On the river

This is a ship a couple days ago, heading out to the Gulf

Mornings, my friend Carol and I try to go for a walk along the Mississippi River. We text each other, and meet at Crescent Park - New Orleans' downtown waterfront now re-purposed as a park. We walk about a mile upriver, just below the French Quarter, before turning back.

The Port of New Orleans is still a vital economic engine, and on our morning walk we see its activity.

This morning's ship

This morning, a big red painted freighter came upriver.  As we watched, it navigated the serpentine curves of the stream - the ox-bow loop around Algiers Point, giving way onto the smooth curve that gives New Orleans its name of Crescent City.

Someone I talked to once about ships on the river said navigating these curves is an art. The pilots let the Mississippi's current do the work, shifting the ship's ass-end around in a counterclockwise turn.

Check it out.