Shoutout to the crew that helped me when my cutter head jammed on the Willamette

We hit a buried cable spool that wasn't on any map, and after three hours of trying to clear it ourselves, a guy from a passing barge radioed a trick with reverse flow and a pry bar. Anyone know a better way to check for that kind of hidden junk before you start cutting?

3 comments

3 Comments

rivera.henry3d agoMost Upvoted

Keep the old-timers talking and you'll always learn a trick or two... the reverse flow thing is classic "I've been here twenty years" knowledge that never makes it into the manual. It's funny how the best solutions come from someone who's already scraped their knuckles on the exact same problem. Reminds me of how my dad used to fix stuff with wire and duct tape when all the fancy tools just sat there.

oliver5232mo ago

Damn, that's rough. We started running a side scan sonar unit before big cuts after hitting a car once. Still miss stuff sometimes though.

claire_fisher412mo ago

Oh man, @oliver523, a side scan is a solid tool for sure, but it's not a magic fix. It's great for finding big objects on the bottom, but it can totally miss things buried in the mud. You really need a mag and a good sub-bottom profiler to get the full picture. Even with all that, like you said, stuff gets missed, it's just the nature of the work.