fog was getting thicker and deeper.

I had been down by the river's edge. I figured I had better go up the hill to get above the fog if I wanted to get a decent shot of the boat.

Didn't do much good, did it?

And the fog got thicker.

As I was leaving, I go the photo that led off this blog entry.

So much for my excitement of getting another good boat-in-fog photo. But I did get a decent one earlier in the day. That's for the next entry.

Cold morning down by the river

This morning, as I usually do on Saturday mornings, I venture in downtown Huntington (America's Best Community, or so I am told by the people who know these things) to help with a street ministry. While others preach, I cook the eggs and serve them and move tables and do whatever needs be done. If enough people show up to help, I take a few minutes and go look for pictures.

This afternoon we have 50-degree temperatures and sunny skies. This morning, the remnants of the polar vortex (TV talk for cold snap) hung around. There was fog. Temperatures hung around below freezing. My fingers got pretty cold taking pictures. But I got off a few snaps. Here are a few.

I have seen where others have reported ice on the river in the Belleville pool, but around here there is none to be seen.