Everything seems bigger on the Mississippi. The river itself is wide with a swift current that propels us forward at twice our usual speed. We are diligent in keeping within the proper navigational aids that mark deep water. On the Mississippi, this means keeping the red “nun” markers to our left (port) and the green “can” markers to our right (starboard) in order to stay within the channel. We share this great river with countless barges which are pushed by large boats called tows. I am not sure why they are called tows since they definitely do not tow anything. Instead, these boats that come with names like Cynthia II, Anne Marie, or Bubba Gates push multiple  95’ long by 35’ wide barges from behind. Most tows push an average of 15 barges in a 3-wide by 5-long configuration. The largest we’ve seen was pushing 29 barges in a configuration of 4 by 7 plus 1. They push massive volumes of water churning upriver to their destinations leaving swirling, rolling water in their wakes. 

When either of us aboard Dagny sees a barge coming, we announce, “Tow ahead!” and then we steer Dagny far to the right, or next to the green cans side of the channel in order to be as far from the oncoming barge as possible. Since the tow captains are pushing such a large mass through the water, their ability to maneuver is quite limited. It is our job to stay well out of their way. 

Occasionally, we pass on a curve in the river, and, as a courtesy, we hail the tow captain on the VHF radio. We often cannot see the name of the tow until we are right next to it so the radio transmission sounds something like, “Northbound tow, northbound tow, this is pleasure vessel Dagny southbound at mile marker 110.” Then we wait for a response. The captain often replies with a curt, *crackle, static* “See you on the One.” That means we pass them port-to-port, or we stay to the right (green cans) and they stay to their right (red nuns). “See you on the One” is part of the language of the river. “One” is a port-to-port meeting with “Two” being a starboard-to-starboard meeting. Then there are the tow captains who seem to have their own interpretations. We hailed one the other day who replied, *crackle, static* “Y’all jes hug them cans” *crackle, crackle* “and you” *crackle* “b” *crackle* “-ine.” We took that to mean “see you on the One” so we hugged them cans and it all worked out. 

We are all familiar with multiple modes of transportation: trucks, trains, container ships, but these tow captains with their crews work round the clock every day of the week pushing a couple of football fields of food, gravel, petroleum, or other unknown goods along the river system. They move things that sustain us or make our lives easier. Their work is an integral part of us and yet most people don’t even know they exist. Aboard Dagny, we are constantly on the lookout for barges and their tows so we can hug them cans and stay out of the way.