Tugster Retro 2013

Here’s what I did around this time last year as a look back.  As intro, I’d say about the same this year about the number of new fotos and the way I chose these.  Subjective is the operant word.

January 2013 . . . one day I caught a seldom seen Jennifer Miller passing Robbins Reef with the salt pile in the distance.

In February, shooting from almost the diametrically opposed location . . . I caught Baltic Mercur leaving Red Hook bound for sea.  I’ve no idea which Vane tug is in the foreground.

In late March looking north from the high point in old San Juan, PR, I caught Sea Star’s SS El Morro headed into port.  If you look carefully “above” the large splash in the foreground, you’ll see the mast of the pilot boat headed out to meet El Morro.

April 2013 . . . as seen from the now-closed walkway on the Bayonne Bridge, I caught Atlantic Compass headed for sea and escorted by two tugs, only Responder being visible.  For other fotos of this moment, click here.

It was a year of gallivants for me, this 2013.  I’ve been toying with other words for trips away, even made-up ones like guy-ivants.  Roverings?  Tramps?  Anyhow, this foto was one of many I took along the Columbia, here looking from Oregon over to the Washington side.  The trip to visit Seth Tane also propelled me in late May and early June to travel back in “sixth boro” time through what I called the fifth dimension.

Out at the Narrows in June, I caught SSV Corwith Kramer racing into port ahead of Maersk Detroit and a rainstorm.

And I have to cheat for June and put up two fotos . . . although many fascinating visitors come and go, how often does a vessel like this enter our fair port . . .  Turandor PlanetSolar.  If I hadn’t been forewarned via AIS, I would have seen this and doubted my eyesight . . . or more.   For closeups, click here.   For the annual gathering of mermaids for which the sixth boro AND the land boro of Brooklyn are famous, click here.

July  . . . brought an opportunity to see this x-bow supply vessel named Copacabana entering . . . a place I’d long dreamed of . . . greater Rio de Janeiro, aka January River, which generated 25 posts.    This hiatus from the sixth boro was huge, since it has left me with a case of chronic and possibly incurable wanderlust.  Meeting Copacabana here is the intriguingly named Log In Amazonia.

August in the sixth boro saw this scene along Rockaway Beach, which I renamed NYC’s potential copacabana.  George W here was part of many efforts to respond to the blow of Sandy.

As I said at the outset of the post . . . subjective is the key descriptor in regards to choosing fotos for this retrospective.  For September, I skimmed through the month’s fotos, zooming past the North River Tug Race and the Waterford Roundup . . . and what caught my attention was this looming shape of Marjorie B. McAllister . . . getting a makeover and as seen from the middle of the KVK.

October 2013 . . . this early morning bunkering set-up at the passenger terminal involves Chesapeake Coast moving in sternwise . . .

Here is November, I caught Freddy K Miller moving a construction barge away after a long-ongoing project on Governors Island.  Click here for a June 2013 event on Governors Island that changed the south end quite dramatically in less than a minute . . . start to finish.

And finally . . . December in the sixth boro was as snowy as you might expect NYC to be as winter approaches.  Balder here offloads road salt as Twin Tube approaches to make a delivery.  Balder, by now, is back in the American tropics.

When I showed this foto to my brother-in-law here in Atlanta, he mentioned that his aggregate company uses Balder ‘s fleetmate named Barkald to transport kaolin from Greenland to Savannah.  He then gets it through his yard near Atlanta on its way to Tennessee to a glazed tile making plant.  I chuckled, partly because I recall seeing Barkald in the sixth boro a few years back and never imagined kaolin as one of her cargos.   And that’s a good way to end this retrospective, global commerce surely makes strange and unexpected hold-sharers if not bedfellows.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who remains either parked and smelling the scenery or on the road . . . still in Georgia.  And believe it or not, as I was headed down to Georgia a few days ago, this great song came on the radio  . . . enjoy!

Happy New Year 2014 soon.  Many thanks to all who read, commented, and helped me in many kinds of ways in 2013.