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keeping functions," Williams said. "We are like any other cruise vessel in that we serve three meals a day, make up and clean all 99 staterooms daily and offer turndown ser- vice at night," Williams added. In addition, there is a staff for the entertainment functions, a Purser's staff for pas- senger accounts and coordinators for the shore tours. A typical six-day cruise will include shore excursions every morning. The hulls of the two barges are full of mechan- ical equipment designed to serve the specific needs of each barge. Both barges have a pair of 600 kW generators to supply the specific electrical needs of the barge above.

On the forward barge, the main consumer of electricity is the galley.

The generators also supply electricity to the walk in freezers and chill boxes also located in the hull and to the central heating and air conditioning units that supply tempered air to all public spaces on the barge.

On the hotel barge, a lot of the electrical load is for the staterooms heated and cooled by individual through-the- wall units and for the water heaters that supply hot water to each space. In addition there is a laundry in the hull.

There is also an emergency standby generator located on each barge.

The River Explorer relies on two different grades of water for the staterooms. The showers and sinks use potable water. Water from the showers and sinks is col- lected in gray water tanks, treated and pumped over- board. Water for the toilets is supplied directly from the

Mississippi River after filtering and is collected and treat- ed before being returned to the river.

Many of the cruises stop at famous plantations and unique small towns that dot the Mississippi River in

Louisiana and Mississippi. Other cruises venture to

Memphis, St. Louis, Nashville, and towns on the Ohio

River system including Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville and Paducah, Kentucky.

The River Explorer is a year around excursion opera- tion spending the winters cruising the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast Intercoastal Waterway and moving up the Mississippi River and onto the Ohio River system in spring, summer and some of the fall season.

The Miss Nari is the permanent power source for the

River Explorer and is seldom detached from the two barges. It is tied up only while passengers are on shore tours. Needless to say, it logs more hours on the inland waterway system than any other tug in the nation and probably the World. 24 • MarineNews • March, 2005

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Kenny Williams, one of the two Captains onboard the River Explorer. He is in the pilothouse of the vessel located above the third deck on the aft barge. The two prominent circular controls are the controllers for the Z-drives. (Photo: Larry Pearson)

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