This one went really bad

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100708/ap_on_...k_boat_accident

Just wondering how many here have taken one of these rides? We have.

 

We have taken that exact one in Philly on the Delaware River. And I have taken the Duck Tour in Boston. Both were fun.

 

A duck boat ride has been on the "To do" list but we never got around to it.

A tragedy for those people yesterday and the families of the missing.

 

I have been on the Phila. one a couple of times (also Miami). This has been non-stop news here. I can't understand why the barge-tug captain did not steer around a vessel that was dead-in-the-water. Perhaps that is a criminal case.

 

Did them here in TX at Lake Grapevine and at the Wisc Dells

 

Having survived a close call in a bass boat that was dead in the water in the middle of a river channel I can tell you that visibility is a problem for the tug captain if he's pushing the barge (or in our case barges on the Tennessee River).

In addition you can't exactly turn or stop those barges on a dime - especially when they're headed downstream.

I've never been on the water in question so I can't comment as to who should have seen what. We paddled our asses off and the bow wake pushed us out of the way.

Probably not an option for a duck - and they run them on the same section of the river.

 

That is sad and unfortunate. We have ducks here too.

 

Been on the one in Pittsburgh and have reservations for the one in Boston the end of July. Going for a conference and thought this would be great for the three employees that are going with me. They're not so sure now

 

Well, it was an unusual circumstance with the boat dead in the water and that barge there. You should be OK. The Boston one is . I went a couple of summers ago. I just saw a pic of the barge hitting the duck boat. It was bad. I'm amazed there weren't many more casualties. The barge was right on top of it.

 

I don't mean to side-track the tragedy, but does anyone know why these boats are called "duck" boats? Is it simply because they are amphibious?