Container Tree Glows in Harbor

Once upon a time, tugs and local workboats festooned themselves in lights, but Grinches at the Coast Guard put a stop to that, and the harbor is now dark during the December holidays.  What do you think about something with colorful lights for mariners – a harbor equivalent of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, a tradition that began in 1931 when a group of construction workers building Rockefeller Center decided to put up a tree for themselves?

I propose that the port of New York have some point of focus the way New England towns have a lobster pot Christmas tree.  Gloucester and Rockland are currently engaged in a competition about their respective trees, see here and brace yourself for Yankee humor on this blog.  This is about lights, not religion.  It’s about sharing festivity with mariners who enter and depart by water without setting foot off the ship.

What does New York have?  Containers . . .  that’s one idea.  Imagine a dozen empty containers stacked as a pyramid in a prominent location in southeast Bayonne and lit in non-navigation-related lights.

But it doesn’t have to be containers.  Oyster reefs?  Subway cars about to be reefed?  Use the “other” option if there’s an idea you think feasible.  Please share your thought by weighing in on my first-ever Tugster poll (below),    or

put a comment on  tugster.wordpress.com       or   email me.

Assembly of containers is owed to Bowsprite and the magic of her art.  Special thanks.

Unrelated:  Here’s another water-related holiday tradition, Flying Santa of the coast of Maine, memory-jog thanks to MonkeyFist of CBBB, Casco Bay Boaters Blog.

Whatzit 4

Credit for this foto connundrum goes to Joel Milton, whose site Towmasters has long been on my blogroll.  Same for the next two.  I notice the same fotos appear on gCaptain.  Thanks to Joel, the sun and UASC Shwaikh for lining up and

channeling something!  I’m stunned.

As large as the Staten Island ferry is, it looks tiny beside Shwaikh, which itself would  seem small beside the likes of Emma Maersk.  These fotos illustrate collaboration, one of the joys of this blog;  Joel passed these shots in the sixth boro onto to me, and I share them.

A gull swooped in  while I lined up this shot of Marie J. Turecamo (ex-Traveller, 1968).  I like what serendipity added as  Marie J. headed eastbound for

following Laura K. on its next assignment, passing MSC Turchia, an interesting name . . . the Italian spelling for Turkey, which

seems just right somehow, three days before Black Friday.  That’s Margaret Moran (1979) assisting.

To paraphrase a saying formerly overused, this is the last post in this run;  in a few days I’ll write the first post in the rest of the life of this blog.

Last three fotos by Will Van Dorp.  Happy Thanksgiving all.  And thanks for reading the blog.

After thought completely related:  As I drove  away from the KVK yesterday, I hit a traffic jam right in front of the municipal buildings & courthouses on Richmond Terrace:  crowds were carrying frozen turkeys away from an open trailer parked there.  And this made me want to mention my all-time favorite turkey experience:  garbage can turkey.  Check it out here.