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. . .or dino juice or geo sap. According to the US Energy Info Administration, the US consumes just under 20 million barrels of the stuff daily. Today, in less than a half hour, two tankers entered the Kills with a combined capacity (if I calculate correctly) of over a million barrels, or 5% of one day’s US consumption. First came Avra . . .
seen in by Brendan Turecamo. I’d guessed I’d never seen this tanker before
til it came close. Last time I took a foto of her, she sported flaky green paint and the name Altius . . . not Michele Iuliano, the raised metal name covered inadequately here.
Here are vestiges of her formerly green superstructure.
A previous time Americas Spirit came in, she made energetic use of her horn whistle as she plowed through the fog. Note: I wish I could perfect the art of whistling with that low penetrating pitch!
It seems from this itinerary that she’s in here once every two months.
Click here to see a report on her from some bloggers who watch the Straits of Canso.
Barbara McAllister and McAllister Sisters bring her in like a big catch, lots of juice.
All fotos today by Will Van Dorp.
Pioneer headed southwest, then
west.
and Clipper City taking her stern.
Laura K Moran takes the stern of an Offshore Sailing School boat.
A small sloop appears to go head-t0-head with Meriom Topaz and does the same with
Americas Spirit, as the tanker is lightered and provisioned.
And finally . . is the green cata-schooner passing off the stern of Comet really Heron, which I last saw in Puerto Rico here (last foto)?
Here she tacks to the east just north of the Verrazano. And Saturday night I spotted her again passing southbound through Hell Gate.
I hope to have more exciting autumn sail soon.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
I heard the foghorn (or is it called a ship’s horn?) for some time before I saw the vessel, but I knew I’d see Americas Spirit because of the AIS app on my phone. If I’d had my VHF with me, I’d also know from that which vessel approached and with whose assist.
With these and other elements of redundant technology, any vessel–like the small one below– in the vicinity would have slim chance of being surprised by a massive bow like this appearing unexpectedly out of the fog.
So if the question is . . . why do ships still use these spectacular horns even with all the others means of “seeing” through the fog? I suppose the answer is that redundancy is a good thing.
Click here for fog horns in San Francisco, but I believe the sounds from Americas Spirit were even lower pitched. Even at a quarter mile’s distance, I felt it as much as heard.
Once the docking rotation began, the horn ceased…
and Barbara and Responder pinned Americas Spirit to the dock.
That horn booming out of the fog, though, stays with me. It sounded almost human, like the breath wafting through and resonating within a wind instrument.
Next foggy day, head down to the Kills.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
10 was just over exactly a year ago, and my first “fog” post fotos were taken over six years ago here. This autumn dawn brought fog and horns . . . horns that could be heard, with echoes, and felt. Eukor Morning Conductor seemed asleep to shore folk
as Anna L. Miller motored by.
On the KVK, Gage Paul Thornton chugged to an appointment as Bow Summer , which I last saw in springtime Panama, made all lines fast.
Mary Alice towed more Kills bottom out to sea.
Finally, the loudest and deepest horn came into view.
attached to Americas Spirit, a name of a befogged yet moving vessel which I’ll avoid attributing too much symbolic meaning to.
Taurus passes Robbins Reef Light.
And Americas Spirit came closer.
She was so close to this shore observer that two of her crew could be clearly seen on the bridge wing.
Barbara McAllister spun her stern to put the tanker portside to at the dock. More of these docking fotos tomorrow.
And Hunting Creek also made her way from Brooklynside to Bayonneside.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
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