Let’s start with one at Brooklyn GMD, thanks to Mike Abegg, whose previous photos can be seen here.  I’d seen NOAAS Hassler before, but I’d never realized she was a catamaran.  Might she be NOAA’s only large multi-hull?  And the horizontal inboard-pointing fins, I’d not expected those, although they may be standard stabilizers on a cat like this.  Her dimensions are 124′ x a broad 61′ x 12′, and you can find more info here.   As to location, notice WTC1 in the background.  Sharing the graving dock with Hassler is Timothy L. Reinauer.

I caught some shots of Alpine‘s RV Henry Hudson, yesterday in the

welcoming and balmy waters of Brooklyn.  Notice the single person standing in the park above?

 

Many thanks to Mike for sharing the Hassler photo;  the Hudson photos were taken by Will Van Dorp as she headed east in the East River in yesterday’s temperate December NYC weather, thermometer as evidence.

An interesting aspect of these two survey/research vessels is the fact that both namesakes are foreign.  Hassler, for a time, taught math at West Point.

Seeing these vessels also reminds me of the comparison of NOAA and NASA spending.

For a quite long but fascinating article on the unexplored majority portions of our own planet, click here. I’ve started but will finish reading it tonight.