File:Coast watch (1979) (20473761549).jpg

Title: Coast watch
Identifier: coastwatch00uncs_16 (find matches)
Year: 1979 (1970s)
Authors: UNC Sea Grant College Program
Subjects: Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology
Publisher: (Raleigh, N. C. : UNC Sea Grant College Program)
Contributing Library: State Library of North Carolina
Digitizing Sponsor: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

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That's because barge-pushing tugboats handle heavy, bulky, expensive cargo. Tugs push barges laden with stuff impractical to move via transfer truck or rail — super heavy transformers, entire bridge beams, 1,000-foot pipelines, and in our case, 22-ton steel dough- nuts. To move our load via transfer truck would have required 106 trips — or 106 tracks. Over the years, Donnelly has hauled "a bunch of crazy stuff," he says. Sonar domes for submarines. Vintage airplanes. A 7,500-square-foot plantation house. And lots of ammunition for the armed forces. "Everything from rockets to cruise missiles to bombs," he laughs. "But we're not supposed to know that." All told, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, tugboats took 17,612 trips on the ICW in North Carolina in 2000, moving 1,614,000 tons of cargo. Donnelly pilots this load from a wheel- house perched 28 feet above the water. It's a million-dollar view. As the tug chugs north up the waterway, small flocks of glossy ibis wheel over the barge, and wheat-colored salt marsh gives way to dark woods. At one point, a pod of porpoises suddenly appears beside the tug. Donnelly's eyes light up. "They always look like they're so happy to see you," he croons. From his tug, he watches duck hunters setting decoys in the wan light of morning. He's seen wild hogs, manatees, black bear, and an alligator that swam up and bit the fender tires hanging off the side of the ship. Once, crossing Albemarle Sound, the crew braced for a huge band of rain picked up by the wheelhouse radar. "We watched it come, got ready for the storm, but when it got to us it was mosquitoes," Donnelly says. "Billions of them, boiling out of the woods at Coinjock. The wheelhouse was covered. The engine breathers sucked so many in that we had to stop and clean them out." Tar Heel Trek North Carolina's stretch of the waterway involves some of the most intriguing — and challenging — portions of the entire route, and not only because of prodigious insect life. Although maintained channels score a number of tidal rivers and sounds, the official number of ICW miles in North Carolina totals 308. From Bird Island on the border of the Carolinas, the waterway skirts the marshes behind Sunset Beach and Ocean Isle, Holden Beach, Long Beach and Oak Island. From there the waterway turns north, following the mouth of the Cape Fear River to Snow's Cut, a deep, dredged, razor- straight canal that spills into Myrtle Grove Sound behind Carolina Beach. Trending north the rest of the way along the state, the ICW sneaks behind barrier islands as frequently as practicable, but still it must cross the big, open waters of Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, among the most challenging stretches of its entire length. After crossing Albemarle Sound waterway, captains have a choice of routes: through the Great Dismal Swamp via the Pasquotank River or up the Coinjock Canal and Currituck Sound. Both routes wind up at Norfolk, the official end of the ICW, although dredged channels continue north. Along the way, there's plenty of time to gawk, for few things happen quickly on a tugboat. Depending on the tide, Islawl Express moves along at a ponderous three to eight knots an hour. Each crew member works six hours on
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TOP: Keeping lines straight keeps mate Thomas Dingee on the move as tug and barge chug through cypress-lined river passages. BOTTOM: Pushing from behind, tugs are lashed and cabled to barges with oversized gear. Here mate Thomas Hutson checks the connection. and six hours off, for 17 days aboard. While Donnelly and mate Frank Litaker trade shifts at the helm, deckhands Thomas Dingee and Thomas Hutson monitor engines and check every onboard rope, cable, and light. There's plenty of deck-swabbing, to be sure. Each surface and window is mopped or scrubbed at least once during each 24-hour period. One afternoon I watch Dingee clean the tops of spice bottles with a wet paper towel. "It's not a yacht," he says, in a deep, quiet tone. "But it's home for most of the month." Still, it's not all housework and tedium. 18 SPRING 2003

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