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Stephen B heads light westbound about to pass under the Bayonne Bridge, as
Mary H, especially busy during the cold times of the year, pushes some petroleum product in the opposite direction. Soon leaves will decorate Shooters out beyond her. There’s a pool hall in Queens by the name Shooters, so to clarify, here are some Shooters history posts from way back.
Mr Jim moves some aggregates, also eastbound out of Newark Bay.
James D. nudges Dublin Express as needed into Howland Hook.
Eric and Capt. Brian A. assist a CMA CGM box ship.
Evelyn Cutler moves some petroleum along the supply chain.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s burning high octane himself these days.
Related: Let me reiterate Lee Rust’s question of a day or so ago: What is the current working estimate of operating tugs in NY’s sixth boro? For starters, I think it’s hard to count because of the dynamic, transient nature of traffic. Just ballparking it without breaking it down by company and enumerating, I’d say 75 at least. For consistency, let’s say we can count a tugboat as present if it shows up on AIS/VHF/traffic control at least once a month. I’d love to hear you estimates.
Let’s try a variation: I’ve random tugs and random ships, in which I’ve confined most pics to a single general location and a a single photographer . . . me. “Really random tugs” combines locations, eras, and photographers. So why not do the same with ships, although in this case I’ve taken almost all the photos but in a variety of locations and times.
But this first one launches the concept. What can you surmise or identify about the photo below, not taken by me? Answer at the end of this post.
Spring brings the Great Lakes back to life. Here is a March 11 AIS capture of traffic on the Lakes. The “arrows” are US and Canadian CG doing ice ops. The rivers system around Chicago has some traffic.
The NOAA satellite image below provides the explanation . . . what looks ice covered IS. With the Soo scheduled to open on Monday, March 25, icebreaking carries high priority. Note Green Bay as well.
March 22 marked the opening of the Welland Canal. The first upbound ship this year was Thunder Bay; this photo I took in Quebec in October 2017. The first down bounder through the Welland was Algoma Spirit, but I’ve never gotten a photo of her.
Kaye E. Barker was the first springtime vessel out of Duluth; I took this photo in the last week of navigation before the Soo closed on January 15. The Soo is scheduled to open on Monday, March 25.
The KVK is a busy place all year round, although it’s not uniformly busy. On this day last month, Alpine Maya followed Port Richmond, which followed Atlantic Sun.
Stolt Integrity here stemmed while waiting to replace the tanker in the distance to leave the berth.
Tankers come in a variety of sizes; Selasse is a particular small one.
By now, have you figured out that first photo? I’ll give you a clue: vessel name is Nggapulu and as of last night she was in BauBau.
Traffic moves at all hours; night photos turn out quite unsatisfying, but golden hour ones I enjoy. Can you guess the hull color on this one?
Foreshortening belies the amount of distance actually between the stern of the Evergreen ship and Diane B/John Blanche.
The colorful Stena tankers, bears and all, seem to appear mostly in winter.
So here you have the answer, sort of. Indonesia, being a far-flung archipelago supports a ferry system called Pelni, an acronym. As an example of distances here, find Jakarta lower left. From there to Makassar roughly in the center is 1000 miles! Pelni operates about two dozen ferries of various designs. Ngga Pulu has classic lines and was launched in 2002.
Here’s an English language site about traveling the archipelago. Restless? Aye peri!
Many thanks to Hannah Miller for sharing the photo of Ngga Pulu. I’m not sure how that’s pronounced, but it’s named for a mountain. Learning about Pelni and seeing this map gives me a whole new appreciation of Dewaruci.
It might as well be spring already. Well, maybe my wish is that spring were here. I heard a spurious claim on a TV I visited the other day that March 20 is the planetary beginning of spring in the north but March 1 is the meteorological start of spring. But it must be true since I heard it on TV!??
But pairs, not Paris. Capt. Brian and Charles D. . . . interesting pair showing evolution of design 50 over the half century between the launch of each.
Fells Point landed Doubleskin 302 with Stephen B doing assist. That’s the first I seen Stephen B in the assist role.
Miss Julia could be Dylan Cooper‘s workboat.
CF Campbell heads east passing Scott Turecamo/New Hampshire and then
makes for the Upper Bay, where JRT is assisting Orange Blossom 2, herself a bloom in the dawn light. The photo above and the one below I took less than a minute apart, yet you’d think the light was saying hours separated the two.
Kimberly passes Eric.
Marie J Turecamo and Mister Jim run side by side under the Bayonne Bridge. Does anyone know when the pedestrian walkway on the bridge will open?
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
My rules for this series: all photos need to have come from the month in focus but exactly 10 years earlier. It’s a good way to notice change.
Take Capt. Log. I used to love seeing that boat, now long scrapped. I have photos of her as a heap of scrap pieces and have never posted them. I’m guessing the Chandra B crew are happy to have that new boat, but Capt. Log was such a unique sight.
Baltic Sea . . . I’d love to see a current photo of her from Nigeria. See more of her departed K-Sea fleet mates here. Sunny Express is now Minerva Lydia, and still working, I think.
Taurus has moved to the Delaware River and has some splotches of purple a la Hays.
Volunteer has been scrapped.
The orange June K is now the blue Sarah Ann . . . . I still miss that color….
Charles Oxman is no longer in service . . . I last saw her here in 2016.
APL Egypt used to be a regular here, and of course John B. Caddell . . .had only a few years left at this point before getting cut up. For a “what’s left . . .” of John B., click here and scroll.
I’m not saying everything is gone or has changed. Walker and Salvor still work here and –to the untrained eye–look exactly as they did a decade ago, even though these days from any distance, I can’t tell the distance between Atlantic Salvor and Atlantic Enterprise. And those crewing on these two vessels, I can’t tell if anyone working then on each boat still does. For Walker, it’s very likely it’s an entirely new crew.
I hope you enjoyed this glance back.
All photos in February 2009 by Will Van Dorp.
When the cold makes it less pleasant outside, it’s heating season in the sixth boro and region far and wide. I’m not sure all these units are moving heating oil, but they are all moving fuel of one sort or another.
Can it be that Crystal Cutler has been working here for almost 8 years now?!! Here was my first time seeing her back in 2010.
Here’s a larger unit for a different niche than Crystal.
When I was first paying attention, the tug here was called Huron Service.
She’s been Genesis Victory for about five years now.
Diane B does some creek work once she leaves the main channels. Here’s an article I did on Diane B and John Blanche some years back already.
All photos and any errors here by Will Van Dorp, who wishes anyone out there to be safe.
All photos today I took in May and early June of 2008. Odin, configured this was in 1982, is now known as Jutte Cenac, after considerable reconfiguration. You’d no longer look twice at her now, as you would back then.
Scotty Sky, the Blount-built tanker launched in 1960, was rendered obsolete on January 1, 2015 by OPA 90, and now calls the Caribbean home.
When I took this photo along the South Brooklyn docks, I had no idea that it was to become the Brookfield Place ferry terminal.
I had no idea until looking this up that Joan McAllister is the current Nathan G.
Juliet Reinauer now works as Big Jake.
For Lettie G Howard, another decade is somewhat insignificant, given that it’s been afloat since 1893. Currently she’s sailing up the St. Lawrence bound for Lake Erie. The NJ shoreline there has changed quite a bit, beginning with the removal of the Hess tanks there around 2014.
Crow was scrapped in 2015. I caught her last ride powered by Emily Ann here (and scroll) in May 2014.
And finally, back in 2008, this living fossil was still hard at work,
gainfully plying the Hudson. This Kristin was scrapped sometime in 2012.
All photos taken in late spring 2008 by Will Van Dorp.
The harbor of NYC . . . the watery parts I call the sixth boro . . . is quite diverse. Bridgebuilder 22 (2012) I caught in Erie Basin,
where I also saw Miss Aida (2002), formerly known as American Muscle. Now that’s a name!!
Stephen B has been on the blog before, but this is the first time I had my camera with me as I passed Westchester Creek.
Treasure Coast was at Caddell Dry Dock and Repair earlier this month . . .
as were Evening Mist and Genesis Glory and
Pearl Coast.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Here’s a good view of the props on a z-drive boat. The 8.5′ props are part of the Schottel SRP 1515 FP drive system. Note the port-a-potty between the stacks, a dry-dock worker convenience?
The scale of the cranes at Howland Hook belies the fact that Jay Michael and Bosco, passing Shooters Island, are still at least a mile closer to the lens than HH port.
In different light, here’s a Bosco closeup.
James E. Brown before dawn; the structure like a lighthouse beyond JEB‘s stern is the control tower at Newark Airport, which celebrates its 90th anniversary this coming October.
The Statue salutes Little C. I’ve often tried for a photo that suggests the Statue’s eyes are fixed on something in the foreground, and I’d say here Little C has helped me make that happen.
Barge John Blanche is returned homeward through Hell Gate by Diane B.
OK . . . Is it Joan or Doris?
I’ll stop here. All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Suppose we go back to “random tugs 2,” which was 10 years and two and a half months ago. What might be the same? Answer follows. These photos I took last week. Alex and Capt. Brian were not around when I did the #2 post.
Craig Eric Reinauer was, but the barge RTC 103 likely was not.
In 2007, Diane B had a different name and was a Kirby machine. Now she’s a creek-specialist and pushing John Blanche.
Here’s the best photo I got of Millville and 1964, the newest unit most likely to pass through the harbor.
Emerald Coast heads westbound.
Oleander passes Normandy. Anyone know why Bermuda Islander (I got no photo.) was in town last week?
And Evening Tide is eastbound in the KVK. So just by chance, if you look at Random Tugs 2, Evening Tide is there as well.
And since we started with a team of escort boats, have a look at these: (l to r) JRT, Miriam, James D, and Kirby Moran.
All photos taken last week by Will Van Dorp.
Kirby Moran here seems to have some symbiosis going on with the gulls,
and Jonathan C comes in for a closer look.
Zachery Reinauer repositions light under the parking lot forming on the lower deck of the Bayonne Bridge.
Diana B moves another load of product, likely to the creeks.
Thomas D. Witte is on the paper recycling run, I think.
Does anyone have a photo of her working up in the canals?
I’ve not yet seen Sapphire Coast light.
And finally, the unique paint scheme on Balisco 100
moved into the Kills by Navigator.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
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