The Zephyr is infamously known as the Red Rocket on the Mississippi River because it was the fastest towboat of eighteen in the Sabine fleet. It really packs a punch. Unlike many boats, when the Red Rocket punches on the throttle, you can actually feel the acceleration at the bottom of your feet when you are on an empty barge. Your toes get light and your heels get heavy. Now that's power.
The Zephyr is a lowrider. It sits deep in the water and reminds one of a souped-up red lowriding Chevy Impalla. On a couple of occasions when tied up at a fleet, a neighboring towboater came onboard to notify us that we were sinking. We laughed out loud each time.
John Lerma, George Ramirez, and I were the regular tankermen/deckcrew on the Zephyr at this time. Of the hundred some odd hands working on Sabine Towing's eighteen boats, we were the only Hispanic workers. And we all happened to be on the same boat. We called ourselves the Three Amigos and took much pride in making the Zephyr the best darned boat Sabine had.
John, George, and I worked a one month on - two weeks off schedule. I would take John's place when he got off and George would take mine when I got off. With this endless rotation, there were only two amigos working on the boat at one time, never all three of us at one time.
Untill one time.
After coming back to work for Sabine during my summer break from college, I was assigned to the Aurora. We were at a dock on the Mississippi River in Chalmette, LA. At the dock below us was the Zephyr with George and John building a 4 barge tow. The Zephyr tied its barges along side the Aurora's to facilitate making tow. That's when I jumped down to their barges to help out. We busted our backs to get these barges together. After all this time, the Three Amigos were finally united together at the same time. Man it was great. I remember ole Captain Vic singing Freddy Fender's classic "Vaya Con Dios" over the bullhorn. After our job was done I jumped back on the Aurora's barges and the Zephyr started on its way upriver. Captain Vic jumped out of the Zephyr's wheelhouse and frantically waved a thumbs up to me. I returned back a thumbs up and one of the biggest smiles that I ever made.
Check
out my Zephyr
story - The Red Rocket vs. the
Antigone!
Meet
and learn more about Captain Vic
Click on these thumbnails for larger pictures of life on the M/V Zephyr
