The amazing diversity of traffic on the boro all year round thrills me, like feather-light kayaks gliding past dredgers sucking alluvial ooze from the floor,
one human powered craft yielding to OOCL Verrazano Bridge 4738-teu vessel with almost 60,000 (59764.08…) horsepower,
more kayaks posing with Lucky D and different sullage scooping equipment before
heading north into the habitat of furious ferries, who might change their whole image by slowing down a notch and getting themselves renamed as Tinker Bell and Puck.
On another day, overlaid with haze, more traffic flows: left to right are Petalouda, Lucky D, Patapsco, dredge barge GL51, and Sarah Dann. As to Petalouda, check out the name of the rest of the fleet in the link in the previous sentence.
And on a still hazier day, Vera K waits as Cosco Boston rounds Bergen Point on its final mile into Port Newark. That’s the Bayonne Bridge off in the east.
Fotos 2, 3, and 4 many thanks to Vladimir Brezina. See his comments on “Mixed Use.” Other fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated but you will be thrilled to check out these videos of paddlecam and icecam . . . via peconic jeff, 2010 comes to documenting surfing and ice-skating!!
tugster: a waterblog 
13 comments
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January 29, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Johna Till Johnson
Quick question: Do you happen to know why dredges are unnamed? (that’s me in the yellow boat watching the Verazzano Bridge sweep by…)
February 19, 2010 at 11:51 am
SteveW
Different companies have different naming traditions. Great Lakes names their hydraulic dredges (the first picture is of Padre Island) and their backhoe, but the cranes are all numbered. Weeks is similar. Donjon, Norfolk, Manson tend to name everything.
January 29, 2010 at 4:01 pm
tugster
hi johna- actually dredges are named . . . or have numbers as names. i checked quickly before posting and was unable to find the name/number, but it has one. give me a little more time and i’ll get the name and revise the post. by the way, thanks for writing and …please … let’s talk about you all doing a guest post about kayaking in the harbor aka sixth boro. i’ll pass the same invite on to vlad.
January 29, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Jeff, aka Peconic Jeff
hi Tugster, thanks for the link!
January 29, 2010 at 9:20 pm
Mage B
G and I are just sitting here glued to the paddle cam film. Beyond cold.
January 30, 2010 at 12:25 am
tugster
peconic jeff- missed you tonight. see you soon. mage–i’m up for the ice cam though. will seek out iceboating event soon.
January 30, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Vladimir Brezina
Will,
Thanks for posting these photos!
Your blog will certainly inspire me to pay a lot more attention, when kayaking round the harbor, to other vessels as individuals. Mostly I’ve been thinking of them rather generically, as “tug,” “container ship,” “ferry,” and while I’ve learned quite a bit about their habits over the years — much like prey has to learn a great deal about predators’ habits in order to avoid them successfully — very clearly they have their own individualities and histories that are fascinating.
I would photograph them more too, but I am a little inhibited by the thought of being put in jail.
Vlad
January 30, 2010 at 1:46 pm
tugster
vlad– your use of the prey-predator metaphor makes a valuable point about the hazards of kayaking in the harbor. in fact, i’ve heard professional mariners –several tug captains–refer to kayakers as “organ donors” and worse because of their failure to understand their place in the food chain. i know at least two captains who love kayaking and canoeing in their own “habitat.” experts like yourself have an important role in sharing with less experienced paddlers your caution, respect for the capabilities of the other traffic, and knowledge of all harbor-users limitations.
as to taking the “wrong” foto and getting arrested, knock on wood … i’ve never been challenged, although i do know other folks on the water who have been.
thanks for writing.
January 30, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Jed
Here, here!
February 1, 2010 at 6:48 pm
bowsprite
hee hee!
January 31, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Johna Till Johnson
Hi Tugster–
Happy to take you up on the guest-blogging idea. I hope Vlad will too. As my paddling mentor, he’s taught me everything I know about harbor predators. (First words of wisdom: “Watch out for the big boats. The little boats can maneuver to avoid you, but the big boats will turn you into chum without ever noticing you.”)
🙂
Crossing shipping channels is a bit like crossing a 12-lane highway–if you’re a squirrel.
January 31, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Vladimir Brezina
Definitely! Let us know what you had in mind. Vlad
January 31, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Maritime Monday 199
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