Day 52: All Day Industry

We had to deal with boat traffic all day long.  Literally, the entire day.  We didn't go a single second without a barge, tug, or tanker in our view.  That made for constant waves and guessing at their route in order to stay out of their way.  The latter is harder to do than you would think.  They can turn on a dime and around here for some reason a couple have been floating completely perpendicular to the river, giving us no clues as to the direction they want to go.  Then we get honked at or yelled at.  You would think they would know we can't hear what they're yelling at as over their obnoxious engines. 


Fed up with the constant waves, we decided to try something new.  Near shore there was a line of barges parked either because they were retired or they were waiting to be used.  There was a gap between the parked barges and shore about 20 feet wide.  We decided to try paddling in this gap as long as it allowed.  It was a huge relief.  The barges blocked the waves from the boats in the main channel and, although there was not much current, it was much easier to paddle.  Unfortunately this trick didn't work too long.  The barge line would end or the channel would get cut off.  We picked it back up when we could though to avoid the mayhem of the main channel.


It's weird paddling down here, because the levee blocks your view of anything but the river.  You get the feeling that you're paddling through an unpopulated area.  This was the feeling I had all day.  However, when we stopped to camp and climbed over the levee there was a sprawling city in front of us.  It made us nervous to camp there, but it was near sundown and we would be up and out right near sunrise. 


One upside of traveling alongside boats of industry all day is the people that actually seem to know/are excited about what we are doing.  A couple of people working on tugs and barges took videos of us.  One tug honked, waved at us, and then gave us a loud, excited howl.  Others just look up, nod, and point to us in a gesture of recognition.  These small acts are great moral boosters.


We're around mile marker 104 tonight.  It's Wednesday July, 23rd.  Tomorrow we'll get as near to Venice as possible and on Friday we should finish.