CONTINUOUSWAVE

The waterway through Gulf Shores, Alabama, in pre-COVID-19-days has always been busy with commercial towboat and barge traffic Monday through Friday, and been busy with recreation boat traffic on weekends. During the crisis that has changed. Commercial traffic is down during the work week and recreational traffic is up throughout the week even when time of year is considered.

Commercial traffic is down due to the fuel conversion of a large power plant to the East to natural gas from coal. Where we would see dozens of coal barges headed eastward we now see none. Surprisingly most of the loaded eastward towed barges are carrying petroleum product and compressed natural gas. Westward bound tows are either empty or carrying scrap metal. Other products are moving on the waterway but not much of it.

A rare but very interesting sight is when dredging trains travel through the waterway. The are usually quite long and can take up to an hour to pass. That are broken into serials or chains each quite long. Several towboats are involved in managing the tows as they have to be broken down for some curves and reassembled after passing through. The longest serials are floating pipelines for discharging the dredge spoil outside the channel. These dredges travel at night when other traffic is minimal. They are noisy and awaken us. We get up to watch the trains.

Thanks for the update on shipping and boating on the Gulf of Mexico.

Up here in the North, Commercial shipping on the Great Lake resummed several weeks ago in late March. The Soo Locks opened on March 27, 2020, allowing ships to transit between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. The Welland Canal opened on March 24, 2020 allowing ships to transit between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence Seaway opened on April 1, 2020 allowing ships to transit between Lake Ontario and Montreal and thence to the ocean.

Based on position reports on MARINETRAFFIC.COM, the number of ships underway is substantial, and probably close to normal for this time of the shipping season--I guess.

The St. Lawrence Seaway has imposed some operating restrictions:

For ocean vessels coming into the St. Lawrence Seaway, adherence to the 96 hour advance notice of arrival to the Government of Canada is essential. In addition, all crew members of domestic and ocean vessels must be monitored for symptoms of the virus and notice must be promptly given of any confirmed or suspected cases of the virus on board, prior to Seaway inspectors boarding the ship.

From our understanding of new restrictions on transportation, all cruise ships carrying 500 or more people will be prohibited from entering Canadian waters. Consequently, cruise ships should monitor Transport Canada communication channels for further updates, as these stipulations may change in the future.

Cf.: https://greatlakes-seaway.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Opening_of_Commercial_Navigation_2020_under_COVID_en.pdf

I have always been a fan of boat-watching. That behavior was imprinted onto me by father, who used to take the family down to a shoreside park on the Detroit River in the 1950's and 1960 to "watch the boats go by." At that time, the lake freighters were typically no more than 500-feet in length, and they were so numerous that you could count on one passing by all the time, maybe several every hour, no matter when we went to watch them. Now with 750 to 1,000-foot ships, the total number of ships operating is much reduced, and you cannot expect to always see one going by anymore. Also, back in c.1960 it was mandatory for ships to agree on passing arrangements by exchanging whistle signals. If you lived near the river you got a continual serenade of very loud ship whistle signals.

We also "enjoy" the whistle serenade. A major highway bridge is less than a mile from us and Gulf Shores only launch ramp on the waterway is located beneath the bridge. On weekends the ramp remains quite busy and the congestion of the single ramp creates pressure for users to hurry with their use.

Often, as towboats approach the ramp, they use the horn (whistle) to warn the recreational boaters to get out of the way. So far so good but it's amazing to me that we've not heard of a collision there. Some small boat operators seem not to understand the impossibility of stopping and difficulty of maneuvering the large multi-thousand ton loads.