The tug/barge are constant visitors in Saint John, running from Irving Oil to US east coast ports. Penn Maritime (formerly Morania) are specialists in carrying asphalt and have built up a sizable fleet of tugs and double hulled, heated barges.
This trip to Halifax is under a coasting license, granted by the Minister of Public Safety, since no Canadian vessels were available. It allows the tug/barge to deliver 80,000 bbls of asphalt to various (unnamed) eastern ports for Irving Oil, between June 14 and July 14.
The tug Coho, built in 2008 is powered by two 2,000 bhp Cummins engines driving twin screws in Nautican nozzles and is fitted with a JAK 400 coupling system to connect to the barge. The barge measures 15,225 deadweight tons (US measure).
Coho is built to work form the notch at all times but is fitted with an emergency towing system. It has an elevated wheelhouse, with height of eye 51.5 feet above the water line. Unlike early articulated tugs, it does not have a lower wheelhouse.
Once alongside at McAspahlt, the tug uncoupled from the barge and lay alongside. It is fairly rare for the tug to do this, but the dock is relatively short and would present challenges to secure the tug while in the notch.
I was therefore disappointed not to get a better photo.
The reason the tug uncouples from the barge is because of the JAK coupling system. Even when fully retracted into the tug the JAK pins are still in contact with the barge and the barge cannot rise or fall freely. Other articulating pin systems allow for free vertical movement within the notch and tugs with those types of systems will remain in the notch.
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