Retro Sixth Boro (and beyond) 27 b

I vividly recall June 2010.  Let’s take June 3.  The two Hornbeck tugs there are Erie Service and Eagle Service, now Genesis Valiant and Genesis Eagle.  Minerva Anna is at one of the easternmost IMTT docks; today she’s eastbound in the Indian Ocean. But in the middle of it all,  GLDD’s Liebherr 966 was getting the channel down to 52′, if I recall correctly. Was that 966 dredge the same as New York?   In the distance the Empire State Building stood alone;  from this perspective today, you’d see WTC1.

Later the same day, and I don’t recall what the occasion was, Conrad Milster brought his big ship’s whistle down to South Street Seaport Museum, and ConEd hooked it up to ConEd steam pressure.  Hear the result here.  To date, this video has received 88,000 plays!!  Here and here are some videos of the legendary Conrad.  A few years later, I went to a marine steam festival in the Netherlands;  I took a river ferry from Rotterdam to get there.  When I stepped off the ferry and walked up the gangway to the dock, there stood Conrad.  Of course he would be there.

June 17 brought the return of Reid Stowe‘s schooner Anne after 1152 days (more than three years) at sea without seeing land!  Here‘s the NYTimes story.

Notice the toll the sea took on the paint.

For more photos of Anne, inside and out, click here.

As serendipity would have it, the day Anne returned, Artemis departed, going on to successfully row across the Atlantic in just under 44 days!  Recently, Reid has displayed art inspired by his voyage, as seen here.

June 26 John Curdy invited me to see a good bit of the Delaware River fronting several miles north and south of Philadelphia.  Overseas Anacortes was not yet launched at that time. As of today’s post, she’s in the Gulf of Mexico off Corpus Christi.

Here is Penn’s Landing and Gazela, which I sailed on later in 2010, but that’s a story already told here.

All photos in June 2010, WVD.

 

Other Watersheds 7: The Delaware Redux

Almost exactly a decade ago I did this post.  Today I decided to add to it and broaden the geographic scope.  Stick with me to see how broadened this gets.

From the Delaware Memorial Bridge to the entrance of Delaware Bay is about 100 miles.  Near the entrance you see big water and big traffic, like a light Ivory Coast above and a working OSG Vision below.  OSG Vision is mated to OSG 350, a huge barge used to lighter crude oil tankers 342,000 barrels at a time.

Forty miles upstream from the Delaware Memorial, there’s the Ben Franklin Bridge, here with Pilot towing La Princesa and assisted by Grace and Valentine Moran.

Some Delaware River boats are rarely seen in the sixth boro like Jack Holland.

Almost 150  miles upstream from the Philly-Camden area is  Hawk’s Nest Highway, the part of the river once paralleled on the nearer side by the D&H Canal.

Of course I paddled the whole way up there. In fact, this stretch of the Delaware has enough current that a 21st century paddler would not choose to go upstream very far, and a 19th century boat-mule canaler would want to keep navigation separate from the river.

Early summer had its share of young  birds,

deer, and trout visible under the canoe.

Some mysterious paddlers shared the waters.

That New York side of the river . . .

if you look close, you can see in places that these are not natural rock formations. Rather, they support the towpath side of the D & H Canal, way up above the river.

Part of Route 97 is also known as Hawk’s Nest Highway.

To digress, the eastern end of the Canal–about a hundred miles to the NE–is in Kingston NY, and a transshipping point was Island Dock, which

has now overgrown.  I wonder if there’s ever been a project to clear the trees and undergrowth and contemplate a recreation of this important site.  Oil is today’s fuel;  coal was definitely king in this other age.

But let’s back to the Delaware.  North of Barryville, there’s this bridge. At least, it’s now a bridge, but when

John Roebling built it, it was an aqueduct for D & H coal boats bringing anthracite out of the Coal Region to the sixth boro.

 

Here’s a preserved portion of the Canal between Hawley and Honesdale PA, just upstream (water has long long) from Lock 31.   Honesdale was once the transhipping point between railroad cars and canal boats and deserves another visit and maybe a whole post, which maybe I’ll getto when the museum there opens again.

Pennsylvania has place names like Oil City, Cokeburg, and Coal Port.  The coal transported on the D & H came from aptly-named Carbondale, another place that deserves more time.  The commodity legacy is seen in these two businesses

and maybe others.

All photos, WVD, at different points over the past 10 years.  If anyone has ideas about high points along the river you’d suggest I visit, please let me know.  Since my jobs for this summer have fallen through, this might be the year to canoe and hike.

Unrelated, if you haven’t yet read this story about an Argentine in Portugal unable to get home because of cancelled flights and choosing to sail across the Atlantic in a 29′ boat to see his father turn 90, here‘s the link.

 

 

 

St. Louis on the St. Lawrence

Where was Doornekamp’s Sheri Lynn S heading?

Downstream on the St. Lawrence to assist USS St. Louis, LCS-19, as she was making a port stop in Ogdensburg NY.

Also assisting was Océan Serge Genois.

 

If this USN press release is current and accurate, other LCSs expected to exit the Great Lakes this year include USS Minneapolis-St. Paul (LCS-21), USS Kansas City (LCS-22), USS Oakland (LCS-24) and USS Mobile (LCS -6).

Now as seen from the US side of the River, standard procedure boom was deployed  around the LCS by a workboat provided by Seaway Marine Group.  More of this scene is captured in this article/photo from the Watertown Daily Times NNY360.

Once the LCS was boomed, the Seaway Marine boat patroled the exclusion zone.

 

 

Fifteen or so miles downstream from Ogdensburg, the Océan tug guides the LCS into the Iroquois locks.

 

All these photos from the Canadian side are compliments of Pat English, who posted a video on FB Seaway News Voie Maritime Info of the Ocean tug rocking back and forth to keep the LCS centered in the lock chamber.  All photos from the US side are compliments of Jake Van Reenen.

Again, many thanks to Pat and Jake for use of these photos.

Previous tugster posts with LCS vessels can be found here.  Previous posts at Iroquois lock are here.

 

‘Ster Crazy 5 b

Thanks to all who wrote concerned notes about my being away from the blog.  I had said I wanted to get away from the city and the blogger’s desk.  l’m back renewed although restless with conflicting ideas about where I’m headed.  These roosters, and all they had to say,  were part my company in the past week and a half.  If you’re interested in a critter post about the garage roosters, let me know.  They did everything except pick up a tool.

One thing I did was work with my brother to advance this project.  The roosters crowed about every last act, even when I was sitting in the shade taking a break.

Here’s how I started last week.  White chalk marks on the cowl and hood and other places indicated more sanding. “Wax on, wax off” is not different than sand, run your fingers over the imperfection, sand some more.  Repeat.  And hours go by as I

go about taking out 72 years of scratches, dents, and chips.

What had been a surface of primer eventually after sand/fill/sand/fill  looks like this.  “I’m not sure my fingers can still detect an defects in the surface.”  Number 1 rooster is skeptical though.

By the end of the day, a new coat of primer goes on . . .  and yes, those excesses and craters,  on the cowl ARE still there, now immediately drawing my eye.  Apply some filler, let harden, and tomorrow sand there again, eliminating all the overfill.

Once that sanding is “done,” tape off the passenger cabin belt

so that it can receive its black paint.

The belt is painted, the masking is off the body, and sanding must eliminate all imperfections . . . one hopes.

When my brother approves and new masking is complete, and the weather is right* for painting, he suits up and starts a transformation.

First the masked front was painted, then ditto . . . the back.  The next day, we roll it out.  The windshield frame, painted separately, was added too.

The holes on the rear body are for the spare tire kit and the Willys Overland logo trim.

Add the convertible frame and side step trim…

and grille, lights, and front bumper . . . there’s still lots to do on all three.  The pickup was featured here.

The 1963 CJ I did not get to document, but it started out looking quite forsaken . . . as someone’s backyard project in waiting.  All three need to pass inspection, and there’s details upon details before then.

All photos, WVD, and all taken since June 19. Upstate New York is starting to look like Cuba, not Cuba NY.

For heroic tales of a now defunct 1975 former postal Jeep that made a 4000-mile road trip last year, click here.  For a Hemming Motor News description of this era of Jeepster, the last true phaeton manufactured by a major US automobile company, click here.

For more tugster NYS automotive joy, click here.

*Re:  the weather is right . . .  it turns out that although the painting was done in the shade of the garage, the Jeepster sheet metal was too hot, causing the hardener to work too fast, and we ended up with some “orange peel surface” that now needs buffing.

Erie Canal Early Summer 2020

Please, Lord, no . . . Day-Peckinpaugh has not been put out to pasture, I hope . . .

“Out to pasture or not,” as Craig said, soon someone will have to start mowing the grass around her hull.  Maybe green goats can help?  This photo was taken between locks E-2 and E-3 a week or two ago.

Here’s the Erie Canal between E-28A and E-28B. In normal seasons, by this time (photo taken in late May) the water would be from top of riprap to top of riprap on the other side.  I hope to hike it, in search of treasure, evidence, or  . . . just plain junk.

Here, looking west, is the top of the Lyons dry dock to the left and the top of E-28A to the right.  For a photo of DonJon tug Rebecca Ann on that wall between the dry dock and the lock, click here.  I took that photo August 2019.

This is a great place to catch walleye . . . or was.  That’s lock E-27 to the left.

Right near this bridge, I got a photo of a buck swimming across the canal just ahead of the tugboat here.

So why is there no water over the spillway here?  Why are the levels so low in the other photos in this post?  The canal was de-watered at the end of the last season.  This is done each winter so that maintenance and repair can be done in the winter.  That was ongoing last winter until mid-March when the state classified  canal workers as non-essential.  All work stopped until very recently.  So all disassembly that happened last winter is now late in being reassembled.

Until the canal gets re-watered, it’ll make for some interesting hiking.

 

Many thanks to Craig Williams and Bob Stopper for these photos.

And if you’ve not yet watched the Turnstile Tours talk I did back on May 26, have a watch here.  It’ll take about an hour. That’ll be in lieu of blog posts the next days, weeks . . . however long this retreat takes.  I’ll be back . . .

 

Summer Fishing

Yes . . . it’s summer enough . . .

to call this summer fishing.  But I was not expecting a vessel like Ocean Venture, 71′ x 30′, which pulled into Gravesend Bay the other day. Here’s more info on the Maine registered vessel and her sister Reliance. This shot gives a clear view of the stern.  I was tied up where I was, so I didn’t round the bend to see where she went.  Just beyond her, that’s the Coney Island light.

Twisted Sister came in, and not long later, departed

having added some gear . . . oyster reef starters?

And here comes Rockfish,

heading out for a morning fishing party.

And speaking of fish and fishing . . .   I’ll be gone fishing for a while myself.

All photos, WVD.

 

Random Ships 81

Atina was spinning to starboard before heading out to sea on a sixth boro ebb as a boost to the next port . . . in the Bahamas.

YM Witness, a great name, was

doing the same . . . the milk run down the East Coast.

Höegh Transporter had been pacing and anchoring and pacing some more off Long Island for the longest time, but just came in one morning, likely for fuel and supplies

Seatrade Blue finished its business here and headed for the next port, Jamaica, and then the big Canal.

Stream Pacific is a new name for me.  She was in, then out and after another stop, is heading back to the Gulf of Mexico.

Atlantic Sail is making its way eastbound across the Atlantic, as currently is

Constellation.

Nautical Sarah is long gone . . . to Indonesia.

Stolt Norland is heading for the Gulf of Mexico.

Mila is a 2018 ultramax bulk carrier.

Orange Victoria is still in town, as of this writing.

And more will come and go  . . . .  Some will never return, others will with the same name or another . . .

All photos, each a moment in time, WVD, who is seeking a moment canoeing up along NY, NJ, and PA.

SFL Sabine Details

Shooting into the sun never works.

On the other hand, what got highlighted was the spray both hawse rinse and  . . . cooling from bow thruster (?).

But what caught my attention later was all the print on forward side of the superstructure.  Going clockwise from lower left, we read no smoking, overfill alarm, high level alarm, wind hi, wind hi hi, overfill alarm, fo overfill alarm, safety first.  Most of those labels are accompanied by a light.  The consumer of this info would be anyone on the deck, either at sea or at docks.

 

 

I’m aware of the many light patterns and what they mean, and so I suppose you need this number to be prepared.  Regular checks are needed.

 

I was also curious about this break in the walkway between the superstructure and the stack area.

Stern design has variety.  For more photos of this 2017 tanker, see my friend Jack’s neck of the woods.

All photos, WVD, who’s letting you know I won’t be re-posting on FB the next few because I’m either on the road or up a river or creek . . . away from wifi.

Retro 27 Gallivant

Nothing says the Delaware River up around Philadelphia and Camden more distinctly than a group of Hays tugs, here Big Daddy, High Roller, and Purple Hays.  That’s the stern of Grape Ape to the left. No company, I gather, has had more fun naming their boats than the Hays Tug and Launch folks.   I hope Ed Roth got photos of these boats.

And I’ve never had so much fun on the Delaware River area than I did the day my friend John Curdy took me on a tour there.

Timothy McAllister was docked nearby.  She’s almost a twin of the sixth boro’s Ellen McAllister.

Amberjack (1981) was still in gray. She’s now the latest Thomas Dann, but I’ve not seen her yet.

Jack Holland was pushing a scow. Today’s Jack‘s in Norfolk.

I’m not sure where the 1967 Jakobson-built Grace Moran is,

but Helen D is now Sarah D, and is regularly seen on the Hudson.

Active, a 1956 Blount product, has been sold south and is now Chandler B, operating out of Virginia.

Soon after I took this photo, Coral Sea was sold to a Nigerian company and, at last report, was operating off Nigeria as Uganwaafor 2. I suspect she’s currently inactive.

Texan here is mostly out of the notch of Ponciana. She’s currently near Beaumont TX on the Neches River.

And finally, it’s USS Arthur W. Radford (DD 968) getting prepped for reefing. About a year later that reefing happened about 30 miles offshore, which appears to be out of range for most fishermen.

All photos, June 2010, by WVD, who will be in and on the Delaware River later this week, way in in the wild part of the river in NYS, trying to commune with the wild.   Don’t be concerned if no new posts appear for a spell after Wednesday.

 

Exotics 18

If you’ve forgotten why I call these exotic, it comes from a bird book I have on the shelf.  Read about it here.

RV Ridley Scott Thomas came into the sixth boro yesterday, arriving here between Driftmaster, 1949–exotic in a different way–and the light, West Bank.

Here’s my question:  where and when was Ridley Thomas built?  Answer follows.  When I saw it, I wondered whether it had just left a shipyard for the first time.

Arriving yesterday after a nine-day trip from Curaçao, she had lots of folks on deck enjoying the beautiful Saturday morning.

Click here for more info on EGS, now a Hong Kong based company, and click here for info on her fleetmates. It turns out that one of her fleetmates is RV Bold Explorer, which some years ago you saw here as an EPA vessel named Bold. How her change of ownership came to be can be extrapolated here.

 

Sloop Puffin squeezes between Driftmaster and the research vessel.  Note the flag on the ridge?  It’s flag day today, and if you’re wondering how that started, click here.  I’m a fan of #6.  There are two US flags in this photo, one at the official site Fort Wadsworth, and another as courtesy flag flying from the mast of Thomas.

As of this writing, she’s still in over in Elizabethport.

 

All photos, WVD.   I’ve no idea why she’s in town, but for more on RV Ridley Thomas, click here.

And the answer to the questions . . . she was built in Singapore in 1981, first carrying the name Western Inlet.