Stormy Aftermath 5

I know the sixth boro sees lots of RO-RO traffic, these

almost hermetically sealed vessels like CSAV Rio Aysen that allow vehicles to roll on or roll off a port.    This is the time of year when new year models of automobiles are heavily advertised.  It’s also a time post-Sandy when folks are looking to replace cars crushed by falling trees.

Since Sandy I’ve seen lots of RO-ROs, like

Aida, shown here passing Potomac and

here in the distance heading out the Ambrose Channel,  out beyond NYK Romulus (see fotos of her from the Bayonne Bridge) and the Narrows.

Here’s Western Highway inbound a week ago, and

Grande Guinee–hull down–headed for West Africa the same day.  She’s approaching Cape Verde right now.  In the foreground . . . it looks like Emerald Coast, tending barge alongside an NYK container ship.

And then it occurred to me:  sixth boro ports have large areas only a few feet above sea level where new cars just offloaded await shipment inland.  Were there any in port when Sandy came ashore?    Uh, only about half a billion dollars worth!  These cars, never used, now head straight for the scrap yard.   I’d have volunteered to help drive some of these cars to higher ground away from the port.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Thanks to Michele, here’s a story about burning Priuses and Fiskers at Port Newark.

Great! Chesapeake Schooner Race 2

I post this as the race is approaching its finish; see live tracking at the bottom here.

Twenty-fours hours ago Baltimore-based Chock WYTL-65602 was leaving Annapolis to go on station as pin boat 1 . . . the west side of the starting gate.  Pin boat here takes on a whole new meaning.  For a Chock-sibling with a different mission, see bowsprite’s latest here.

Norfolk Rebel, currently itself transformed into a schooner and sailing, was the other pin boat.  Here the jaunty captain and crew relax as schooners arrive at the starting line midday yesterday.

Condor was our platform, dashing around trying to catch the arriving schooners as they plotted a “red-carpet” course toward the pin boats.  No offense to the smaller, class B boats . . . the faster ones . . . but we focused on the larger class A boats.  First in was A. J. Meerwald.  Links to many of the vessels can be found here for full info, but Meerwald is 84 years afloat.

Next across the red carpet . . . Sultana . . .

Lady Maryland . . . whom I sawsome years back in the sixth boro,

Some of the class B boats like the one in the distance . . . I never could identify.  Any help?  RORO is Rigel Leader.

Mystic Whaler and unidentified in background.

And the two vessels  (sort of) that started it all . . .  From l to r, 1916-launched, Tottenville NY-built Virgina  and Pride of Baltimore 2.

Kings Pointer . . .  Summerwind, a 1929 Alden schooner, and unidentified smaller vessels.

Anyone identify these?

Libertate.

A part of the field just minutes before the starter-cannon.

When a schooner races starts on a day with little wind, vessels crowd on all manner of sail, and yet . . . the “natives” on SUPs pass them.  I believe the schooner is Prom Queen, now vying for first across the finish line.

Mystic Whaler and Summerwind, with bulker Clipper Emperor in the distance.

Part of the field follows.  Notice the difference between the start of a schooner race and a tug race.

First Coast bypassed the schooners towing a barge and was already in Norfolk by the wee hours today.

The natives sat down on their boards and hung out at pin boat Chock,

as racers rocket south toward Norfolk.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  Thanks to anyone who can identify some of the vessels I could not.

More from the race’s start tomorrow.

Random Tugs 96

Colleen basks in early morning light before the race earlier this month.

Resolute makes a quick turn to assist with a tow.

Discovery Coast turns westbound into the KVK.

Resolute takes the stern of Thomas J. Brown.

Miriam Moran reports for yet another job.

The inimitable Herbert P. Brake leaves the east end of the Kill.

Laura K. Moran . . .  speed turning.

Taurus heads for the mooring.

Treasure Coast crosses in the foreground after Taurus  gets to the mooring.

Discovery Coast cruises back to home base.

It’s Choptank light about to cross the Upper Bay for Brooklyn, and

a whole bevvy of McAllisters, including Helen. in Mariner’s Harbor . . .  also just before the tugboat race almost three weeks ago.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who does a short gallivant starting later tomorrow.

Gallivant Ahead Again

Looks like I got lured outa town once again.    Meanwhile . . . Discovery Coast goes on hauling out dredge spoils, and

Pioneer sails toward Red Hook.  Note Mary Whalen in the distance.

And if you’re around on Thursday, make your way to Red Hook to buy stuff–art, tools, etc–to help raise funds for Mary Whalen.  Details here on Rick Old Salt’s blog.

Both fotos by Will Van Dorp, who will try to post fotos from along the course . . . .

Solstice Post 1

First . . . around the boro, the light is beauteous enough to suspend a sense of time and obligation and stress and disappointment.  This side of the boro, though on duty, works the milder solstice.

Lynx (1967, ex-Catherine Foss, Kainani) probably working with a dredging project, I’ve never seen here before.

Discovery Coast glows.

Nicole Leigh waits orders, as crew might ponder

a different season, as seen here.

In this heat and light, Kimberly looks positively artdeco:  her aqua would blend in on South Beach and way beyond.

Brandywine wrestles the season as she dances her partner DoubleSkin 141.

Quenames broods as she gazes into the stream.

Miriam Moran cruises past Sailors’ Snug Harbor, as purposefully as always.

Jane A. Bouchard races deep into right field, showing what waters can be divided by more than 6000 hp on the wheels, while her older sister

Barbara E. Bouchard dozes briefly in the shadows before moving upriver, where

the venerable Patty Nolan dons her midsummer’s bikini, freshens up her dancing paint . . . the mayor’s drum is soon to call to disorder the 2012 parade . . .  the sixth boro’s shoreline version of Mardi Gras.

OK . . . one final glance for now at Lynx off to the dredge site.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who is solely responsible for any erroneous interpretations of event, signs, and artless ceiling doodles.

Happy summer!!

Unrelated:  If you happen to “see things” when you pass the KVK salt pile on Saturday night, you’re not hallucinating.  Lumen will happen.

For an auspicious virtual gallivant as they sally forth through the Rideau Canal from Lake Ontario to Ottawa and beyond, follow Sally W . . .

Other People’s Fotos 17

I suppose I could call this “random and gorgeous tug fotos I wish I’d taken.”

Thanks to John Skelson for this one of Coastline Bay Star.  I’ve seen this vessel only once in this incarnation of her, but it was in Belt traffic from which a foto was impossible.  John nails it here.  What a beaut!!

The rest come from Birk Thomas.  This series I just find stunning:  Gramma Lee T turns out after escorting her Nth vessel.  I’m wondering if there’s an actual count of assists for her decade of service since her June 2002 delivery.  Happy Decade 1 celebration.

Birk got this foto off New London: Allison Crosby looks like a Vane boat, whose series she post-dates, but for ocean towing, she has a 10,500 hp plant in the engine room.

Buster Bouchard has been around since 1979, but I saw her in the sixth boro for the first time only this spring.

The newest twins in the boro . . . Discovery Coast and Chesapeake Coast.

Also, by Birk, Ocean Delta, Norway-built, moving more parts for the nickel mining operation in Newfoundland.

Ocean Delta (ex-Sistella)  is a 1973 UT 505 design from the Ulstein Group.   Click here for a snowy/icy foto of Ocean Delta.

Thanks to Birk and John for these fotos.

Random Traffic June 2012

Shuttles and warships and barks come and go, but the work in the boro never quits.  Greets to all the crew on Falcon (1970),

Crystal Cutler (2010),

Kimberly Poling (1994),

First Coast (1968) and Grace D,

Mary Turecamo, barge Tennessee, and Explorer of the Seas in the background of several of the shots above,

Cecilia Miller and an unidentified WaterTaxi over by Brooklyn Ferry Landing,

All fotos by will Van Dorp, who will be “on assignment” for a few days.

Meanwhile some ponderables:

Movies to see:  Terraferma (maybe Wednesday night) and Beasts of the Southern Wild . . .

A new radio show to create called Boat Talks . . . now that Tom and Ray are parking it . . .

Pairs in Springtime 3

Here were 1 and  2.  Atlantic Salvor out front and Sarah Ann as steer boat make a working pair moving dredging spoils out for dumping at sea.

Here Salvor communes with itself in glassy morning KVK water.

Kristy Ann collaborates with Laurie Ann Reinauer to get RTC85 off the dock at IMTT Bayonne.

A pair of deckhands ride the huge pair of knees on Discovery Coast.

A pair of Vane barges, Doubleskin 32 and 36 . . .

… moved by a pair of Dann Marine newcomers, Chesapeake Coast and Discovery Coast with Seto Express on the far side.

And quite the pair

they are!

A lucky pair of Finns no doubt see the yellow Stolt tanker in the distance as an angel.  I took the foto of Stolt Invention four days ago as it entered the sixth boro in the afternoon fog.   From Rick Old Salt’s blog today I learn that on May 10 . . . less than two weeks ago, Stolt Invention saved the lucky pair  in mid-Atlantic after their sailboat began taking on water.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Interesting but completely unrelated:  coal dredging on the Susquehanna?  Check this out of Bone In Its Teeth blog.

Also unrelated inquiry:  Does anyone remember/have fotos of the heavylift ship in NYC harbor  1997 taking away the floating jail Resolution?  I’d love to see fotos.

x

Early May 2012 Traffic

Foto and alert thanks to John Watson, as are the first three fotos of this post.  Genuine Ace arrived here this weekend after having been launched just six weeks ago.  Given that it’s a PCTC, I’ll bet it really has that “new car” smell.  To see where this design is headed, click here .  . lower right.

I’d seen QM2 bunkering a few hours before, but John caught it headed out . . . currently on a flat Atlantic for Hamburg.

Short sea shipping continues in the sixth boro, here with Doris Moran barging containers.  To see where this might be headed . .  now that American Feeder Lines is changing their game, click here . . .   Unrelated, look into the mid-distance and the long-necked tug at the end of the GMD Bayonne pier . . . a K-Sea tug repainted?

Well, here’s how I caught Taurus Friday afternoon!!!

It’ll take some getting used to, but that’s life . . . all getting used to . . .

which is precisely my challenge here . . .   although if you go back to the link just above Doris Moran, the sketch of the tug looks just like Discovery Coast.  By the way, anyone upriver know where Discovery is hauling the dredge spoils from?

Thanks much to John Watson for the top three fotos.  All others by Will Van Dorp, who is on the cusp of having more free time.  That’s the Newport lighthouse in Jersey City creating an additional “jar” to an already “jarristic” set of patterns.

People on the Boro 14

It’s been over a year since I’ve used this title . . .  I worry sometimes that someone I catch in the act of working might feel intruded upon. Such is the farthest thing from my intention.  I’m certainly not the first or last to state there’s dignity in labor, whether it’s performed indoors or out.

Here Doubleskin 37 approaches NYK Rumina (named for the goddess of breast-feeding mothers!!!) as

day breaks to refill

the bunker tanks;  Coral Coast (1970, McDermott, and attractive) in pushgear.

Green Bay shuttles between dredge and

shore, throaty as she pushes water.

Paul Andrew seems headed for a shore base as well,

as Sarah Ann heads for Newark Bay

with a deck barge.

Scott Turecamo pushes New Hampshire into the interior of Arthur Kill land.

And Maria J moves a crane barge in

the same direction.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who’s mindful that for every member of the crew outside, there are possibly four inside.