crisp morning air, a quick pipe, quickly cooling coffee try to ignore the news of the melting, congealing world find solace in the songs echoed off metal hulls the throat songs of lines stretched to the rhythm of river currents the best part of the morning report is the weather forecast, giving us some hope in the slowing that happens after first frost falls
The overnight chill dissipated by about 10 in the morning, leaving us a lovely day on the river. When I left my hotel room this morning to eat breakfast and wait for the day crew so we could drive the short distance to the shipyard, the morning news shared, along with the daily dose of bad news no one can do anything about, a weather forecast that is calling for the first frost of the season.
Although we started the winterizing process on Friday, today was a busy day taking things apart. There’s still plenty more to do. In order to get the Belle into the dry dock for the shipyard to begin the work that needs to be done by them, we had to get all the fuel off the the boat; this meant the yard using a barge and a tug to take over to a defueling barge to pump it out. When the Belle is ready to go home, they will put the fuel back on.
Most of what we do to get the Belle ready to put to bed for the winter is getting all the water off the boat. This isn’t just a matter of pumping out the remaining sewage and emptying the potable water tanks. Steam plants use a lot of water, and create a lot of water. We have to make sure there’s no water -- nearly so -- in any part of the system. The boiler, the pumps, the engines, and every single pipe, has to be water free. If there’s water anywhere in the system it could freeze over the winter and give us massive problems in the spring.
This is my first time participating in winterizing the Belle. Normally, I’m shuffled back onto watch on the wharf, and the schedule means I’m not usually working the same time as the day crew. I want to learn as much as I can and do as much as I can. This is an atypical year because we’re at the shipyard, and after this week, once the winterizing is done, I’m staying on in Gallipolis to stand watch on the Belle for a few weeks.
A lot of hurry up and wait. I received a text from Dear Sweet Ma asking if I was waiting or working; my response was The two are not mutually exclusive.
Both working for the sake of family and being away and doing damage to your family are also not mutually exclusive. One of the reasons I moved away from traveling as often as I used to, besides being curtailed naturally due to the pandemic, was that I began to notice that my absence had a negative effect on my family. It’s not that I do anything particularly; I mostly feel adrift in the world -- which is to say, typically untethered and sometimes at odds with it. This is reflected in my daily life whether I’m home or not. But not being home means I have to be a bystander to the goings on of the people I love the most -- arguably the people who are the reason I work: I try to be a good father, a good husband, a good role model for my granddaughter. I don’t know how to reconcile these two seemingly exclusive threads.
One system at a time. That’s what I learned today. Rather than work on winterizing one area at a time -- the roof, the 2nd deck, the middle of the engine room -- we winterize one system at a time. First we winterize the entire steam system, then the feed water system, and so on. This means moving all over the boat several times, in loops upon loops. This means that Kevin took the steam end of the water pumps apart this morning, but left the water side alone. This only makes sense if you think in terms of systems. And I suppose, for the moment, the only system I can truly get my hands on involve steam and water and sewage. There are other systems that need my attention, and I will have to figure out how to address them from upriver.
Steam, water, and sewage covers a lot. 🤓