You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2019.
So I headed north and got a pilot . . .
and eventually I found myself here . . . just following the pilot, mind you.
And what else would they call a vessel traveling on the big river north of here . . .?
This mural has appeared on this blog once before here, but in case you’ve forgotten it, it was added two years ago to mark the 175th of Canada and the 375th of Montreal. To all my friends north of the border, Happy Canada Day.
Algoma Hansa is a US-built, Canada-flagged Great Lakes tanker.
Algoma vessels are certainly what one expects to see along this international waterway. Algoma Niagara has appeared on this blog once before at least here.
She’s a self-unloader–notice that CSL St Laurent is not?–built in Jingjiang China just two years ago.
But this time of year, you can see the unexpected on the waterway also . . . . Any guesses?
It’s a new old vessel, nao Santa Maria from the port of Huelva Spain . . . getting an assist traveling against the stronger-than-usual currents from. “Nao” is the Spanish word for carrack. The assist boat is the Seaway Sinead.
The schooner is Bluenose II, here passing THE windmill.
You don’t know the story of the battle of the windmill . . . This is one you should know. It happened in 1838 and saw the Royal Navy and the US Navy pitted against “hunter patriots,” a motley band of Canadian and US rebels based in the US attempting to overthrow British rule in the colony 30 years before Canadian confederation.
The painting above is based on the engraving here.
The road goes on . . . but I stop here for today.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
x
x
x
x
I’m currently on the road, one of two Canada trips, so it’s seems appropriate to update the “road fotos” series. Since I’ve not added to it in a while, have a look at number 39 in the series. Here was the first from late 2010.
Can you figure out roughly where I am in the photo below, triangulating from info given? There’s a big clue later in this post.
Once tractors were small. This is the farm where I grew up, now owned by my youngest brother, so with a different history, this could have become part of my world. For more (dated) info on the Case IH 250, click here.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the past year near this location: I-90 near Randall NY, aka the Noses. That’s Little Nose to the left. At this break in the ridge, the border of what was once glacial Lake Iroquois, the original Erie Canal ran to my left, the current canalized Mohawk river is just to my right, and the main CSX/Amtrak line is to the right of the Mohawk River. For more views of the Noses, click here.
Painting barns by sticker nowadays?
I slowed down . . .before I got closer.
Is this a “souped up” Chrysler coupe?
I got registered on a 2020 census mobile.
Here’s a photo from February 2019. There’s fresh chopped corn under that snow-covered plastic sock. Previous generations of farmers would use silos. And here’s the big clue: this photo was taken about 20 miles from Rochester, as was the signboard photo at the top of this post.
The photo above and below I took in February. Lock E-13 is not far from the Noses.
January in the Catskills I was crossing the Moodna Viaduct.
January in Two Harbors MN, with 1896 Cleveland-built tug Edna G.
December at Natural Bridge VA. See the stranger ahead on the trail lower right?
November near Freeport NY on Long Island. See the cliffs and needles of Manhattan in the distance?
August . . . . a mid-1940s Chevrolet (?) on Staten Island . . . and
July and Barbara S. Wiles and Judge Ben Wiles on Skaneateles Lake. The 1924 Barbara S. has since retired from that lake and is undergoing restoration at the finger LakesBoating Museum; renamed as Pat II, she is expected to do excursions in Keuka Lake. Judge Ben still sails on Skaneateles.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who visited the actual Galivants Ferry here in early 2011.
And the sign board with distances is in Williamson NY.
Schooner Ambergris came in from sea in mid-April, but I still don’t know anything more about her. Anyone help?
Dolphin is truly a yacht; it’s also likely a winter yacht down south. Up north, we see vessels like this seasonally. I can’t identify the burgee on the bow.
Schooner Pioneer, launched 1885!!, has never been a yacht, but in its current much-loved state, it operates only in the warmer half of the year and it’s an excursion vessel.
Passing the Hoboken/NJ Transit terminal, that unnamed trawler is truly a yacht coming north for the summer.
Care for a summer evening on a Chicago Grebe-built yacht? Here’s the info on yacht Full Moon departures out of North Cove. If you want a full day’s amusement online, you could investigate these other Grebe-built yachts . . . . Or you could read about this Chicago shipyard and many other topics in this great blog called Industrial History, which I’ve just added to my blogroll.
Sometimes the Erie Canal seems devoid of vessel traffic, but on this day at Lock 17, there were plenty of takers. As I recall, these cruisers were from Texas, Michigan, Florida, and California!
By the boat name and the VHF manner as I overheard it, I can guess the previous employment of this vessel operator.
Yesterday I went to this location to meet a friend over beer and crab cakes, my first there in quite a while . . . . But if you’ve never hung out at Pier 66, you owe to yourself. Advice . . . if you want a seat, go on the off hours! It’s been way too long ago that this gathering happened there.
And although I took this photo in the fall, the reminder is clear: be safe.
All photos and sentiments by Will Van Dorp.
JM, that’s John McCluskey, sent along these photos yesterday. I’d planned on doing that same trip yesterday, but time got away from me and today it’s rainy and darker!
This shot greatly resembles one of the first set of photos I ever posted on a blog, my very first post. You can see it here.
Alice and two Oldendorff siblings have been sold to Algoma; hence the name change to Algoma Verity.
As John passed the shipyard in the old Brooklyn Navy yard, he also got photos of some of the other vessels there, like R/V Shearwater and in the graving dock behind her, Cape Avinoff.
Waiting her turn in the graving dock is Cape Ann.
Many thanks to John McCluskey for sharing these photos of a short stretch of his float-by on the East River.
Mermaids are truly political, as you will see in the next few photos. The partially obscured sign between the two large puppets says: Manhattan, Next Atlantis. Frightening! Their intent to invade and annex coastal cities is nothing short of a land grab. Would they reef buildings like those in the background?
Even advancing coral appeared this year, arriving with its own entourage, all looking quite healthy and diverse.
Some mermaids seem to have very terrestrial concerns, while others
just want to dance to the music, taking advantage of their single day of land-appendage exchange.
Other sea critters have rights on their minds . . .
like these surfsurfsurfragettes.
But mostly this parade is about music, marching, dancing, and welcoming the longest day the year, a leg stretching day.
These photos may capture the color but do not begin to suggest the volume.
Between the buildings, these drums are thunderous.
Green light, red light . . . they just keep pouring through the intersection. And remember yesterday’s tuba? That tuba–like the trumpet–has found its tribe.
Pirates also come ashore, like this band made up of scalawags banned from every continent of dry ground.
A reporter wanting to interview a dancer . . . just has to dance.
We leave it here.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who is counting the days until the mermaids re-emerge from the deep for their next long day in the sun.
On the first full day of summer, a trumpet-toting parrot and a tuba-entwined starfish meet on Surf Avenue and 21st. That can only mean one thing: mermaids!! You’d guess that maybe even if the title had been summer solstice at Coney Island.
The unlikely pair–a psittacine gigantus and a forcipulatida musicus– talk and then set off in search of their kin.
I stayed at my location, figuring it might be a portal between the worlds where other fanciful sights would materialize. And sure enough . . . this wave-energized police car vintage 2910 glided past.
Predictably . . . Dick “the mayor” Zigun showed to key to welcome all at the portal to his stretch of beach, but is this the first time he’s not beating a bass drum?
The parade is many things, but it’s as much music and marching and dancing as anything else. And all, this is the best shot of Arlo, Coney Island native. See him in the beach cart just to the left of the staff guy in pink? Here’s a short song of his you might like.
Some mermaids hitch rides in motorized vehicles.
This amusement park ride–sometimes in the background of my Narrows photos, eg, here and scroll to third photo–is way beyond antique.
More parader pictures tomorrow, and for now I’m out enjoying the second whole day of summer 2019. Know the symbol below on the green flag?
All photos by Will Van Dorp, whose favorite year at the parade might be illustrated here and here.
Oh . . . the psittacine aka macaw found the trumpet section
Here’s what GL tugs have looked like for a century, and many of them are still working, despite their age, as you can see here by clicking on the state names. The tug below is Nebraska, launched in 1929. Grouper–frequently mentioned on this blog–has the same basic design.
A new beginning took place yesterday in Toledo at the National Museum of the Great Lakes, and Paul Strubeck of Vintage Diesel Design as well as all these photos on tugster took these photos of the ceremony: in front of the Colonel aka Schoonmaker, the 116-year-old tug Ohio was rechristened along with
the new tug Ohio. Below and to the left, the old/new Ohio (originally built as a Milwaukee fire boat) was christened with beer and the new Ohio . . . with champagne. Read the ToledoBlade story here.
Click here for a story on the new design, based on the Damen 1907 ICE class design. This blog did a post on the first of this new design about two years ago here.
The new Ohio will assist ships in port of Toledo, so juxtaposition of these three vessels will be commonplace in years to come.
Many thanks to Paul for use of these photos. And if you are ever in the Toledo area, do stop by the National Museum of the Great Lakes.
Several minutes ago astronomical summer began in the sixth boro, and that means tomorrow the mermaids arrive, which means I may or may not post . . . . on time.
Locations here will remain unnamed, unless you try to guess, but photo 1 here to number 4 represents an approximated 15 miles of central New York, where
time warps can be fallen into.
Geographical discontinuities . .
exist as well.
All photos recently by Will Van Dorp, who will identify the locations and then do the mileage calculations afterward if needed.
Here are previous installments in the series. Summer sail can take the form of foil-raised GP racing as will happen in the sixth boro this weekend; it can also happen on longer courses and require stamina and endurance as happens in some races ending in Mackinac.
All the photos in this post come from Jeff Gritsavage, as he was delivering a yacht from Florida to Lake Michigan. Some of you will recognize that this shot was taken in an Erie Canal lock. A few of you will name the lock. Answer at the end of this post.
I’ll help you out here; this was taken on the Oswego Canal, a spur that was developed to connect the Erie Canal and Syracuse to Lake Ontario. Name the town?
Another town on the Oswego Canal. Name it?
This is the same town, and the boats are exiting the same lock as seen above. In fact, about 500′ beyond the opening mitre gates is the location I took this photo of Urger and a State Police cruiser almost exactly 5 years ago.
This is Oswego. White Hawk has arrived on its first Great Lake. The masts await and will be stepped because air draft issues
no longer apply.
Welland Canal is less than 30 miles long, but it’s
the way around Niagara Falls in 8 easy steps.
Coexistence with larger vessels is the rule on the Welland Canal.
Above and below is one of the hardest working tug/barge units on the lakes . . . Wilf Seymour and Alouette Spirit.
And on any lucky passage through the Welland, you’ll see vessels like Fednav‘s Federal Dee,
Polsteam‘s Mamry, and
Canada Steamship Lines‘ CSL Tadoussac.
Before I give the answers to the questions above, here’s another town/Erie Canal location to identify. Click on the photo to find its attribution AND the article that explains what’s happening with White Hawk.
So . . . the answers are lock E-23, Phoenix NY, Fulton NY, and finally above . . . .
that’s Rome. Click here for a previous tugster post on the Rome to Oswego run.
Many thanks to Capt. Jeff for sharing these photos here.
And I’ll be looking for White Hawk on the Lakes this summer.
Compare the bows of two tankers, Silver Etrema and Alcyone T.
Take a bow for the bow of Bow Performer,
And note the cascading flushing of
Front Cascade.
Spar Indus gets lightered before heading up the North River . . . with the bow of that barge loaded to the marks first.
Sider Miami and Andrea show their sterns to the camera.
Ditto YM Essence, which on the radio sounds like Y M S Ents.
Elantra Sea passes a berthed Kasos, as does
T Matterhorn, both showing more draft markings showing than Kasos.
We’ll end this post with MSC‘s MSC Mediterranean.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
tugster: a waterblog 
Recent Comments