Mile 307.0 — miles total

Towboats and Buoys

Buoys:

Red “Nun” Buoys = LBD navigation channel

Green “Can” Buoys = RBD navigation channel

Towboats:

Upstreamers = towboats going up the river

Downstreamers = towboats going down the river

Towboats and buoys provide endless fascination for Lower Mississippi River paddlers, but also present two of your gravest dangers. Red “nun” buoys mark the left side of the navigation channel (descending) while green “can” buoys the right side. To broadside a buoy would end in certain capsize. Be ever vigilant of their position, and keep a safe 100 foot distance away. Buoys endlessly twist and yank on their cables in the current and seem to come towards you at times. Watch for “diving ducks” the buoys that become submerged by powerful waters and unexpectedly bounce back up. When towboats are present your safest route is outside of the navigation channel. Towboat pilots might notice you on their radars, but they can’t tell the difference between a flotilla of canoes & kayaks and a pile of driftwood. Their packets are so sometimes so long that the pilot might lose sight of you within a quarter mile away as you dip below their line of sight over the nose of the barges they are pushing. Wherever possible the Rivergator will describe common lines of travel for towboats. “downstreamers” refers to towboats steaming down stream with the flow of the river, and “upstreamers” refer to those plowing up the channel against the flow of the river. Upstreamers normally create the biggest and most hazardous sets of wave trains, but there are exceptions. Wave trains sometimes trail the passage of a tow for one mile or more. The safest practice around any tows is to keep watching them for any changes in progress and give them wide berth. Never cross the nose of a towboat/barge packet. Make your crossings after they have passed and their waves have subsided. The safest place around a towboat is far behind a towboat.

VHF Marine Radio

Towboat pilots use VHF marine radios for communication between vessels, and also with harbor tows, lockmasters, the US Coast Guard, and recreational craft. Commercial traffic uses VHF cannel 13 while recreational VHF channel 9. Channel 9 is rarely used because there are so few pleasure boats on the river! Some paddlers carry radios and monitor VHF channel 13. Any frequent paddlers and any long-distance paddlers should carry one, at the very least for emergency purposes. When in doubt alert tow pilots of your presence with simple statements like “canoe heading downstream right bank descending along green can buoys, crossing over and making landing left bank descending at Such-and-Such Landing.” Most tow pilots will appreciate the information and respond with encouragement and good advice. Others will swear at you and tell you to get the **** out of the way, which is not helpful at all, and might lead you to making bad decisions. If you are using one, be a wise user. Tow pilots know the river like no others. But they don’t understand canoes or kayaks very well, and have little to no idea about how canoes & kayaks & stand-up-paddleboards move through the water, and what our special abilities are -- as well as our limitations. So, if you have one, and can use it, great. You are well-prepared. But if you don’t have a VHF marine radio, or aren’t comfortable with using one, don’t worry. Thousands of successful expeditions have completed their journey without one. Note: Commercial Traffic use VHF channel 67 between Baton Rouge and the Gulf of Mexico.