Getting Geraldina ready for Operation CC this year meant doing the checklist: engine–fluids fine and warmed up, safety equipment–aboard and accessible, VHF–triple redundancy, tides & weather–OK …
bow pudding installed by elves Gary and Brian,
checked and approved by Portside‘s founder Carolina Salguero aka Nemodeer,
who explained the mission to Brittany Oat, news12.com’s intrepid reporter, who
then came along to observe how
40+ packages of cookies and bags of latest newspapers get delivered to
tugboat and barge crews whose work
keeps them far from home when Christmas falls during their hitch.
All packages got delivered, but Geraldina‘s engine, maybe soured by ethanol fuel additives, stalled, and
-and the Coast Guard,
also working on Christmas Day, helped us home. Final tally: cheer delivered to equipment of McAllister, K-Sea, Reinauer, Moran, and independent tug Harbor II
and attempted on a Dann Towing vessel and Scotty Sky. And sense of humor maintained by all the elves.
Many thanks from the elves to the fine folks, working in the sixth boro, for all they do, today and everyday.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who starts driving tomorrow for the Apalachicola watershed.
tugster: a waterblog 
5 comments
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December 26, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Mage Bailey
Have a great drive south, and a Merry Christmas to you and yours. Thanks again for all the mind opening dreams you have shared with us this year.
December 27, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Anonymous
And three cheers for the tug Kristy Ann Reinauer. She admirably came to the rescue!
Thanks for your hospitality and Christmas cheer.
December 27, 2008 at 9:48 pm
john
What about the Kristy Ann Reinauer?
December 27, 2008 at 10:50 pm
tugster
actually dozens of cheers to kristy ann. i’m down south a few days, but will put up more fotos. i was too involved minding the towline to snap fotos of the kristy ann and her crew. more later. happy new year
January 5, 2009 at 10:31 pm
bonnie
I was sort of hoping to come help get the cookie plates ready before it developed that there was some weird unplanned harmonic convergence of BOTH TQ and my immediate families in NC. Like to add Portside to my list of groups I like to volunteer for.