Diamond Marine Day Last Summer

For reasons you’ll find at the end of this post, I’ve held these fotos in reserve since last June.   Any ideas what’s going on with   . . .  an apparently empty 70-year-old covered barge floating in the river with a bridge in the distance and some fibers in lower left corner.

Well, some crew are aboard, Joe and Paul on radio, as the transition to alongside towing is initiated.  That’s Rhinecliff, NY in the background here.

It’s a demonstration of skills day for certification purposes.   That’s my friend Brian taking fotos, and Matt Perricone, owner of tugboat Cornell making up the tow once that free-floating barge is alongside.  Here’s the official Cornell site.

To document the day, we shoot from a variety of locations and

angles.  This angle I call “elbows in water.”

And this is how to “make up on the nose.”

Designted examiner Sam Zapadinsky of Diamond Marine Services looks on as light boat is maneuvered to a dock in confined river space.

With the barge on the nose of Cornell, it’s time to head back inot the Creek.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp last June.  Here’s the rest of the story . . . and note the byline.

Unrelated:  Here’s a foto of a scene I missed:  Allie B towing dredge Columbia southbound on the Hudson recently.  The link tells some interesting previous lives of the dredger.

Up the Hudson 2

The event is called Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival, so indeed, it’s a water festival, a river fest  started by a folksinger, now 93,  who cares deeply about

the river that flowed past his birthplace.  A river festival means boats.

Of course, Clearwater in the distance is the flagship of this festival, and the big sloop spawned the smaller sloop Woodie Guthrie closer in.

The festival takes place on a peninsula where you see the tents in the middle of the foto.

It’s called Croton Point Park, about 30 miles north of Manhattan’s north tip.

But this location is surrounded by shallow water, so temporary docks are needed, which means small shallow draft tugboats like Augie (1943 and on the first job of her new life) and

Patty Nolan (1931 and available for charter). . .   And the red barge is Pennsy 399 (1942!!) .

Also taking passengers during the festival is Mystic Whaler, here with Hook Mountain in the distance.

Here’s the northside of Croton Point last evening looking toward Haverstraw.

Exactly five years ago I took this foto from a small boat just off Pioneer‘s bowsprit.   Here are more fotos from that day.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who might go back for some music tomorrow.