Sixth Boro Snow Day

Update from Pete E of the “Liners list” via Mage, avid, dedicated reader and commenter on this blog:  “Once again NY Waterway came to the rescue in NY waters.  The first boat to arrive following the US AIR plane’s ditching was Hudson River-class THOMAS JEFFERSON captained by Vince Lombardi.  She was on the scene within 2.5 minutes.  They rescued 56 passengers from the right wing.  I think MOIRA SMITH (not NORA SMITH as reported in Daily News) was second to arrive, but don’t know how many she rescued.  Brittany Catanzaro, female captain of GOVERNOR THOMAS KEAN, arrived next and took off 24 victims.  According to Alan Warren, NY Waterway had fourteen boats on the scene.  If anyone knows the names of the other ferries that participated, I’d appreciate a list for STEAMBOAT BILL.  Circle Lines’ new CIRCLE LINE MANHATTAN was commandered and used by the NYPD. She arrived on the scene much later than did the NY Waterway ferries, yet somehow Circle Line seems to be getting the press NY Waterway deserves.”   PETE E.    Also, see real-time USCG video of the landing and minutes thereafter from Peter Mello’s SeaFever blog here.

Thanks so much, Mage and Peter.     What follows is “snow day” post.

Whenever snow “pounds” a region, lots of folks hope to get a snow day.  I know I do, although the hyperbole of TV meteorologists makes me immediately nauseous.  As a kid I learned that even if we had a snow day relative to school, farm work  still needed doing.  In fact, some occupations associate “snow day” with  a sense that the same old tasks will be just that much harder to do.

I took this series of fotos on my way to work last Friday morning when snow limited visibility to  a quarter mile.

The irony of the meteorologese  term “snow pounding” is that though collectively snow may significantly impact  people from a safety or productivity point of view, the impact of an individual snowflake makes  –say– a butterfly landing  on your shoulder seem like a tectonic disturbance measured in Richter scale.  Does a device exist that can measure the momentum exerted on you by one snowflake landing?  Would the force be expressed in micronewtons?  nano-butterflys?  yocto-fruitflys?

Light tug turned out be be Cape Cod.  (Digression:  Any guesses on its year of build? other vitals?)

Snow pounding or not and naked eye visibility reduced, work awaited south of Howland Hook.

Maybe for crews, jobs harder to do give greater satisfaction, and

on snow days, decreased visibility screens urban decay, makes river banks seem more pristine, mysterious.  And despite instruments that see through the snow,  knowing what lies around the bend doesn’t predict what could transpire in moments and months ahead anyhow.  Like last Friday morning, who would have guessed about a jet splashing into the river a few hours and a few miles away.

Cape Cod vitals:   1967 vintage, an excellent year (if I judge from my life).  Loa/deep draft/wide = 102′   13′   28′   HP . . . 4290 and in spite of its name, etc., it spends a lot of time in the six boro.

Related to yesterday’s post, here’s NOAA info on sea ice types to add to comments from Jed and towmasters.