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Le vie navigabili . . . is what you could call “sesto borgo” or “the sixth boro.” And it’s navigated by creatures small as these canadagoslings,
greater,
numerous . . . unwanted or
scruffy but perennially utilitarian.
Say hello to 3/4 of the painting crew on Pegasus last Saturday. Vote daily for Pegasus here–so that she might benefit from a huge grant of $250,000–and
starting from THIS weekend, come and visit Pegasus on board at Pier 25 in the boro called Manhattan. The schedule now calls for Pegasus to leave this “canale” within the sixth boro tomorrow . . . Thursday, pick up Lehigh Valley 79, and move back over to Pier 25. In reference to the canales di venezia, Pegasus would look good exploring there . . . By the way, here’s a log of Pegasus’ last visit to the drydock for work.
Here you’re looking east at Manhattan and its tallest building from the Morris Canal in New Jersey. Il canale di morris è una delle vie navigabili del sesto boro.
See you some hours this weekend on Pegasus at Pier 25. And please . . . vote daily, no mater which continent you are on.
Parting shot . . a foto of Pegasus leaving the tour dock in Yonkers 11 months ago.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
By the way, the tugboat shown most completely in the 4th foto is the 1943 46.5′ Linda G. I don’t know where she was built. Pegasus is 96′ and 1907-built in Baltimore. The goslings, hatch of 2012, were about 4″ long.
Cormorant and I sometimes chat down by the water. Like we did this morning down where Arthur Kill meets Newark Bay. We differ on some things, but usually it’s . . . laissez faire, live and let live.
And then this came by. It’s Discovery Coast, the brand spanking new tugboat I’ve seen twice before. The first I was driving and traffic precluded pulling off for a foto and the second time was too dark. This time I could have gotten it in the still golden light of 9:30 a.m. But I averted my eyes. . . it was too much to bear. I watched from the corners of my eyes until it passed . . .
Its silhouette suggests . . . pagoda. Just count the decks . . . if they be called that . . . six of them. Discovery Coast just came out of the Main Iron works in Houma, LA. Here’s the proud new owner answering questions about the vessel’s features. From the interview, I can appreciate the vessel meeting all the latest guidelines. And I’d love a tour of the living quarters. But
if this is the look of the future, then what associations I have with that is . . . so at one time was the Edsel! And cormorant, well he took one look and
got outa there!
I wish fair winds, happy voyaging, and successful & profitable service to Discovery Coast and Chesapeake Coast . . . but with all due respect . . . I’m with cormorant on this one.
Call this a 4000+ word post. Arthur Kill is the complement of the much referred-to KVK, and it’s gorgeous, here at sunrise, just before 7 am.
I hope you agree what they say about the picture-word number correspondence. If so, this post has about 4,058 words.
Coot?
Here’s a dismal afternoon, 14:45 brightened by Eagle Beaumont.
More fotos of Arthur Kill orange tomorrow.
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.
A squadron of brants flew past the Green 7 buoy, followed by
Justine McAllister (1982 Jakobson Shipyard built),
Kristy Ann Reinauer (1962 Main Iron Works),
Norwegian Sea (1976 Burton Shipyard),
Mary Alice (1974 Service Machine and Ship). Can you read the barge name?
Do you know the lyrics? How was this barge dubbed with this name?
Also passing the green 7 this afternoon were Laura K. Moran (2008 Washburn & Doughty),
and Iron Mike, built 1977 but I know not where. Named for the boxer? Should get together with Steel Anna? See foto 6.
Not the best light. Certainly not balmy temperatures. Truly a good way to spend some weekend time, though.
All fotos today by Will Van Dorp.
Related: Note the crewman on the stern of Kristy Ann Reinauer above? It’s Birk, the person behind tugboatinformation.com.
In that first foto, do you suppose those brants were ganging up on the gull guarding the buoy?
Here was Birds 4. Birds intrude on these fotos a fair amount just because they do. I usually don’t intend bird fotos, but like the second from bottom here, they happen and make intriguing juxtaposition. Vastly different proximity of bird and vessel sometimes makes for apparently huge birds and new ways of seeing, as in the fotos of Julia Fullerton-Batten.
The same is true here; helicopter and building here are several miles apart, but it did give pause. And I was wondering whether it would alight upon some platform at the top.
But sometimes birds distract me from my usual subject. Indulge me and take two minutes to watch this two-minute vimeo called “murmuration,” starting out with two girls in a canoe on a lake in Ireland. If you’ve already seen it, pass it along to someone.
But back to my egret, who was tense, then slack, then tense, calculating … until
the fish seemed in range.
It came up empty-billed, but no matter. There was plenty in the world beneath the boom to attract them with food, which reinforced the faith and patience of the egret.
Not the best shot, but a fairly typical one of a great blue heron, a timid bird that departs with very annoyed squawks.
Here’s another shot of an osprey I included here about two months ago, third foto from last. To me this one suggests bird on fish like surfer on board.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp. And seriously, if you didn’t watch that vimeo . . . it’ll make your day. Thanks to Maureen for sending it my way. To me, it rivals the amazingvirtualreal sequences in Avatar, the movie. Here’s another bird/water video.
Where might that gull go if it were to tag along on this vessel with exotic names for the rest of the year? Guesses?
I took this foto as it entered the KVK this morning from Savannah bound for Port Elizabeth . . . aka Port of New York/New Jersey. Well, it leaves here tomorrow bound for sea and will be back just before New Year’s 2012. And before returning, it’ll have done the following ports in this order: Halifax . . .
Kingston, Panama Canal, LA, Oakland, Vostochnyy, Ningbo, Shanghai, Pusan, Balboa, Panama Canal, Kingston, Savannah: voyage #28 for Zim Beijing.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who wishes I could tag along. The escort tug was Charles D. McAllister.
Everyone knows the “nothing–absolutely nothing–half so much worth doing as messing around in boats.” I’d revise that as “nothing . . . quarter so much worth doing as watching . .. boats, whatever those vessels are doing.” And I’m not the only one watching. 
Cargoes and passengers on water intrigue me much more than those on land.
I wonder sometimes how these other observers in the sixth boro process what they see.
I can’t tell what I’m looking at quite often. When the blue container ship entered port last week and I tried to make out the name on the curves of the bow, I read “loose sand” where seconds later I saw “Louds Island.” Actually, I wish the vessel were called “loose sand.” Remember “Ice Babe“?
Sometimes I just pay attention to these other eyes.
Not knowing raises the level of intrigue.
They watch back too.
They even seem to have their own agenda.
They might even have their own way of seeing.
Today I have to work inland though, so here ends this post.
Working Harbor Committee win an award for perpetuating this event and calling it race AND competition. And at the expense of making this post almost as long as some of those cinema and music award shows, I’d like to add some aditional awards . . .
like for “best improvised bowsprit on a tugboat” . . . Ross Sea, [doubleclick enlarges all fotos]
“most spirited better-late-than-never” . . . The Bronx, [more The Bronx soon]
“best press boat disguised as a tugboat” again, The Bronx,
“best connection to the cliff at Weehawken” Sea Wolf,
“best crew-to-crew face off . . .
. . . over a series of two fotos” to Pegasus and Ross Sea,
“most crew rallying on the foredeck” Maurania III.
Next we have many line handling awards. First up, “best right-hand follow through form” to Quantico Creek,
“best send the whole coil at once” to Sea Wolf,
“best hand and leg follow through form” also to Sea Wolf,
“best mascot with cute purple antennae” also to Sea Wolf . . . might this BE THE sea WOLF?
“biggest line-thrower cheering section” Maurania III,
“best facial expression” to Susan Miller,
“best overall posture award” Ross Sea,
and now a break from line-throwing awards . . . best photographer-aloft . . . Shipshooter on Ross Sea.
“best ’make-that-line-walk’” . . . also Ross Sea,
“most earnest line thrower expression” . . . Catherine C Miller,
“best ‘looks-like-that-was-overhand’” Freddie K Miller,
“best ‘over-the-bollard-and . . .
…put-turns-on-the-quarterbitt’” Pegasus,
“best and longest lariat twirling followed by the
longest throw” Growler. Note for next year . . . the Growler crew might decide to dress as rodeo folk, given that the 30-second lasso-demonstration prompted a comment from some unnamed person behind me . . . “Next year for Growler we should replace that bollard with a fiberglass cow.” Great showmanship!!
“best winch-matching costume” the inimitable Jeff Schurr, frequent and erudite commenter on this blog.
“best Lab mascot” . . . Peaches on Ross Sea,
“best mascot with a hat and pin” Salty of The Bronx,
And “my favorite mascot and name,” goes to the bantam fowl named Jack E. Sparrow . . . of the mighty Sea Wolf crew.
You’re all winners in my book . . . Get in touch if you want higher-res version of your foto.
Finally and last but not least . . . two technical awards . .. for “best dredger” Maurania III, and
“best watercolor creation” . . . Sea Wolf.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
We’ll get to Eagle, but first . . . I encountered this sight as I lined up today’s shots. What IS that and where?
Anyhow, I heard Eagle‘s initial “under way” around 11:30.
John Watson monitored from his POV . . .
I envied her leaving Manhattan’s oven temperatures and hazy light*. I believe this ends Eagle‘s summer 2011 patrol marking her 75th anniversary. She started the summer
in Waterford a month ahead of the tall ships festival there, covered so ably by Capt. Boucher on Nautical Log.
A murder of crows gathered at Fort Wadsworth Lighthouse to pay respects.
I’m still looking for fotos and testimonials about Eagle‘s first trip inbound here in 1946 almost two decades before the Verrazano stood here, when Fort Lafayette languished where the Brooklynside Tower now stands.
Which brings us back to the goats: they are civil servants, federal employees . . . low-budget custodians of crumbling federal infrastructure, New York’s answer to the chickens of Key West or the horses of Vieques.
Who knew? Certainly not me . . although they’ve been here awhile, as evidenced by this video. I’d interpreted signs to “do not feed or pet the goats” as humor. I’m already thinking now of a sign “do not feed or pet the Congress folks.” Fill in the blanks with your own verbs for possible prohibitions.
Happy birthday Eagle! A personal note . . . while taking these fotos I spoke with a passerby who wondered why the USCG maintains an antiquated sailing vessel for officer training. My answer drew from conversations with a dear friend’s father two decades back who sailed on her in the 1950s . . . he said “The academy seeks not to train technologists but leaders. Leadership training is what happens on cutter barque Eagle.” What think you?
Thanks to John for foto #3; all others by Will Van Dorp, who had to check . . . yes USCG vessel docs show three commercial vessels with goat in the name: Goat Roper (Alaska) and SeaGoat and SeaGoat III (Louisiana). Imagine the possibilities for figureheads . . .
*For a whole different climate, check out Issuma’s view for 8/8 here.
Two tidbits from today’s NYTimes:
What we are learning from the “high n dry” USS Monitor
(thanks to eastriver) . . . folks on the sixth boro’s low seas
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