You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Don Jon Marine’ category.
Below is an image I posted on February 27, 2024. Cape Kennedy had only recently arrived, the latest in a string of government vessels getting rehabbed at Bayonne Dry Dock & Repair.
Below is a photo I took yesterday. Notice the detail change?
From a different angle, this is the door removed from the graving dock and being escorted out of the way by Sarah Ann and Nathan G.
Wind sock and door crew monitoring the float away.
In the presence of a mustering of McAllister tugs, Samantha Miller begins Cape Kennedy‘s exit. The McAllister tugs (l to r) are Marjorie, Timothy, Capt Brian, and Rowan.
Positions are assumed the farther out the 5083 floats.
I’m wondering if the exit is timed so that a slight current can ease her in the direction of the KVK side of the pier.
Once alongside the pier, Timothy, Marjorie, and Capt. Brian stand by as she’s made fast. USACE Moritz, foreground, must be serving some function, not just loitering.
I’ve posted photos of this process at least once before, as seen here.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
Here was “pairs in winter 8” from four years ago. The others can be found in the search window. The title started as my attempt to be too clever and parody this Edith Piaf title, which someone else–not me–liked. Number 4 might be my favorite.
Not much to say other than that yesterday morning was quite foggy before the rain started. Eventually I gave up because the fog got too thick, gruelly although not quite peasoup. Fog serves almost as a way to narrow the depth of field; the names of Caroline M and Mount St Elias are clear but farther from them, details drop out.
Ditto Dace with RTC 83 and Silver Dubai,
Bohemia and Doris,
Brian Nicholas and Stephen Dann,
Kirby and Mary,
and the incongruous Gelberman and MSC Lisa.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
Unrelated but interesting: a gray whale off Nantucket!
I caught Gabby (?) trucking the other day.
Some time later, I caught Gabby returning to her base, as Grace did the same.
Maddie K was southbound in the Upper Bay.
Haggerty Girls was at anchor with RTC 81 as Kristy Ann pushed RTC 80, likely toward the Gate.
Coral Coast pushed Cement Carrier 5300 out of the East River and into the North.
Mister T made fast to the flotilla of scows off Bayonne.
Earlier T had come out from somewhere. Note the sea-miler Thomas in the background.
J. Arnold Witte, probably heading into the Kills with her scow, took the stern of Driftmaster,.
I still register my almost catching J. Arnold several times summer ’23 in Port Colborne.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
Winter dawns and dusks can be the best, like this one creating golden water for Miss New York.
The 2000 Brooklyn had Vane livery then.
Haggerty Girls, attached here to RTC 60 and with Grace D alongside, was likely the newest tugboat in the Reinauer fleet. Note the bulbous domes of Ellis Island to the right.
The 2006 Manson dredge Glenn Edwards was in town. Currently, it’s in Florida.
Wittich Marine’s 1977 Iron Mike ranged the boro now and again. I’m not sure if this boat is still around.
Brendan would have about a decade of work ahead of it yet.
The 2012 Evening Star and B. No. 250 made their way east. Star is now Rose, Jordan Rose. In the distance, that’s a Genesis Marine unit.
Then, as is still the case, the 1951 Twin Tube was the boro’s premiere delivery service.
Meagan McAllister still had the red/white striped stacks. Currently she’s Charles James.
And some waterways in the boro could be as congested as the roadways around the watery boro. Note three tugboats with Cheyenne to the left, Kimberly Turecamo forward, and Gramma Lee T assisting in Four Sky.
Laura K heads out for the next assist while Robert E. works another vessel to its berth. Mare Pacific and another tanker line up along the opposite shore.
All photos, any errors, WVD, who wishes you a happy Imbolc aka marmot’s day.
Yesterday I posted a photo of a mill along the Cuyahoga with faded “ghostwriting” on a wall, and someone asked what was once written there. Below, thanks to William Lafferty, is the answer. Read this post and comments here for further info on the Fairchild mill.
Upriver Kevin Oldenburg does fabulous work with his drone, which he posts under his name on FB. My favorites are the ones on moody days, as in the shots of Manhattan heading to Albany below.
The crisp lines and colors of the boat contrasting with the dark river ruffled by the bow and rolling the cold water . . . these are just magical.
Another day another vessel . . . here the brawny Atlantic Salvor urges Chesapeake 1000 crane through the waterway. The angle diminishes the 1000‘s size, but that crane is formidable, as seen below.
The next batch, shared by Antonio Calandra on FB, shows the triple-screw Erin Elizabeth, recently arrived in the boro after a 10+ day voyage here, with Chesapeake 1000 lifting her off CMT Y Not 8 barge and lowering into the waters of Port Newark.
Relative size is apparent here, as J. Arnold Witte takes charge of the larger Erin Elizabeth to move her to a location to begin the process of stirring her to life. In the distance, that’s Douglas J.
Many thanks to William, Kevin, and Antonio for use of these photos.
Traffic, when you’re trapped in it, is not fun. Watching commercial marine traffic, for me, never gets old, as you might know. The more things get, the more interesting the harbor seems. A handful of sophisticated and expensive machinery and its skilled operators jam pack this image. I see three Centerline boats, JRT, and Safmarine Nomazwe.
Roughly the same place and hour and some later, Thunder, just off the port side of Caroline M, shares this image with at least three other tugboats that almost blend into the cold humid morning.
Foreshortening makes Laura K and Doris Moran seem a lot closer together than they are.
Here it’s Marilyn George, Coursen, Alex McAllister, and Wye River, I believe.
Besides the three tugs along the left side, that’s Alex, Kristy Ann with RTC 80, Barney, and Kristin Poling pushing Eva Leigh Cutler. Between Barney and Kristin are at least two Kirby boats.
This was several minutes after the previous photo with some of the same boats.
Daisy Mae here pushes a CMT barge with a Vane unit in the distance, in front of an impossibly packed set of cliffs.
This is not so much packed as it is filled with very different examples of marine commercial traffic.
And in closing, clustered in front of USNS Red Cloud, clockwise starting from Cajun, it’s J. Arnold Witte, USACE Haward, and Marjorie B. McAllister.
All photos, any errors or omissions, WVD, who hits the road again tomorrow. Peace on Earth!
Decker‘s still around as Decker, but over beyond her and the covered workbarge is Peking, now living well way up the the Elbe.
The 2002 Joyce D Brown is now Geri T and operating for Seward Marine. I’ve not seen her back in the boro since she left in 2022.
B. Franklin was a year old when I took this; she’s still active in the Reinauer livery.
The nearer boat, 2004 Patapsco, has gone through name changes, but is currently working out of the boro as Poling-Cutler’s Marilyn George. Following Patapsco is Brooklyn, a 2000 tugboat that has seen a long list of names, currently Charlotte V. Here was possibly her first appearance on this blog as Inland Sea.
I believe Susan E. Witte was scrapped in 2016, after a short 12-year life. Anyone know the story?
APT’s Diane B was fairly new in the boro when I took this photo on a cold December 2013 day. She’s still busy, particularly in the heating months.
Pushing RTC 27, Zachery Reinauer is a 1971 Matton product. I’ve not seen her working in about five years now.
Miriam Moran worked then, and she works now, all the time, or so it seems to me. She’s worked the boro for almost a half century now and almost seems timeless . . . . of course those are my personal impressions.
Resolute still works for McAllister but mostly in ports on the Sound. I’m not sure she still has the lush fibrous fending she sports here. APL Pearl, carrying boxes and more than one military vehicle, was scrapped in 2016.
And finally, Bluefin was technically already a Kirby boat in late 2013, but was still sporting Penn Maritime livery. I’m not sure where she’s working at the moment.
All photos, any errors, WVD, who’s back in the boro for a few days. It seems we had a lot of snowy days back in December 2013.
This photo shows my uniforms are NOT colorful, rather noir-ish or more accurately zwart-wit, as the Dutch would put it.
And speaking of the Dutch, today is their/our Sinterklaas Day. More on the real Sint , not a plastic one like on the clever Broadway pedicab below, here.
Here’s why I’m focusing on color: the other day while out on the Media Boat and happily taking photos of water doings, I found myself shocked when first I downloaded the photos to the big screen and thought maybe I had my settings wrong because they seemed black/white! To get color, I pushed the slider bars for color and saturation way up to 11, or 111!
Here’s the result: an orange orange ferry, red n blue red n blue gantry cranes,
an aqua aqua Pasquale,
a green green buoy and Phyllis Ann,
a blue blue Emily Ann,
and a purple yellow purple yellow Linda Sue foreground and red red James William in the distance.
Again, happy Sinterklaas Day [prettige sinterklaas].
Top photo by Elizabeth Wood, bottom one thanks to an AI Freepik, and all the others, WVD.
I really enjoy putting together this monthly feature, opening the archives from a decade back to see what I did and saw. I just happened to walk past South Street Seaport that morning and caught Lettie G. Howard returning from repairs in Maine. See more from the set here. She turned 130 in the Great Lakes this year.
The 1977 McAllister Sisters continues to carry that only name she’s ever had. Two changes, though, are she’s lost the upper wheelhouse and she’s moved to Baltimore.
It’s the time of year for clamming in the sixth boro. I’ve not seen Dutch Girl yet this year, although I believe I spotted Eastern Welder . . . the nearer boat.
The 1997 Ever Decent was scrapped in Alang in 2020; the 2012 Evening Star has become Jordan Rose and continues to operate through the sixth boro.
This Mount Saline in Port Newark has been replenished several times, and its granules may have kept you safely on the road.
The 1963 Crow, high in the water here, would never again move on its own power and was scrapped in 2015.
These two Thornton boats–Gage Paul and Bros— are gone as well, one scrapped and one growing into undersea habitat deep in a Caribbean trench and will likely never be seen again.
The 1951 Twin Tube here squeezes in between the pier and Balder as Balder discharges more Chilean salt. More on the surprising contents of Balder‘s belly here. She may now be laid up as Ventura in West Africa. Check out the harbor supply boat on her mission that day here. Twin Tube continues to operate in the boro.
I don’t know what has become of the 1954 Ticonderoga; she may still be behind Prall’s Island.
I don’t have any updates on this government boat, said to date from 1929.
The 1966 Patrick Sky has long left the boro. Summit Europe is now Myra and is anchored near Istanbul. Indeed, the sixth boro is connected to the rest of the watery parts of the planet.
If you want to breeze back through the entire month, click here. And I do hope you enjoy these glances in the rearview as much as I do.
Happy December.
tugster: a waterblog 
Recent Comments