I've been running a PbP campaign for about 5 years now (with a post-rate average of 2.5 "turns" a week) and I'd say about a quarter of the game has been spent ashore. In fact, most of the last two years or so (real time) has been spent on dry land.
If you want to get your players off the river for a while, give them significant obstacles- real or rumored- to overcome- ones that can't simply be overwhelmed by the tug's firepower (ours started off with 3 HMGs, 1 AGL, and a Vasilek automortar). I've used man-made locks, natural obstacles, rumored ambushes, riverside defenses (usually manned by a large riverside settlement), and heavily armed government checkpoints, just to name a few, to force my players ashore for short or extended periods.
At the moment, the campaign has morphed into Ruins of Warsaw. The tug is still around, and operating in support, but most of the action has been on dry land.
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