After I return to CSF with a camera, I’ll pick up part 1 again.   For now, let’s look at another ferry line that crosses the Sound.  By the way, how many ferries do you see in the photo below?

It was a foggy day in Port Jefferson that I chose to walk on for a jaunt across the Sound.

Grand Republic, certainly not the first vessel to carry that name, was getting some maintenance, so her sister vessel, P. T. Barnum, would be my ride. More on a much-earlier Grand Republic and a question at the end of this post.

This Grand Republic and this P. T. Barnum were launched four years apart, in 2003 and 1999, respectively. Mr. P. T. Barnum was a co-founder of the line, creating a ferry route that ran between his hometown of Bridgeport, nicknamed Park City,  and the port in Long Island farm country, Port Jefferson.

We backed out of the dock of a very foggy village of Port Jeff.

Here’s a phenomenon I don’t understand:  on either side of P. T. Barnum, I saw these rainbows.  Why there?

Mid-Sound we passed Park City.  She’s the oldest (1986),  smallest, and greenest of the current fleet.  When Park City was launched in Florida, she apparently made alligators fly;  read about it here.

Back in March, while in Seaside Park, one of the big parks in Bridgeport, I watched Park City sail into the port.

Later that same windy and cold March day, I watched Grand Republic sail in.

Here I’m looking north from just inside Port Jefferson harbor.  It’s worth a glance at a map to see how protected this harbor is.

All photos, WVD.

Related:  I’ve heard there’s a difference between the McAllister family and the McAlister family, the latter referred to here.  Can anyone jog my memory?  Of course, that may be yet another story than the one recounted in the 150 Years of Family Business book, in relation to the tugboat Iona McAlister.   Has anyone been to the Greenpoint bar called Grand Republic?

Mostly unrelated:  Here are two interesting postcards, one featuring the Starin  fleet, which McAllister acquired to form their own ferry business, and second . . . an appropriation of the Statue both from 150 years ago.

If you ride the ferry or just visit Port Jeff, spend a few minutes inside the office for some vintage photos like Nonowantuc (a native name for part of the Port Jeff area) and

Victor.  Info on all the boats can be found here.

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