Beat the heat . ..  by imagining change:  well, eastriver suggested the sixth boro annex the Conch Republic.  Hmmm.  Since the sixth boro is an archipelago like the Keys, maybe we could confederate the American archipelagos (besides the two already mentioned, we’d join with the Thimble Islands, the Thousand Islands, the Channel Islands, the Salish Islands, and maybe establish diplomatic relations with all archipelagos smaller than . . . Long Island, giving us many of the Antilles, a smattering of Pacific nations,  the Aeolian Islands and Greek Islands.   I know I’ve left many out, but it’s already sounding like good company in my heat-addled brain.

Or defocus on the scorching temperatures by looking at fotos below?

First one is a “tugster-sighting” just north of the sixth boro snapped by Joel Milton.  Tugster is on the foredeck of Patty Nolan  (1931) sans figurefigure as she tows sailing vessel sans-servingsails Lickity-Split some weeks back, here passing the Englewood Cliffs boat basin, I believe.

Next foto from John Watson . . . Eddie R (1971) towing a mystery barge.  Any guesses its mission?

Answer comes from Les Sonnenmark, longtime friend of the tugster blog:  it’s a cable-laying barge operated by Calwell Marine.  Info on the barge can be found in this pdf . . . starting on the unnumbered page 6ff.    In fact, this barge may be related to the work of Dolphin III in the sixth boro last summer:  click the link to “marine contractor” above the last foto in this post you find here.

Foto by tugster near the Chesapeake City Bridge as 2011-launched Mako ensures Penn No. 81 makes

its way Chesapeake-bound.  More info on the pilotboat in the background soon.

Foto by Jed of Vickie M McAllister (2001) docked at McAllister’s Blount Island yard on the St John’s River .

Foto by G. Justin Zizes Jr. of Kathleen Turecamo (1968)  and

and Matthew Tibbetts (1969) both high and dry at Caddell Shipyard in Staten Island.

Foto from Lou Rosenberg of Aegean Sea (1962) near Rockaway Inlet.  Aegean Sea used to

be called, in order,  Francis E. Roehrig, Jersey Coast, and John C. Barker.

This yard tug in Mayport seems to have a protection  bar, but in spite of the

the numbers on the stern, I’ve found no info on this type.  Fotos by tugster.  Orange bow on the right side of foto belongs to C-Tractor 13.

A final shot of Patty Nolan and Lickety Split headed upriver.

Thanks to Joel, John, Les, Jed, Justin, and Lou.

Only tangentially related:  For info on YTB-832, previously based in Mayport and now possibly in Greece by way of Italy, click here.

And an even less tenuous tangential connection to these fotos of vessels of  La Guardia di Finanza, which sounds like what our government is supposed to do but actually refers to something quite different . . . .  What it is can be found here.

More fotos will be forthcoming from the Conch Republic, a possible future residence.