M/V Tri State, Part 2

 

So here's the back story of the photo of the M/V Tri-State that I took and posted this morning.

For a variety of reasons, I had to drive my wife to her job. I had a little while before I had to be somewhere, so I went to Virginia Point Park in Kenova, West Virginia, at the mouth of the Big Sandy to see if there were any boats in camera range. I knew the Martinsville was moving around that area, but I figured it would be out of range for a good photo by the time I got there, and it was.

But I did see a small Marathon boat approaching from upriver, and it didn't look like the MAP Runner, so it had to be the Tri-State. I had seen the Tri-State up close back in the winter. It was moving lightboat close to shore where I was standing. The guy steering the boat saw me, so he slowed down and moved the pilothouse up and down for my photographic pleasure before moving on, for which I was grateful then and still am.

Since that time, I've wanted to get a closeup of the Tri State, but it just hasn't worked out. The Tri-State is the first retractable pilothouse boat built by Superior Marine across the river near South Point, Ohio, so it's been a bit frustrating to not be able to get a good shot of a boat that doesn't leave the area.

Anyway, this morning — cloudy, cool and gray — I saw the Tri State coming toward me pushing one loaded barge. From the angle it was taking, it looked like it might go up the Big Sandy near me, so I went down to the shore. Sure enough, it did.

I got off lots of photos and narrowed them down to a few.

First, as the boat came near to me, I had to be aware of the background. Across the river was a residential area of South Point, and the cluster of houses didn't necessarily make a good background for a good boat photo. So I waited until the boat started its turn into the Big Sandy, and I got these with cleaner backdrops.

Next, I got some as it passed close to me but still toward the other side of the river, as the pilot may have been paying attention to a pleasure boat that was in the river near the boat ramp on my side.

One thing about the Tri State I have noticed has been its relatively large prop wash when it's pushing hard. At least, it looks large to me. Now I need to dig up some technical info on it.

And that's about it.

UP NEXT: Same shot, four ways to edit.