I am currently travelling on the Sjouwer at 190m X 11.5m barge - this includes a 135m ship pushing a barge.. I am hoping to learn a bit about how they manage their ship. I joined the ship at the Strasbourg lock. Quite an adventure at 11:30 at night. It included moving aside barriers with no entry signs. Walking along weedy/grassy sides on the locks then going on a gang plank to a ship only to find that, at the end, I had to clamber aboard across a 1m gap. Then cross that ship and go down to our fully laden ship 5m below which was rafted up to the first ship. Then walk the 190m to the wheelhouse in the dark, missing tripping over a cable in the middle (which held the front barge to the back ship) by cms. And all this with all my luggage - but with the help of 2 crew members. After watching the ship go through the lock at Strasbourg (first the barge which was pushed in by the ship) and then the ship itself, I went to bed. Today I had a bit of a tour of the ship. Last night in the still water we were about 15cm from the water level, but today, when there is a wave the side decks are underwater.
3 Comments
Howard
31/5/2016 03:51:31 am
Looks great, very jealous.!
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ian
3/6/2016 03:57:09 am
Everything on such a big scale. So do your hosts own the barge or the pusher? I'd assumed the barge you were travelling on was self powered, but seems not. Cool experience!
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Deborah
30/6/2016 06:28:25 am
Hi - The barge and pusher/ship come as a package. They are owned by the same company and travel together. We would call the ship a barge, but they differentiate between the two parts by calling them barge and ship.
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