First tug-and-barge array. Parked with its empty barges across from Dick’s Marina at the portal to Winona’s fleeting harbor. Image: Steve Lunde
First to Winona this time: Frequent visitor M.V. Pfeffer
WINONA, Minn. – The first tow-and-barge array of the new shipping season slipped into the Winona fleeting harbor. On arrival, the river vessel Phillip M. Pfeffer set anchor until it could be positioned to take on grain and turn round for a trip back downriver with a revenue load. The Pfeffer was among a half dozen tows queued 24 miles downriver at the Dresbach dam Friday night when the lock opened after a winter of repairs. Next en route to Winona was the Trempealeau dam’s lock. Other vessels in the first batch through the locks plowed against the current past Winona to ports farther upriver.
Earlier: First barge of spring due perhaps next weekend
Pfeffer profile
The Pfeffer, part of the Ingram Barge Company fleet, is no stranger to Winona. It has been pushing barges on the Upper Mississippi since 1982, albeit originally christened as the Agamemmon. The Pfeffer is a twin-screw pusher with 6,100 horsepower. Its corporate homeport: Nashville, Tennessee, on the Cumberland River.