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 . . .

Salt 5

Here are 4, 3, 2, and 1.  Ooops . . here’s another 1, featuring a June K.

Winter’s not over, and there has already been SOME call for salt on roads and walkways, but mostly it’s been a low-salt season around the sixth boro.

The other morning I thought I’d see bulker Irene rotated by Ellen McAllister, but it turns out

Ellen was lying in wait for the container vessel appearing

around the bend.

The salt trade is ancient.  Since I’m thinking about gallivants a lot these days, I recall hearing about salt caravans out of the Sahara to ports in North Africa for trans-shipment to Europe.  Even if I didn’t travel on a camel, seeing salt slabs in traditional boats on the Niger River . . . would suffice.  Back in 1977 I was finished with a job in Cameroon and had the option of adventuring across the Sahara (hitchhiking) through another desert city called Agadez, and opted out.  I still regret that choice sometimes.  Two friends did it.   I thought of this again recently while reading Vuvuzela Diaries.

What traveled north for centuries was salt as well as gold;  what traveled south to Timbuktu were European “luxury” goods, including books.   Here’s another BBC video on the scholarly libraries of Timbuktu.

If mild and dry weather prevails for the rest of this winter, Mt. Salt will remain here along Richmond Terrace.  The small vessel off Irene‘s stern here belongs to the NYC DEP.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Mare Transporter

So here she came into the sixth boro yesterday . . .   and after getting a foto–albeit rainy– of Shorthorn Express a few weeks back, I

listened carefully for neighs and whinnies, and

wondered whether this vessel carried pregnant mares, or colt, fillies . . .

Catherine Turecamo and Gramma Lee T Moran 

churned the waters to get her into the dock, giving the gulls

something to swarm about.

Since the sixth boro has no snow on the ground, that pile

has to be the supply at Atlantic Salt dock.

Lines get run, so

that offloading operations can begin.

When all lines are fast, Gramma Lee heads home to await the next call.  Previously, when I inquired, I learned that some of the salt comes from

 Carrickfergus, Ireland, which seemed strange given New York state’s salt mines.  But then again, maybe not all salt is the same.  Certainly, I learned that a mare transporter doesn’t transport mares or anything remotely equine.

All fotos by will Van Dorp.

Related:  I went looking for evidence of shipping mares and other equines by water.  None found . . . horses go by 747!!  Sea voyages are for cattle and sheep.  Chickens . . . I guess they travel frozen.

Alice’s Family

Some great pics of a self-unloading Oldendorff bulker, Sophie, come our way thanks to John Watson, from his perch high above the sixth boro.  Alice has been around recently as well. 

Sophie delivered salt, since we don’t know how many times winter will resurrect before summer comes.. 

I’m not sure what procedure Siteam Adventurer expected to undergo, but she seems unusually positioned.

Many thanks to John for these fotos.

Salt 3

See Salt 2.  Sidewalks, steps, and streets soon taste this

in the five boros and beyond.  Salt arrives at Atlantic Salt,

along Richmond Terrace.  And to continue yesterday’s motif,

this is the operator who empties

Chryssa K,

2002-built bulk carrier,

she who seasons our pathways,

who melts the city’s icy

winter

heart and all its tracks and trails, allowing

her lifeblood, her traffic to flow.

All fotos taken today by Will Van Dorp.

By the way, the tower in fotos 1 and 2 is sometimes called Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower.  Also, in those fotos, you can see dredge New York.