You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2010.
Part 1 of this series looked like this. Now more.
Madeline, 2008
Duty, 2006
Lindsey, 1989
Brandywine, 2006
More Lindsey
More Duty.
More Madeline.
More Brandywine, and Amberjack and Bold.
Of course Brandywine ranges far and wide, and these days, maybe so does Inland Sea heading south here from the Ben Franklin Bridge.
All fotos last week by Will Van Dorp.
To see last year’s post from August 30, click here. For info on the race next Sunday, click here. If you scroll through that previous link, way down in the fine print you’ll read that this year’s race is dedicated to the memory of Don Sutherland. Below is a short video I made at a memorial to Don held in June 2010 aboard PortSide NewYork’s Mary Whalen.
This post is dedicated to those folks who . . . on Labor Day . . . can’t make the tug race or even the family BBQ because they will labor in the house,
on the bridge,
on deck,
following the border,
in the service,
pushing oil around, or
trying to clean it up.
Happy Labor Day.
To see an excellent Flickr foto of Gazela by Gregg M, click here. And for an account plus video of Gazela‘s trip to New Bedford earlier this summer, click here. For my earlier pics of Gazela in Atlantic Basin Red Hook, click here.
As Gazela sailed back to Philly between daybreak last Wednesday and late afternoon Thursday, I was fortunate to be a very “green” member of the crew, my first time sailing on a barquentine. Other vessels passed and overtook us, and I’m including those fotos here in hopes that anyone aboard these other vessels who photographed us might be willing to share those shots of Gazela. Please do.
Gazela departs through the Narrows under a drizzle; precipitation had been off and on for three days, delaying departure by 48 hours. (For pics, doubleclick enlarges.)
From midships, looking aft . . . notice the crew wearing foulies.
Tanker British Serenity overtakes us outside the Narrows. By sunset, 10 hours later, we’d motorsailed off Atlantic City, surfing swells and getting soaked with on & off drizzle.
Skies clear overnight, giving us a just-past-full moon. I stand a midnight–6 am watch from Cape May and up Delaware Bay. This is sunrise.
After breakfast, I nap for an hour until a lurch awakens me. “Must be someone’s wake,” I imagine, grab my camera, and go on deck. I believe it was Amberjack, also headed up the Bay.
Astern, two vessels are catching up to us: broad on the port beam were EPA-Bold and Vane Brothers Brandywine.
For info on what Bold is doing in Delaware Bay and its schedule for the rest of 2010, click here.
If you have Thursday morning fotos of Gazela, please get in touch. I have additional Bold shots.
Doubleskin 141 looks formidable as it passes and
soon leaves us astern just
southeast of the PSEG power plants. By the way, light was unfavorable to get fotos of the five wind turbines in Atlantic City.
Amsterdam-registered Suomigracht passes us. For more Suomigracht shots, click here and here.
Austin Reinauer was anchored just south of the C & D Canal.
Near the Delaware Pennsylvania line, we cross paths with Aframax tanker Amalthea, which may or may not
have delivered Venezuelan crude.
Gazela was built in Setubal, Portugal; as such, which language might you expect here? A primary wood used is angelique.
A trip that begins in rain might end like this: honey colored sunshine after a trip well done, this member of the crew a little less green.
If you were on any of the vessels above and have pics of Gazela, please get in touch.
All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.
Many thanks to the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild and wonderful crew for the opportunity to sail. If you are interested in volunteering, click here. Gazela expects to be back up through the sixth boro once more this fall.
(Note: Doubleclick enlarges all fotos)
What’s this . . . fiddling and dancing and taking shade near
Lower Manhattan, an intriguing hideaway in that bustling and ranted-about geography?
And this . . . same location, but doesn’t that suggest two folks standing near the forward railing
on a tug “made to” the 79 Barge, which
moves other folks as well, here photographing the Brooklyn Bridge at golden hour, as
crew stands lookout, watching two tugs–Volunteer and W. O. Decker–heading east on the river of the same name . . .
… uh . . . this meandering string started out as a question. Forget the question, please. And I hope you get a sense of places of peace in the bestirred land masses around the sixth boro.
Here’s the same tug and barge, clearly lashed, at Pier 6 in the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, with a late August sun setting behind the house. You can catch Pegasus and Lehigh Valley Barge #79 at that location until Tuesday, August 31 … and at points along the Hudson for the next 16 days after that.
After sunset . . . Pegasus heads over to homebase in Jersey City. Hey . . . tugs and crews need sleep.
Check out bowsprite’s magical drawings of the duo here.
All fotos here taken yesterday by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated but fascinating: Marie’s Tide & Current Taxi has been busy this month:
August 9: Coney Island Creek, with Debbie Tuch and me
August 10: Gowanus Canal
August 12: Staten Island “graveyard of ships”
August 15: Shooter’s Island
August 22: “mystery tour”
Two gulls on an H-bitt, a tern on a rudder quadrant below the highlands of the Isle of Staten,
a gull and two night herons (see the second one directly below the first, near waterline) on disintegrating wooden scow,
a loon in the north woods waters of Opeongo,
a solitary heron over the skylines of Bayonne and Manhattan, (about to change?)
a hovering osprey over some potential lunch,
FEDEX coming to a corner of Jamaica Bay to roost,
and my all-time favorite roller bladista reaches to harness the zephyr on the Strand of Coney;
… all these have enriched my summer. I’m off to catch the winds myself.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Because of last night’s rain, you have one last chance to see “Seven Deadly Seas” TONIGHT at 8 pm. Go early and catch this hard-to-replicate combination: left to right Cape Race, Gazela, and Mary A. Whalen … as seen from the entrance to the Brooklyn Passenger Terminal in Red Hook.
Big doings also are happening for Pegasus, here with a happy tour group. Pegasus and Lehigh Valley 79 will be docked in Brooklyn Bridge Park starting later this week.
Uh . . . shoes of future mariners?
Contemporary mariners work aboard such vessels as
JoAnne Reinauer III
and (right to left) Twin Tube— a supply boat–and CSL Atlas, cousin of my longlost Alice O. By the way, Atlas brought in the beginnings of the upcoming winter’s supply of road salt . . or was that table salt??
Colleen McAllister and other vessels labor away at the sisyphusian task of dredging.
R/V vessels like Blue Sea do their own research/education work. Here RV Blue Sea is on the high and dry as a preparation for a new season.
Jay Michael frequents the sixth boro, and
in parting, this sloop (Margaret A ?) passes a fuel barge.
Unfortunately, I missed yesterday’s lobsterboat races up in Portland, Maine, and I have to wait til 2011 to see them. But you can still get to the 18th Annual Great North River (aka sixth boro) Tugboat Race on September 5. See you there.
Tomorrow … yes … another few days’ gallivant. Details later.
All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated: Check out this Newtown Creek shipping post by Restless.
The “really random” posts are just that. I believe what follows, is.
Thanks to Jeff Schurr and Dave Boone, behold Bloxom in her better days, in this case during her life as a Pennsylvania RailRoad tug. Bloxom has been on this blog here and here and other places. Anyone else know Bloxom PRR fotos?
Also thanks to Jeff and Dave, Ned Moran below in work mode compared with a foto of the vessel (scroll down to the last one) I took a few months back. I have to say there’s so little left of the vessel now that it’s hard to corroborate their being the same vessel.
Mighty Joe (ex-Maria) in the Hughes Marine portion of Erie Basin yesterday.
This is my first ever sighting of Marquette’s Layla Renee, defying a current trend as a Gulf boat working up here.
When I last posted a foto of a Marquette boat, I also included one of Colleen McAllister. Yesterday she looked powerful pulling a deepladen dredge scow.
Last three fotos here taken by Will Van Dorp, last week. The next two come from Cheryl, an important friend from way back. Both were taken in Holland, Michigan. First, it’s James Harris, one of 10 Army STs built in the first half of 1943 in Sturgeon Bay, WI; and
Haskal, about which I can find no info. The design of Haskal looks older than that of James Harris. Anyone help out?
Again, thanks to Cheryl, Jeff, and Dave for contributing fotos.
Unrelated: I’ve added a new link to my “resources” a list of all (maybe) US-flag operators of tug and tow boats.
Ooooolala! What’s this? Make your way to Atlantic Basin ASAP; click here for tickets … only two shows Saturday (tonight!) and two Sunday left, before the floating burlesque sails over the horizon.
Staging this burlesque is barquentine Gazela, whose first life fishing for cod continued until the year Armstrong stepped onto the moon. Yessir, this fine vessel served as a dory boat until 1969!
Up to 35 dories (many built in the Merrimack Valley north of Cape Ann) like the one in the foreground here served “mothership” Gazela.
Daytime tours of Gazela as well as nighttime entertainment can be had only through this weekend! This is also the last chance (for a while) to see Mary Whalen at Pier 11. For directions to Pier 11, click here.
So I went to the show “The Seven Deadly Seas” the other night. Before the show, the devil’s advocate (of the Flaming Cherries) emerges from the nether portions of the ship, and
the city darkens as the band begins to play. See the twinkling Manhattan lights off in the distance.
Feisty bawds dueling over everything
can be charmed only by
dancing
and more dancing and
still more dancing that sometimes lead to … lost clothing.
Come learn the story of Calico Jack, who imagined he had all the skills needed to thrive on Wall Street.
Bring a dozen friends and make it the most memorable night of the summer, the summer of Atlantic Basin as prime offshore Broadway.
Will Calico Jack swing here, or is it Camp Butner FCC for him?
Don’t miss the boat.
Fotos by Eric Lorgus (some taken in Philadephia) and Will Van Dorp.
Just north of Union Street in Newark, NY, the Canal narrows. And given the foliage on either side, the engine approaching echoed as in a tunnel.
Tender #1 headed east toward Lock 28B right past the still-waiting Grouper and
into the gate, which closed
once the tow was inside
guided by a steady hand on wheel, not joystick.
Once the westside lock door shut, water spilled out
lowering 12′ in less than 5 minutes.
The Lyons-side door opened and
the tow pushed through
towards Lyons.
So here’s my agenda. Click here and you’ll see that voting has already started for the favorite tug at the 2010 Tug Roundup in Waterford. What if I’d like to vote for Tender #1? There’s no place for “write-in” candidates. I’d like to vote for this Canal Corporation tug as my favorite because it just appeared when I needed to hear and see something like Tender #1.
And what a great name!
If you enjoy research, here’s one that stumped me: Tender #1 is reportedly listed as built in 1928. Where?
On my way to searching for this info, I located this image site and this timeline site with lots of follow-through links. Of course, Fred Tug44 has fotos of other tenders, but not Tender #1.
All fotos taken this week by Will Van Dorp.
Oh, and be sure to vote ASAP. And tell your friends and friends’ friends to vote. Use Facebook and the telephone book, but within your network, you really can make ANY boat win if you try.
Three years ago it was my father; now it was my mother: she passed on last week at age 83, and I will miss her. This foto was taken two days ago at Pultneyville, looking north toward Kingston, where her parents are buried.
Near these waters was her home–and mine–for 55 years. And they shaped us.
Ma, you will be missed, and you’d tell us to push on.
All fotos taken this week by Will Van Dorp.
tugster: a waterblog 
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