Down the Up Creek 2

Here was the first in the series.   Now since the Professional Mariner article is out and you can read it here, I offer the  photo essay.  The research starts on January 27, but

this closer-up of the foto above shows half the bridge won’t lift.  Research aborted, and I was really hoping to show the tow breaking its way up the Hutch through ice.  The fuel load eventually –and very eventually–has to get delivered elsewhere.  For outatowners, the background is the Bronx.

Now it’s February 3, 10:52.  The fuel has been transferred into the tanks on shore, and the crew waits for sufficient water to return to the creek for egress.

11:01.  Note how little water shows on the right side of the barge.

11:43.  While waiting for the flood, here’s a view of the engine room.

1:43.  Still waiting.

2:26.  There’s now adequate water for the towboat to squeeze alongside the barge to make up to the “bow” of the barge.

2:27.  Diane B pivots in her length and the crew makes up to the “bow.”

2:45.  As they finish making up, I run ahead to the nearest bridge for the best fotos as they “thread the needle” back out to wider water.  Let’s call this bridge #1.

2:47.  Truly this is contact sport . . . without the contact and without the sport.  Actually, it’s hard work.  Notice the barge cutting through the ice here.

3:10, and I’ve driven my car a half dozen miles to get to bridge #4.  Notice #3 and #2 open.  And if you squint, you can see Diane B‘s upper wheelhouse passing through bridge #2.

3:13 finds the tow about to pivot 90 degrees to port to clear the Amtrak Bridge, aka bridge #3.

3:17.  After fitting through #3, the tow immediately needs to line up for #4.

3:18.  Lining up may take a pulse, a snort of the engines.

Once through #4, it’s not as if the channel runs straight.

3:27.  The tow heads through Eastchester Bay for the East River.  Throgs Neck Bridge is NOT a lift bridge.  If I’m counting right, the tow passes under another 11 bridges before reloading on the Arthur Kill.

Thanks to American Petroleum & Transport and the crew of Diane B for helping with this story.  Thanks to Professional Mariner for printing my story and pictures.  Consider subscribing.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who places them online because I like the cheap big format afforded by electronic media.

Down the Up Creek

This cryptic title will become clear in time, but first check out these fotos taken by Jim Ash . . . back more than a decade ago when the long-gone Coral Queen was headed up the creek . . . the creek referred to being also known as the Anne Hutchinson River.

The thing about these creeks is that large vessels–that’s a relative term–can only navigate them only when water levels are up.  But if you’re up the creek too long after ebb, you stay where you are until the water comes back.  When levels are up, you head downstream, around

any and all obstacles, overtop of submerged but hidden threats you know are there, underneath

the ones that don’t have to lift for you, through

the portals only at that instant when they’re open and you’re lined up, and

toward the open water.

More on this–the specialized creek work of Diane B and  . . . the proud, the very few . . . soon.  All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 100

I’ve held off moving from 99 to 100 because 100 suggested I do something special, but ultimately, I decided that random means random, so here it is.  Guess the location if not the tug?  It IS sixth boro. Answer at the end of the post.

Almost 30-year-old Franklin Reinauer  entered the Narrows light as Sun Right departed the other day.

Less than an hour earlier, Emerald Coast (1973) overtook the same Sun Right at the turn around Bergen Point.   I’ve seen Sun Round recently (although I didn’t take a foto) here but not Sun Road.  Are there more in this Manila-registered series?

Note the small tug assisting with Energy 11105 barge  . . .

pushed by (?) Liberty Service.  It’s Freddie K Miller, which I first met as Stapleton Service, even though that was not the first identity for this 1966 built tug.

Susan Miller (1981) meets Akinada Bridge –named for a Hiroshima bridge–at the Narrows recently.

Coho lighters G. Agamemnon.  Has repainting started on any of the ex-Penn boats?

Comet (1977) heads under the Bayonne Bridge, while (?) Brian Nicholas following.

Atlantic Salvor (1976) followed Atlantic Coast (2007) into the sixth boro the other day.

Resolute (1975) escorted in  Americas Spirit.

Finally . . . that first foto . . . it’s Diane B southbound in Eastchester Bay (til now a tugster-neglect portion of the sixth boro) with Throg’s Neck Bridge in the background.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  Does anyone know if and when Athena was scrapped?