2020 Calendar July and August

Yes, I missed doing this in July, so today I play catch-up.

Three vessels were on the July page.  First, it’s Louis C, a small tanker reborn as a small crane ship.  I was last aboard her on a very cold morning in January 2020.  The enclosed workshop forward of the wheelhouse features a wood burning stove that has no appeal in August but was very welcome in January.

Fugro Enterprise, now as then, is working off Atlantic City, making bathymetric charts of the area where the 99 turbines of Ocean Wind will soon sprout above the surface of the waves.

The third and more prominent boat on the July calendar page is Nathan G, and rather than use a photo from July 2019, let me put up this one from July 2020, where Nathan G is one of the tugs escorting USS Slater to the dry dock.  That dry docking will soon be finished, and Nathan G will possibly accompany the destroyer escort back to Albany.  For more info on Slater and memberships, click here.

For August, on 17 August 2019 at 0615 and we were at the western end of Lake Ontario approaching Port Weller.  You’re looking over the after deck of Grande Caribe.  In case you’ve not heard, Blount Small Ships Adventures made a shocking announcement this Monday that their BSSA vessels are for sale. 

Welland Canal pilot vessel Mrs C approached ready to deliver a pilot, having just

retrieved one from the down bound Federal Yukina.

A few days later in August at 0722 and at the northern end of Crystal Island in the Detroit River, about 50 miles north of Toledo OH and 25 south of Detroit MI, we passed

Edgar B. Speer as she was about to enter the down bound lane between Crystal Island and Stony Island.

Speer is one of the 1000-footer, aka “footers” who ply the Upper Lakes unable to get beyond Lake Erie because they greatly exceed the dimensions of the Welland Canal.  Speer‘s cargo  capacity is 73,700 tons.   That would be a lot of trucks.

All photos, WVD.

Random Tugs 230

It’s Cornell, westbound under the Bayonne Bridge.  Now that’s a sight not often seen.  Cornell (1949) occupies a niche likely quite unexpected, as documented here.  In this post (scroll), you see Cornell in 1978!  Hear her inimitable whistles (wait for it) here.

Ivory Coast has truly an unusual name, but I’d never call her Côte d’Ivoire.  That’s been her name now for 20 years;  previously she was Crusader for over 30 years.

Nicole Leigh Reinauer is the first (of three? ) Atlantic II class tug.

Her dimensions and design are similar if not identical to Lincoln Sea, but Nicole has CAT engines instead of EMDs.   This class of ATB is the product of Bob Hill, whose boyhood home in Troy NY  gave him a front row seat to an earlier generation of tugs and barges.

Looking very similar to Nicole Leigh Reinauer, it’s the newest ATB in the boro . . .  Bert Reinauer, photo thanks to Lisa Kolibabek.  Bert,  almost two decades newer, has the same dimensions as Nicole Leigh, but with GEs generating 8400 hp, versus CATs at 7200.

Viking has operated out of the sixth boro since 1992.  Before that, she spent 20 years in the fleet of Nolty J. Theriot, whose rise and fall is documented in Woody Falgoux’s excellent book, Rise of the Cajun Mariners.

For various Viking appearances on tugster over the years, click here.  Note her distinctive Bludworth bow.

Discovery Coast spent a lot of time in the sixth boro a few years ago, but these days she’s rarely here.  Here’s her first appearance in this blog, in 2012.

And the newest ship assist tug in the boro is Capt. Brian A. McAllister.  Here’s a Professional Mariner story about the tug.

The photo of Bert Reinauer thanks to Lisa Kolibabek.  All other photos here in the past week by Will Van Dorp.

 

Random Tugs 224

What does a 70+ degree temperature day in February in the sixth boro look like?  Well . . . see for yourself.  Cornell light and likely back from a TOAR training, rafts up to Mary Whalen in Atlantic Basin.

Along the Brooklyn shore, there was Genesis Glory with GM11105.

Brooklyn–ex-Labrador Sea–light was headed for the Kills.

An anchored Crystal Cutler stood by with Patricia E. Poling.  Over in the distance is Malik al Ashtar, another 13,000+ teu container ship.  See Crystal light, high and dry here.

Over near the foot of Atlantic Avenue, Linda Lee Bouchard stands by alongside B. No. 205.

And finally, along the BQE and Brooklyn Heights, C. Angelo with EMA  1152, the EMA standing for Express Marine, the outfit that used to deliver fuel to the sixth boro’s coal-fired plants.  Express Marine tugs Consort and Escort used to be regulars in the port.  I believe they are currently “laid up.”

All photos by Will Van Dorp.