Being on inland roads for now and rendered somewhat blank-in-the-head, I’m happy to finally use these relief crew fotos.  Call this a ship-tease or port-tease post.  Look them over closely and guess the location.  Answer and stories at the end of the post.  A sub and a trawler headed for sea . . . sounds vaguely like the start of a joke?

and  Zeus enters port . . . now that sounds like a mythological tale, fractured or otherwise.  So where?

SeaBart aka Uglyships sent me these.  He writes:  “The fishing boat & the submarine pic is made by my wife in  January 2006 in Den Helder, the official navy port of the Netherlands.  The fishing vessel is obvious:  every port in the Netherlands has it’s own fishing fleet, going out on Sunday evening/Monday morning coming back Friday or Saturday.”

And Zeus:  “has 2 main engines driving one propellor, bollard pull is 101 ton, and from what I heard although she has only one prop she is a very manoeuvrable ship. Finnish flag but she had a Dutch master until he retired a few years ago. On the picture she is just entering Den Helder. She is on the spotmarket and is mostly used for rig moves, when she isn’t chartered usually she is stand-by in Den Helder. I have no idea when the pic is taken because, as I said, she is coming & going.
Den Helder is besides navy-port also the most important offshore-port in the Netherlands. The big oil-companies have bundled their supply-vessels in a pool: the Southern North Sea pool (SNS-Pool), about 12-15 vessels all operating from Den Helder, which gives a tremendous amount of traffic to and from the port, almost too much. On a daily base you see 4 or 5 suppliers coming & going and a lot of shifting  going on in the port it self. If you have a berth, then it’s not for sure that you can keep it…….very annoying!”

Thanks, Bart.  Gelukkig nieuwjaar!   And I say that and a hearty thank you to all who read, in whatever language, patois, or register you say that.

While we’re on the topic of year’s-end, thanks to my referrers, the top 10 of whom for 2009 I list below for special thanks.  A glass of whatever exuberance-bubbles I certainly owe you; please collect.

10   Google Reader

9   WordPress

8   propercourse.blogspot.com

7   samgreenfield.com/log

6   bowsprite.wordpress.com

5   intheboatshed.net

4   urban-archology.blogspot.com

3   70point8percent.blogspot.com

2   San Diego Union-Tribune, who picked up my  US Air Salvage post

1   gcaptain.com/maritime/blog

And staying on stats a moment, my top 10 posts for the year are:

10   Mermaid Parade 2009

9   Ghosts

8   Figureheads

7   More Mermaid Parade 2009

6   NYC Tugboat Race 2009

5   Mardi Gras

4   NYC Tugboat Race

3   Pleasure Tugs 2

2   Weeks and Flight 1549 Re-Emerges

1   Equinox

Now I’m not saying these are my favorites or most-representative posts . . . just statistics.

For an example of one of my favorites, how about this:  magic in the mists by the Kill.

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