(continued from 2a)  … as I was saying, once Margaret senses an opening between Sex and the bulkhead, she nudges the bow over toward New Jersey, causing Laura K to quicken her 5100 horsepower and to send Kills water geysering astern.

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Margaret lavishes 3000-hp attention to the bow,

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Laura K persists,

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Margaret doesn’t relent until Sex‘s

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964′ length pivots with the desired angle to slip into the channel toward Newark Bay,

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Sex‘s 104’ beam gets squeezed between a total of 8100 hp intensely pushing, while she herself uses nearly 30,000 hp to withdraw

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transforming the tugs into flexible thrusters, bow and stern, backing

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in the direction of southern Bayonne before

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release from the confines of protected waters and a run to sea.  A ship as long as a 64-floor building is tall urged from bonds ashore to energized freedom to rock on whatever seas she encounters . . . all taking less than 15 minutes  . . . tis a thing of beauty.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.