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Having seen the forecast for December 25, I did my watch on Christmas eve. These are the latest sunrises of the entire cycle . . . photo taken around 0745, and the sky was still reddish and offering very little light. Fort McHenry and survey boat Christina cross. Yes, Christina . . . namesake you know who.
Diane B was pushing John Blanche deep in the water with heating fuel.
Fort McHenry passes my station.
Ocean Endeavour was heading in ahead of the strong winds . . . or maybe just to be at the dock for Christmas. Note the Staten Island ferry off her starboard and a tip of Twin Tube off port stern.
By now, it’s a little after 0800.
Twin Tube is the ultimate sixth boro Christmas boat; there’s no Santa or reindeer, just a competent captain and enough horsepower to get alongside ships.
The reindeer . . . they’re atop the tarped salt pile. Santa may have abandoned the sleigh, however.
All the above photos were taken before 0900. The photo below. . . it’s W. O. Decker, currently getting work done upriver, but ensconced between Wavertree and work barge Progress a few years ago . . .
All photos, WVD, who wishes you all Merry Christmas and gifts of life, health, and happiness however you find it. And one more . . . bravo to the Normandy crew for the decorations.
As seen from Richmond Terrace, it’s a like a faucet …
Zoomed closer in and seen from this side, there’s a swirl to the flow. We’ve seen sweet commodities; now we’re at salty ones.
Guess the world’s leading producers of salt by monetary value before getting the answer, clicking here, where you’ll find that not all salts look alike. Any idea where this salt comes from? Answer follows.
You can also quantify by tonnage, as seen here. One of my biggest surprises this summer hinged on seeing Manitowoc leaving the Cuyahoga laden with salt mined from beneath Lake Erie!
Self-unloaders like H. A. Sklenar involve fewer parties and less time in port.
She certainly spent a short time in the sixth boro.
You could almost see her rise from the water.
So . . . the source of this salt is Mexico.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, with cooperation from Brian at Atlantic Salt.
By the way, VSCL expands here, with some photos taken at sea.
Here’s the whole series. The different colors in the pile reflect trace minerals from different global sources.
Anyhow, the latest salt ship came in yesterday at sunrise. I’d come to my spot early in hopes there would be enough light when TTM Dragon arrived , but I was wrong.
James D. Moran worked the bow as the line boat stood by.
Pilot on the bridge wing calls the shots, and
when the signal is given, mooring lines are ferried to
shore and looped over the bollard.
When it’s all fast, James D. and Margaret Moran prepare for the next job.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Here are the two previous posts by this title, and more.
Juxtaposed boats invite comparison, allow perception of subtle difference, here between Marion and Doris.
It also gives a sense of the random traffic patterns, here about to pass the impatient Peking are (l to r) Michael Miller, Charles Burton, and way in the distance Robert E. McAllister.
Here , a few seconds later, Charles Burton‘s barge CVA-601 is about to obscure Chandra B–on a ship assist?– and Miriam Moran.
Here, from l to r, it’s Sapphire Coast, Charles Burton, Evening Mist, Ellen S. Bouchard, Robert E. McAllister, Scott Turecamo, and Erin McAllister. 
And a quarter hour later and from a different vantage point, it’s Stena Companion, Cielo di Milano, a Miller launch, Maersk Phoenix, and NCS Beijing.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
“Backing down” is a term I’ve heard used to describe a ship assist in which the tugboats control the sternwise movement of a vessel away from a dock. Most of the work here seems to be tide current driven, if I saw it right.
Let’s pick this up at 16:28 hrs.
The evolution waits for incoming traffic, in this case Seoul Express, which I watched getting backed down half a decade ago here and here. Margaret Moran was involved that time as well.
At 16:49, Seoul Express, accompanied by Kirby Moran, is passing and Margaret throttles up, catching
the attention of a crew member on the superstructure of Seoul Express.
By 16:51, Heina is well away from the dock, and now
James D.Moran needs to get the stern out, but I’m not well placed to capture that.
Margaret moves around to the bulb. I love how the load markings mimic the tug profile.
By 16:58, Heina is at least two ship lengths east of the salt dock, and
by 17:07, Heina has begun to rotate counterclockwise in preparation to head under the VZ Bridge out to sea. By now, she’s south of the Bahamas.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, to whose untrained eyes this all seemed to evolve with masterful control.
As to the meaning of “heina,” try this.
Icy roads are here again. Well, even if they’re not–not yet– in the downstate area, New Yorkers place a value on being prepared. You might call that a NY value, but I’m not going any further there. And more accurately, preparing for the future is a universal value.
And in this season, bulkers arrive with beautiful names like Lake Dahlia and with holds filled with dozens of thousands of tons of “de-icer,” this load being off a desert in Chile. A previous ship had come from this part of Mexico.
In less than a handful of hours after “all fast,” clamshells start discharging at the rate of 30 tons per scoop.
Two operations happen simultaneously . . . cranes empty the holds and
loaders fill the trucks.
When that ice starts coating the roadways,
you and all the others thousands of drivers have a lot
better chance of staying on track to
your intended destination. The photo below suggests it’s coming time for another truckster post.
All photos here by Will Van Dorp.
Many thanks to Brian DeForest of Atlantic Salt.
No, I haven’t left the sixth boro. Just yesterday I crossed paths with Allie B here at Atlantic Salt, purveyor of a safety product and patron of the arts.
It took a gray day for me to notice that the house colors along the KVK are reminiscent of those in coastal Canadian maritimes towns. Allie B has been one of my favorite tugboats since I saw her depart on her epic tow here and here back in 2009.
Then I passed Evelyn Cutler, here with Noelle Cutler at Caddell Drydock. Those are basic Wavertree masts in the background. I first saw Evelyn
Here’s a first good photo of Dylan Cooper, the Reinauer tug that arrived in the sixth boro later last year.
I hope to get another of her here in a few years when that bridge is completed.
I believe Eric is the newest of McAllister tugs in the sixth boro. And yes, here Eric is using her 5000+ hp to assist Atlantic Star, ACL‘s brand spanking new CONRO vessel into port yesterday on her maiden voyage. I hope to have a post dedicated to Atlantic Star completed for tomorrow.
Eric is a product of the same Rhode Island shipyard that produced Dylan Cooper. In the distance that’s one of ACL’s previous generation of CONRO vessels, Atlantic Concert. Here’s an entire post dedicated to Atlantic Concert from 2009.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, with thanks to NY Media boat.
And yes, I still have more of Barrel’s vintage USACE photos to share.
Click here to scan the many posts with KVK in the title. Here’s a new one inspired by arrivals that had many folks, aship and ashore, paying attention.
Wavertree is suddenly and lavishly being regaled with sights of 21st century merchant vessels
Products tanker Polaris, delivered 129 years after Wavertree
and crew from all over the world are paying attention.
And a mile farther east, at the old gypsum dock, tugboats like Laura K Moran and
Stephen B pass.
If you want to read a good book about when and how the US took possession of Eagle, read Captain Gordon McGowan’s The Skipper and the Eagle. The book has an introduction by Peter Stanford, a foreword by Alan Villiers, and the journey starts out from NYC’s own LaGuardia.
I have many more closeups of the barque; maybe
I’ll put them up if I get encouragement. A previous posts featuring Eagle can be seen here. For a comparison of steering apparatus on Eagle with other vessels, click here.
Here Swallow Ace crew check out an Eagle.
The long street on the landside of this portion of the Kills is called Richmond Terrace. For photos and explanation of what is and used to be there, click here and here, from the ever fascinating forgotten-by.com. Click here to see an image of a square rigger bulk carrier docked in front of Windsor Plaster Mills, now an Eastern Salt facility, in its heyday.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Kodiak . . . is ex-Vane and Allied.
Hunting Creek is Maryland-built for Vane.
Charles A has carried at least four previous names.
Specialist, I believe the oldest in the set today, . . . has low sleek lines for an almost 60-year-old vessel.
When this Pegasus came into the sixth boro, she lacked the upper wheelhouse.
Atlantic Salvor has for some years–since this one left–been the largest tugboat in the sixth boro. Rivaling Atlantic Salvor a few years back was the rescue tug turned super yacht called Lone Ranger.
And finally, for today, it’s Eric McAllister passes Ultra Colonsay, discharging salt over at Atlantic Salt.
All photos over the last few days by Will Van Dorp.
Here are the previous posts in this series. In today’s post, one word appears in every photo.
That word–Neutrino— seemed unlikely, given its New York harbor context. Some of you might remember Town Hall and Son of Town Hall, creations of Poppa Neutrino, inhabitants of Pier 25 a mere few decades ago.
It was all before my time here. But if you have stories and/or photos, please share them.
All photos here by Will Van Dorp.
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