The Orco slows to a stop and search lights play on the shore from the oncoming tow. A two-whistle pass is one where boats pass to the left of each other. There's also the tradition that in the old days, steamboat captains used the whistle sound bouncing off hillsides as a form of radar - human style. Stories abound of riverboat captains in heavy fog sounding the boat whistle to tell where they were. Harbolt didn't dispute this, but he said radar is much more dependable.
Downriver tows have the right of way.
It's harder for them to stop going with the current in the river. The Orco slowly pulled back into the channel and Harbolt lined up on another marker to get the tow on its way again. Around midnight, Dave Pauley, the pilot, came into the wheelhouse carrying a cup of steaming coffee. He took over control of the Orco and Harbolt hung around in the wheelhouse for a while to talk about the river and the traffic he met on his watch. Then he left the wheelhouse.