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It’s late afternoon when Bruce A McAllister with Double Skin 40 passes my spot, followed
by Marjorie B McAllister, with B. No. 262 behind.
From the south with a motley set of barges . . . .
it’s Frances. Afternoon light is starting to highlight Mr. Bannerman’s place.
That IS a short wire, a necessity given that Marjorie has no upper wheelhouse.
These low hanging clouds have never left today.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wants to remind you of the Canal Conference in Staten Island coming up in two weeks.
The day brightens a bit, but I stayed between Newburgh–to my back–and Beacon.
Whenever a boat passed, the gulls followed, feasting on the small fish stunned by the props.
The town below gets its name from the mountain, Mount Beacon.
Local squalls obscured the area north of Newburgh-Beacon.
Following Sarah Ann northbound was the indefatigable Buchanan 12.
A few miles upriver Buchanan 12 swapped these scows out for a loaded set, and in a few hours, returned southbound.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
On this day, the area where the Hudson enters the highlands looked every bit the fjord that it technically is.
I took these photos and was remembering ones sent by Richard Hudson of southern Chile, here.
It’s Breakneck Ridge on the left and Storm King Mountain on the right, with West Point academy buildings in between. Check out those links for all the other names these places have had in the past 400 years. And who knows what names have existed before then.
By now some of you have identified the two tugs . . .
Brooklyn and Evening Mist.
I was surprised to learn that Poling-Cutler Marine Transportation now operates Brooklyn.
Here Evening Mist moves her barge into the terminal in Newburgh.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
I’ll get back to my homeward bound series tomorrow, but this photo Ashley Hutto sent along Wednesday just astounds me. It would be a perfect base for a horror movie poster.
Thanks much, Ashley. That’s a moody photo!
You can find many previous posts featuring Ashley’s photos here.
And let’s start with the more . . . more photos and info on previous posts. CCGS Samuel Risley appeared here. She’s currently approaching the Soo. What I didn’t know when I posted a photo of her on Lake Ontario is that she was returning from her first trip to Greenland (!!), where she was providing icebreaking support for a supply mission to Qaanaaq aka Thule.
Madison R–and I’ll do a whole post about her soon–now calls Detroit her base, I’m told.
Summer fog veils a Canadian cat and an Erie Canal buoy boat above E11.
How many folks pass by Day Peckinpaugh each summer and have no clue what she is (ILI 101… launched in May 1921!!), how long her work history (1921–1995) has been, how wide a range of waters (Duluth to Havana, I’m told) she covered, where her sister (ILI 105) languishes . . . . .
She gets attention.
Here’s the blue-and-gold yard above E3!!
Yup that’s Urger among them. And yes, the pause button on scuttling has been activated.
In the legends of Ford, a sign once marked this power plant adjacent to the Federal Lock in Troy as a Ford facility. Could this have become the location of Ford’s imagined electric car plant?
And this brings us to Troy, these walls where construction workers have staged their equipment.
Scaffold, ladders, floats, and Jackcyn
and Lisa Ann.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s been working his way back to the sixth boro from the heartland.
If you’re local and would like to learn more about the New York State Canals, consider joining the Canal Society and coming to their fall conference . . . on Staten Island. I’ll be involved in two events . . .
And that’s not some sports scores. This is a set of photos from a two-day run from Sylvan Beach to Waterford, locks E22 to E2.
A chart identifies locations along the Canal that are just ghosts, absences now like “USAF oil docks”
rather than presences.
Eyes outside though show presences, lots of small boats, very small like
these sculls on the summit level.
We squeeze through the guard gate just west of Rome, where
Captain Jack Graham passed us, passing the entry point of the Mohawk River into the Canal, the same area marked by the chart capture above.
Recreational boats were out on this Sunday morning, and
work boats BB 121 and BB 57 stayed tied up. I don’t know the number of the one of the bank where, a year ago, we would have seen the now-Sound-submerged T7.
Thistle passed, a Newport boat,
as did this one, name unknown.
Tender #2 (T2) is tied up until Monday in the Utica area,
west of lock E18.
Shooting Star seems an unlikely vessel to have come up from Peekskill.
Steeling’ Away is a classic small cabin cruiser I’d guess from the 1950s, the time of two-tone cars. Anyone know the manufacturer?
In some thick fog above E10, it’s BB 107.
Below E09, it’s the bateaux of Mabee Farm, the oldest house in the Mohawk Valley.
Scotty waits with a scow below E07.
And below 3/5s of the flight, it’s Tender #3
and at Hudson River level, it’s Riverkeeper.
Photo #6 (of GM) by Bob Graham. All other by Will Van Dorp, who at this point is almost home.
Bright and early, Kithy P passes Grande Mariner and enters
lock O8.
We followed Kithy P later, and departing lock O5, we met Rebecca Ann, who would enter the lock we had just vacated.
(Note: as of today, Rebecca Ann is transiting the Welland Canal on the return trip to the sixth boro.)
On our way to Fulton, we passed some exotics.
And on our way to Phoenix, we passed my favorite docks in the system . . . repurposed flatbed trailers, three of them together.
This pontoon vessel had to exit O1 before we could enter, and
River Rose, a former sixth boro excursion boat now relocating to Michigan, had to wait for us.
And dead ahead, it’s Three Rivers, Clay NY, where the Oswego and the Erie Canals meet. We will turn to port . . . east.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
One of these days I’ll do a post on Great Lakes moods, as I’ve so far seen them. Actually, an essay on the range of conditions might be fun…
CCGS Samuel Risley, an icebreaking tug, hints at moods in months to come…
Lower Lakes Towing’s Ojibway makes for Hamilton, appearing almost a cartoonish version of itself thanks to fata morgana.
This view is looking at Sodus Point, where I learned to swim, from just over 10 nautical miles.
For the first time, I see Donald Sea under way.
Science ship Ontario Explorer is also a first-timer.
And I’d love to know Rascal‘s story, tied up here in Oswego near Ontario Explorer.
Working on the breakwater is Madison R, home-ported in Duluth. I’ll post more of her later.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
BFD’s fireboat Cotter is always a high point of a Buffalo visit, a Crescent Shipyard 1900 (!!) Elizabethport NJ product, aka the world’s oldest active fireboat.
Headed west for Port Colborne, we’re treated to beauty over SteelWinds.
As darkness looms, JW Cooper arrives to drop off a pilot.
Imagine my dismay passing MRC after dark,
and head down to Ontario level through the night.
Daybreak brings us to nearly Ontario, and we wait for Wilson T. Cooper to exit the lock W-1.
Port Weller’s shipyard a year ago was occupied by Presque Isle.
We drop off our pilot and
enter Lake Ontario.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Pride . . . I wish I’d seen more of her.
Harbour Feature would look right at home in the sixth boro . . . . Now that’s a place I’ve not been in a while.
James R. Barker . . .heading at us here like a dreadnought . . .
At this distance, the power plant at East China, MI shrinks the laker.
As we get closer, however, she clearly is quite large.
Indiana Harbor is one of the 1000-footers.
x
Annie M Dean is a noisy Windsor boat.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
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