Six Post-Sixty

Inspiration for this post found me when I was looking at the WordPress homepage about a month ago and noticed a blogpost by a woman called Celine.  She called it the “30 before 30 project.”  At some point before she made a list of 30 things she wished to have done before she turned 30.

Tomorrow is my 21,900th morning on this earth, i.e., I turn 60!  It’s stunning, traumatizing, but I have to get over it.  When I was under 30, the way I imagined 60 is quite different from how it feels to me, but that’s another story.

I decided that what distinguishes the 60 mark from the 30 is that rather than looking forward to things yet to do, I feel drawn to reflect on what I’ve gotten from the 21,900 days behind me.  So here’s my list of six lessons:

1. Ask.  Cultivate curiosity.  How could anyone look at this scene and not wonder what it is?  Curiosity supports youthfulness, no matter your mileage or years.

2.  Accept.  Anomalies brush past everywhere.  I’ve asked, but even if I don’t understand the whys and whos . . .  of horned creatures munching atop walls under the VZ Bridge or . . .

full-rigged ships suddenly blooming, heeled over and zooming past vessels called Chance, or

vessels named Ever Diadem passing scows named Mighty Quinn, so be it.   I know I’ve NOT done anything to hallucinate, so maybe in time I will understand.   In fact, as I took fotos of Ever Diadem, clear as could be I heard the bow watch crewman shout out “Foto!” so I took one, will put it on the web, and whoever he is, he may or may not some day stumble upon it.

3.  Act.  Pulverize procrastination.  But realize that running in competition with procrastination is triage.  Some things will not get done first . . . might never get done at all, and those priorities could be fine.  But act on what you want and need.   Fred Trooster took this foto in Hellevoetsluis, downstream from the port of Rotterdam,  last spring. Bedankt, Fred.

4. Smile.  Whoop and overwhelm weltschmerz.  I have my sources for smiles, and I go there when I need them to survive.  It sounds silly maybe, but I’m as committed to balance in humor as in diet, work . . . .

5. Give.  Give yourself, your humor, your urgency.  Overwhelm some random person with your cheer.  And although it’s not the motivation, whatever you give comes back many fold and in unexpected ways.  Account ledgers, though important, tell only half-truths.

6. Relax.  When I was under 30, I confused sleep with wasted moments.  Relaxation allows wisdom to seep in.  Here near the headwaters of the Hudson aka  Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, a few minutes of nestled into the sandy bank rearrange priorities and expel dark humors.

The feline below left, less than six months old, gallops around the house more pony than cat.    But it sleeps up to 18 hours a day.  So does the 30-year-old parrot.  Relaxation, re-energizing, a rovering spirit remain as much the prerogative of the over-60 as the under-30.  Gallivanting becomes the parrot as well as the cat, although each does it differently.

So, where do I go from here?  Tomorrow, my actual 21,900th day I don’t post.  I work a 12-hour day at the bread/butter job. But in the breaks, I think of post-60 gallivants.  Here are six that occur to me immediately.

1.  the Panama Canal.  It’d be just like sitting along the KVK, and I’d even see some of the sixth boro regulars, I’d bet.

2.  the Erie Canal.  I’ve motored it, but I have a 10-foot Hunter Liberty that I’d love to sail from Lyons to the sixth boro.

3.  a freighter cruise.  I’ve never been interested in big cruise ships.  In my early 30s,I took a thrilling 60-hour ferry from Jedda to Port Suez.

4.  the Amazon, and while in Brasil, I might stop in at Bebedouro.  Maybe the freighter cruise could be up to Port Newark with holds full of orange juice.

5.  the Mississippi, at least from St. Louis to the Gulf.

6. the Rhine/Rhone Canals from the North Sea to the Med.

So much for a list.  Tomorrow some of these might differ.  So what . . .

Here are some more lists . .  mostly young people.

Bebe!!

I heard that whales frolicked out in the Ambrose this morning.  Maybe they too felt their hearts quicken as Bebe approached.   My bebe’s back!!

Bebedoura, that is.  And with the orangest-orange lifeboats!

Bebe . . .  it used to be someone else, but now it’s you.  Only you can make the sunshine so sweet in February.

Dancing to starboard, then to port.  Bebe . . . the sight of you makes me so glad

it makes me want to hook up . . . right here, no matter how inappropriate.   Oil and

juice don’t mix, I know.  I’ll wait and bask under the perfect sky.

But soon enough, these couplings will be engaged and the sweetest nectar will flow.

Ok ok . . . let me scale it back.  Bebedouro is a municipality in Sao Paulo state renowned for the orange juice industry.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

And yes, whales did frolic in the Ambrose this morning.   I am looking for a word derivation of Bebedouro.  When I first saw it, I imagined a permutated “hard baby,” but then I caught a drift of drinking gold . . .   although my online translator also comes up with “ouro” as to make crazy . . . as in baby, you make me crazy!  But I realize now I’ve gone way far overboard.

Check out this gallery of fruit juice tankers that ply the oceans . . . maybe making the sea mammals go crazy.

Golden 42 Minutes

I took this foto at 15:40 yesterday, and I’ll call it “prelude to afternoon golden hour,”  but this is a view of the turbine from the Battery Park direction. A few weeks ago, I recorded 18 minutes, so here’s more than twice that.

Geese head to wherever they go at dusk.

SalvageMaster passing Caletta ushers in the golden times, 16:30.

Over toward the Narrows, Hellas Progress radios in an initial departure call.   In the distance, Tokyo Express approaches.

Lucy Reinauer pushing barge RTC 83 exits the KVK, followed

Kristy Ann, her bronze and red color enhanced by the setting sun.

By the time Kristy Ann reaches the Brooklyn half, Tokyo Express has started her approach into MOT, and

Hellas Progress has spun around toward the open sea.

By now, it’s 17:10, temperature starts to drop as quickly as the color intensifies.

It no longer feels like summer in February, nor does it look like it.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Super Balls Sunday

Today, in honor of all the wings folks will eat while watching balls move in various ways so that gold can enter the coffers of burly boys calling themselves patriots and equally burly ones calling going by “giants,” and inspired by bowsprite’s clarity and conciseness on the subject of balls, I thought to reflect on them myself.

British Mazel, moved here by Elizabeth McAllister,  has one white ball up high that seems to exist as a major node in the vessel’s nervous system.

A full- and a half-ball serve

the same function high atop Affinity, on the arm here of Marion Moran.

USCGC Seneca WMEC-906 sports a communication ball as well, and then some

others, including one that’s slit, serve other mission functions.

My field notes include appearance of more balls–three of them–and in unexpected places, such as these on a pleasure cat.

Explorer of the Seas has four.  Lacking bowsprite’s clarity and self-assurance, I’ll hazard a guess that ball quantity might vary directly proportional to crew size.

Ball color might relate to artistic intention, which could trigger a cease-and-desist.

Just as with the arcane rules of football, the ball code mystifies me here . . . uh . . . Artemis of Ephesus comes to mind here, or the fecund tomato plant that I’ve never had in my urban window garden?

The good folks in Detroit seem to have the right idea . . .  make them gold.  Put your local sports jersey on the statue.  I’m sure that golden “ball” perforated by golden rods here . .  is really a prolate spheroid.

I’ve failed to bring clarity to this topic, as bowsprite so artfully did.  I’ll go on with my observations and quantifications.  Spare me the entertainment and singers.  Pass the wings, please.  Lucas Oil Stadium . . . that’s along the KVK, right?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Seven Seas 4

Note that I had to retitle yesterday’s post, because I had posted a “seven seas 2″ two years ago already.  A conversation this week prompts yesterday’s and today’s post:  the K-Sea fleet in the sixth boro has been changing since their acquisition by Kirby last year.  But as Isaac Asimov and Heraclitus each in his own way said . . . shift happens.    For example, twenty years ago there was no K-Sea.  It emerged in 1993 out of Eklof, which had existed in the harbor since 1910.  In 2008, K-Sea itself absorbed Roehrig.

Anyhow, I decided to see what K-Sea units I’ve taken fotos of in the past half year, and here they are.  Big caveat . . .  I’m not out there around the sixth boro every day or even most days AND I don’t foto everything I see.  A webcam might do that, but although my interest is documenting, I value an attempt at aesthetic pleasure as well, and webcams can’t do that.

So here goes:  Lincoln Sea departed here yesterday, but no foto.  Jan 8 . . . Norwegian Sea

McKinley Sea . . . Dec. 4.

Davis Sea . . . also Dec. 4.

Barents Sea . . . Dec. 2.

Aegean Sea . . .  Nov. 15.

Java Sea . . . Nov. 6.

Maryland . . . Oct. 23.

Viking . . . Oct 16.

North Sea . . . Sept. 20

Ross Sea . . . Sept. 4.

and Baltic Sea, this morning . . . docked along Badagry Creek, Lagos.

Again, I’m making no claims that these are the only K-Sea boats around . . . just that these are the ones I’ve taken fotos of in the past half year.   A quick search on AIS today shows Inland Sea and Houma in Philly; Odin, North Sea, and Volunteer around the Gulf of Mexico, and all others . . . maybe  . .  at sea.

Seven Seas 3

OOoops . .  there was a “seven seas 2″ already here.  Here was the first in this series.  Today’s post stems from my inability to identify a very distant K-Sea tug in the second foto here; thanks to Jed and Harold for setting me straight.  K-Sea units that used to be commonplace in the sixth boro are in fact scattered to the seven “seas”:  Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Alaska, Gulf of Guinea.   So I decided to post today all the white K-Sea tugs I’ve foto’d in the past half month.  There is the new infusion of green K-Sea units, too. Of course, other units have passed through the harbor;  these are just the ones I’ve seen.  After all, I do have other claims on my time.  For the K-Sea story and ALL their units, past and present, check out Birk and Harold’s fantastic site here.

Solomon Sea, passing Barbara McAllister,

Davis Sea, on our only snow storm to date,

Greenland Sea,

Beaufort Sea, 

and Bering Sea. 

Some units are parked at Mariner’s Harbor, and the profitable ones that I didn’t see during this period must be where they should be:  at sea!

If your reading this post from WAY outside the sixth boro and sight a K-Sea vessel and you COULD snap a foto to send along, I’ll post it in a “far-flung” post.

Random Tugs 87

I priviledge first appearances.  This is Arbara Ann’s first.  Her registry is Islip, and  . ..  her stern confirmed the missing “B” at the beginning of her name.  Launch date was 1981, loa is 24.’

Fox Boys . . . third time here I think.  1956 and 48′

Pushing barge Fire Island, it’s Thomas Dann, 1975 and 98′  Can I conclude it’s Fire Island area bound?

John P. Brown (2002) has appeared countless times before.

Jean Turecamo (1975, 107′) meets Herbert P. Brake.   You might have seen Jean

here almost five years ago, props and all.Penn No. 6 is long, 141′ launched in 1970.

Sea Lion (1980 and 64′) pushes some dock equipment.

Eastern Dawn ( 1978 and 52′)   wears flags on her knees.

Amy C. McAllister (1975 and 91′) used to be Christine E. McAllister.   In between she was called Jane A. Bouchard.

Close-up Barbara McAllister (1969 and 100′) exudes power.

And finally, this barge of dredge equipment is

moved along by Sea Wolf 1982 and 61′.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Dense Traffic

But first, bowsprite’s talked about her online art store for some time, and yesterday . . . officially, she launched it.    Please traffic it.  I wouldn’t want her till to look like the one I found along the KVK yesterday.  See the jam-packed cash drawer below.  Come spring it might be full of green.

I love it when traffic in the KVK is dense:  here (l. to r.) Mediterranean Sea, Siberian Sea (?), Margaret Moran, and Cosco Tianjin.   In the distance is Robbins Reef Light and the old Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower in Brooklyn.

Dubai Express, Austin Reinauer, and Brendan Turecamo.   Invisible on the starboard side of Dubai is James Turecamo.

Here a small Triple S Marine (Aren’t they based in Louisiana?) boat bounces past Lucy Reinauer.

APL Japan, Elizabeth McAllister, Marion Moran, and McAllister Sisters . . . I believe, with the Brooklyn skyline in the distance.

Meagan Ann and OOCL Norfolk . . . with cables of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges in the distance.

Sea Lion pushes a barge of equipment ahead of MOL Endurance.

Among the pieces of equipment on this Mobro barge, what intrigued me was this Caterpillar designed to operate in wet places.

Finally for now . . . Beaufort Sea tails Maria J and Frederick E. Bouchard.

With traffic this heavy, I can see bowsprite will be very busy drawing and sketching while the robots staff the store.   Or maybe she could have robotos out sketching while she keeps the rust off her cash register?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Saltwater Colors 2

Here was SWC 1, and before that there was watercolor 4 (thanks to a burst of sunshine) and 3, 2, and 1 . . . you can seek out if you wish using the search window to the left.

What strikes me about the foto below is how hard it is to distinguish where metal ends and water starts.  Also, the black streaks on paint caused by docks and tugs in ports literally around the watery parts of the globe create a variation on the accidental beauty of Jackson Pollock.

The real beauty is in the water.  By definition it doesn’t exist.  It’s manufactured only

by the camera;  otherwise, it couldn’t be shared this way.  The top vessel was MOL Endurance; this is Twinkle Express.

These rusty love bites are pretty, but if were sailing this, I’d like to have a metallurgist’s reassurance.

The fendering here always reminds me of baleen.

Sunny days on the water always give me joy.  Nearer here is Barbara E. Bouchard with Capt. Fred Bouchard in background, and here

on a glassy Upper Bay is a fairly new Maersk Katarina.

In contrast . . .  fotos taken same day of Manistee off Detroit.  Maybe these are freshwater colors, the non-uniform

shades of gray normally associated with January.

Many thanks to Ken of Michigan Exposures for the counterpoint winter shots.  Today is the last day of January and it’s in the mid-50s!!  Someone told me this morning we’d better watch out in February because lots of snow’s been piling up in the sky ready to surprise and catch us up.

All sixth boro fotos by Will Van Dorp, last Saturday.

 

Nobility

Do you recognize this vessel?

A clue is that it was made of scrap materials gleaned from around the sixth boro.  Although the hull leaked, the compass was positioned in the floor.

Here are galley supplies.

It’s John Noble’s houseboat studio aka “little monticello.”  For a 360-degree view of the interior, click here.

I’m assuming this is a fair use of a few fotos by Robert F. Sisson,  p. 808, showing John Noble at work on his houseboat, granting eternal life to the rotting hulks over in Port Johnston, then a coal dock and now a petroleum dock.

Here’s the issue.  If you find yourself with free time browsing in a Salvation Army store that sells used issues of National Geographic, the December 1954 issue has a fabulous article called “Here’s New York Harbor.”   It lends itself to an excellent then/now revery.

Pages 804-5 show tugboat races already then.  Much more . . .  many vintage fotos to check out.

Visit Noble Maritime too.

Check out  Erin Urban’s fine book on John Noble, Hulls and Hulks in the Tide of Time, or click here for the smaller work, The Rowboat Drawings.

The “houseboat” can truly be called an Artship, but I recently learned of a (now defunct??) project in San Francisco called the Artship, an arts space on a February 1940-launched vessel previously known as Del Orleans, then USS Crescent City aka APA 21, Golden Bear  II.  Currently, though, she’s slated to be towed to Texas for scrapping.   I can imagine at least two constituencies are sad to see this vessel go. I wish I’d be able to visit Artship before these days and this one-way journey.

Just ahead of her and already on the way, at the end of  Elsbeth II’s towline off southern California and bound for the scrappers is USS Mispillion  aka AO 105.

Many thanks to David Hindin for this info (and see comments)  apologies for the errors that I hope I’ve corrected.