30MAY2018

Location: Gulf of Mexico, Entering the Mississippi River, en route to St. James, LA;

Events: We started off the 1^st watch setup and starting to do some chipping on the forward barge wenches, but we entered the Mississippi River at Port Eads sooner than the lead tankerman expected us to and we canceled that task for some inexplicable reason for another one. So instead we went into the pump room and replaced the automated water trap on the starboard pump engine’s air-start line with a simple ball valve. It seems the port engine’s water trap fouled out last night and was replaced in a such a way, thus this mirror job. We took on a Pilot sometime around 10am to guide us the rest of the way up to St. James. The 2^nd watch was pretty quiet, no real tasking assigned.

Things learned about vessel/barge: What a water trap is, and how to replace it

Classroom information application(s): NAVGEN Western Rivers, Bridges, Air Draft

Supplemental Information: We lucked out on some great weather today, and the river is flowing to beat the band, so the transit upstream has been remarkably pleasant. We rolled past NOLA early in the 2^nd watch and it was nice to see, I could just barely hear some street performers playing music as we passed down town. I was surprised at how little river traffic we encountered, I figured it would be an ant’s nest of boats going to and fro. There was still plenty of commercial boats moving about, just far less then I imagined.

Rules of the Road Scenarios? Passing and Crossing in a Channel, River Traffic Stand-On and Give-Way vessels