On Fri, 26 Aug 2005 17:55:58 -0400, Dave Hall wrote:


Two weekends ago my brother, my two sisters and I took a two day river
trip on my 19 foot cuddy down the Ohio from Pittsburgh to (almost)
Marietta OH. This is about 150 miles and 5 locks. Anyway, on Saturday
night we tied up at a dock on the Ohio side. My sisters slept in the cuddy
and my brother and I slept on the fold-down seats - him on the dock side
and me on the river side. About 3:30 in the morning I hear my brother
yelling at me to wake up. I did so just in time to see a wall of steel no
more than 6 or 8 feet from me (it felt more like 6 or 8 inches). It was
the last boat in a 3 wide by 5 boat long barge. It seems that two barges
were passing each other right there and the one on our side was getting a
lot closer to shore than I have ever seen a barge get while underway. It
was completely unloaded and thus took little draft and was waaaaay up out
of the water. It scared the sh*t out of me. My brother was just as bad.
The waves that followed after the tug passed really rocked the hell out of
the boat and the dock we were tied up to, but the sisters slept through
it. A few more feet closer and they might never have found any of us -
certainly not alive. It was an experience. Next time I might consider
stopping on the non-channel side of some island and turning on the anchor
lights (even though we weren't actually anchored).

The Other Dave Hall

I have a good deal of respect for professionals in any occupation. Anyone
doing something day in and day out, can become quite skillfull. However,
putting one of those monsters that close, you have to wonder if anyone is
*that* skilled. Glad luck was with you, although, I think I might have
preferred to sleep through that experience. ;-)