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Bear with me here . . . you’ll understand the title in a bit. But first, any sense of the difference between these first two fotos A and
B?
It turns out that the person who sent these fotos to me has since also used them . . . and put them first in his post, just as I had chosen to before seeing his post.
Nearer vessel below is Terrapin Island, taken just outside the Narrows in May 2012. Vessel in the distance is Ellen McAllister.
Here are more closeups of Terrapin Island.
At some point since May, she headed down south to southern Georgia . . . northern Florida coast.
Next fotos come from JED. That’s Terrapin Island in the background.
To see what JED does with the above fotos and many more, click here.
Many thanks to JED for the first two and last fotos. The difference between A and B is eight knots v. twelve.
Over six years ago, here was the last time I used this title. At 09:23 this morning, E. R. Denver was at Howland Hook as an outbound tanker eased by. E. R. seems to have been created by erasure from MaERsk.
. . . nine seconds later, it’s
Mount Everest.
This is serious, precision navigating,
with even less tolerance of errors because of the channel work, and
surrounding traffic, like Kristy Ann Reinauer and Paul Andrew and dredge units.
This short stretch of Arthur Kill, where serious dredging is enlarging the channel, were featured here and here (a blast!!) back last October. I’m not given to playing video games or using simulators, but if such a thing were available, I can imagine spending time playing “games” imitating professionals piloting different types of vessels through ports of the world in every sort of conditions. Hats off to the professionals.
All fotos today by Will Van Dorp.
x
Like a galley or head or deck, the harbor itself needs maintenance of the routine as well as the extraordinary sort. Given the amount of oil that’s found its way into the sixth boro the past two months, the latter sort is going on. The bird sanctuary mentioned in the first sentence of this link is Shooters Island . . whose history I spoke of here about a year ago.
A routine removal of silt from shipping channels is performed by the vessel below–Atchafalaya–as well as Padre Island, which I got closeups of here two and a half years ago.
Here’s shipspotting info on Atchafalaya (1980, Minnesota Twin cities along the river built!!) which I’ve yet to catch close enough for many details. Here’s still another link on Atchafalaya.
Back to a different set of post-Sandy extraordinary cleanups involve this vessel, with the appropriate name Driftmaster . . . not that it drifts around the sixth boro. Rather, it collects and either removes or secures large floating materials drifting in the harbor.
These fotos come compliments of bowsprite. What I believe is going on here is Driftmaster securing floating docks that in the highest of the surge floated right up off the pilings. I’m not sure where this Driftmaster was built . . . It may date from 1947.
Ditto here. This floating dock needs to be locked back into the pilings. The crane barge here is moved around by 1965 tug Harry McNeal. In the bottom foto, notice the square holes through which the cylindrical pilings must fit.
All but the first two fotos (mine) were taken by bowsprite, whom I thank.
Two weeks ago, Sandy raged, leaving a deadly and disastrous trail through the sixth boro and surrounding land masses. Athena has also blanketed us, through many green leaves somehow remain on trees. Companies are attempting to return to routine. Ever notice how much the KVK channel zigzags, as seen here with APL Spinel tailing Meagan Ann and her scow. The strait’s not at all straight.
Clearly what’s blasted from and scooped out of the AK is virgin rock.
Sandy scoured away much of the volunteer vegetation along the KVK. A foto taken here a month ago would show lots of weeds and a quite living tree.
The absence of cover makes it easier for this hawk to spot the “shore squirrels.”
Storms eroding a beach sometimes uncover shipwreck (here and here) , treasure, skeletons . . . all manner of stuff. See the last foto here, taken about 20 years ago. The surge along one section of the KVK unearthed dozens of these bricks. Is Belgian Syndicate a local firm?
A fair number of government boats are still around, like this one . . . taking advantage of unseasonal warmth . . . and
Clean Waters, a Region 2 EPA vessel I’d heard about but never seen until yesterday. Given Region 2′s size, I wonder how many other vessels–I saw Kenneth Biglane once once and that was already three years ago–they have and where they’re usually homeported.
Wright and Kennedy (only the stacks are visible forward of Wright’s house) are still in town. Understandably, some folks I’ve talked to still live in conditions far from normal.
I’m guessing this train–unusual as it is– has to do with the completion of a job, not Sandy: Sea Bear tows a train of eight or nine vessels, including Iron Wolf.
Yet, recreational sail has returned. Sun Dragon is the nearer.
Line handlers aboard CSAV Rio Aysen . . . (check their recent stops at that link) take in all this harbor activity. Vessel is named for a river in southern Chile.
All fotos yesterday by Will Van Dorp, for whom the sixth boro is among other things an ever-changing puzzle.
It appears that Staten Island ferry John J. Marchi was crossing the Upper Bay just before 1800 hrs. Otherwise, it was still mostly government boats like
NOAA S-222 Thomas Jefferson, performing post-storm hydrographic surveys. I took this foto back in early September 2012. Buoys move, debris lurks, and bottom depths change. Assessing and correcting these and other conditions of the port are keeping lots of folks really busy . . . .
I braved gridlock and frantic traffic with very long lines at gas stations to get to my work. A detour–of course–led me past Arthur Kill Park across from the Howland Hook Container Terminal. As no doubt you’ve seen in fotos of docks, boardwalks, and coastal areas from Cape May to here, these fishing docks are wrecked. Remarkable here is that this dock is protected by 10 miles of waterway and Staten Island’s heights from the ocean.
Two vessels that rode out the storm in port are (l to r) dredge Atchafalaya and container ship CSAV Itajai, not sure why this latter stayed in port. Here’s my previous not-so-great foto of Atchafalaya.
As I said, lots of assessments are happening . . . which means very little traffic.
I believe this is survey boat Cape Elizabeth. In the distance at Fort Wadsworth–wonder how my goats are–notice the tents set up for Sunday’s NY Marathon.
And this may very well be the first tug/barge to leave the sixth boro post-Sandy . . . Morgan Reinauer, I think.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, and except for the shot of Thomas Jefferson . . . all taken today.
If you’re free and local, here’s a lecture on hurricane/flood risk coming up in two weeks on my friend Philip’s blog. And here’s insights on risk assessment/response driving the Dutch “deltaworks” project after their “once in 10,000 years” flood considerations post-1953 North Sea flood, which claimed over 2000 lives.
Guess what this is? I’ll call it T-time on Kraken.
Then this is T minus five minutes. Note the orange mass just forward of the channel marker.
T minus five seconds!
Believe it or not . . . this is T PLUS five seconds. So, there was a thud that resonated through the concrete barrier I braced myself behind on shore at least 600 feet away, and then the sound of spray seen in the first foto above. But five seconds beyond . . . mist had dissipated and some gurgles formed in the water.
T plus fifteen seconds . . . the first bird arrives and the water turns muddy.
T plus a half minute, the gurgles have grown, appear grainy and muddy, and a yellowish mist forms.
One minute beyond . . birds have heard the dinner bell . . . er . . . blast.
I wonder what the cormorant on lower right of center is thinking . . ..
Two minutes beyond . . .
And the zone reopens to traffic. All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who has a blast every time he goes down to the water. The last blast depicted on this blog–taken in Panama–was the final foto in this post from back in March.
I didn’t take these fotos quite right, but . . . look closely, on the left side of the foto and the channel are three orange channel markers, as they appeared on October 10. That’s Bayonne in the distance. Behind the camera and off the right side is Howland Hook terminal.
Of course Patrick Sky cleared that nearest marker without a slightest scratch.
But a few days later . . . October 14 and after a tip-off, I returned and
only two markers remained.
Of course, Irish Sea and Bering Sea had nothing to do with the lost marker. Nor did Kraken.
But one was gone, vanished, disparu!
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who hasn’t returned here since . . . but might there now only be one? Click here for some background info on Patrick Sky. The Kirby unit in the top foto is Beaufort Sea.
I’d seen McFarland before . . . once at the dock stern out and another time anchored in the middle of the night on Delaware Bay, lit up like a parking lot. I’m so thrilled that I’ll run a series of her . . . .starting with the USACE dredge passing Pac Alnath.
A first sighting for me . . . Charles Burton.
Back to McFarland . . . one of four ocean-going hopper dredges operated by the USACE. Can you name the other three?
. . . Nanticoke and Peter F. Gellatly, both pushing Vane barges.
Huge turntable on McFarland.
Chief . . . I believe the 1979 built vesel.
From this USACE publication, I like this statistic: a full load of dredged materials McFarland carries equals the capacity of 310 dump trucks.
Just before sunrise, she steamed by . . . and passed B. Franklin Reinauer in the city of Benjamin Franklin himself.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
The other three dredges are Wheeler, Essayons, and Yaquina. For comparison info about the four, click here. For Bert Visser’s directory with fotos of all the large dredgers in the world, click here.
For a post on Delaware River tugs from 2010, click here. What I’d like to see one of these days is the loading of livestock down in Wilmington. Currently, Falconia is at the dock; I saw her from the highway on Friday.
Here was installment 2. Look carefully at the first foto . . . from back four years ago. An update follows, but . . . first, a foto from Chris Williams and the Erie Canal, it’s Kalyan Offshore‘s 450 hp Lil Joe.
An equal number of hours driving north of the sixth boro gets you to the dredging of PCBs from the Hudson riverbed near Fort Edward. A version of the story can be found here. Scows move through the locks with a small tug at each end . . . like here Turning Point has the apparent bow and
Champlain the stern.
Here, below the lock, Washington moves a scow upriver.
And here’s what I was referring to at the top of this post: the other day, much to my surprise, who emerged from the fog . . . . the indomitable Helen Parker. Almost exactly a year ago (October 13) she capsized and sank near Pier 84. The story is here, fourth one down.
Fair winds and smooth waters!
Was it my imagination, or did I see Rae appear on AIS the other day? I’m keeping my eyes open for her. Compared with these truckable tugs, she’s huge at 46′ loa. And as for the term “truckable tugs,” after the trek of Alwyn Vintcent, the definition of the category is greatly enlarged.
Comet, Eva Leigh Cutler, Manhattan skyline in September 2009.
Ditto . . . . September 11, 2012.
Buildings are replaced,
trade flourishes,
channels are carved deeper,
the open is
closed up,
precautions
are exercised, but
we remember. Many thanks for the foto below to Capt Jack Joffe, Liberty V of the National Parks Service in the sixth boro.
We heal although scars at times recall pain.
Unrelated: An NYTimes story about a revival in moving raw product to steel mills on inland waterways.
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