ulysses
Guru
East of the Mississippi River you will usually find the commercial vessels on Chl. 16 West of the River they will be on Chl. 13. In the River I believe they now use Chl. 68.
In your post you referred to them as barges and/or tug. Try hailing them as "tow" as in "west bound tow at mile marker xx". Typically if the wind is blowing an empty tow will want to hold into the wind other than that they will usually meet on the one whistle side. That will all change in the River, they empty or loaded will want to come north bound under the points and down bound in the bends. Unless the River is flowing pretty well and the bend is pretty great then they may flank it south bound taking up most all of the channel and you should try to wait below the point. Algier's Point between Industrial and Harvey lock is one of those spots and is occasionally flanked by large (greater than 25 barges) tows.
Safe travels
dan
In your post you referred to them as barges and/or tug. Try hailing them as "tow" as in "west bound tow at mile marker xx". Typically if the wind is blowing an empty tow will want to hold into the wind other than that they will usually meet on the one whistle side. That will all change in the River, they empty or loaded will want to come north bound under the points and down bound in the bends. Unless the River is flowing pretty well and the bend is pretty great then they may flank it south bound taking up most all of the channel and you should try to wait below the point. Algier's Point between Industrial and Harvey lock is one of those spots and is occasionally flanked by large (greater than 25 barges) tows.
Safe travels
dan