MB 2019 F

Still in Cleveland, a recalcitrant fisherman keeps anchor and hooks wet until Huron Spirit threatens to immerse the fisherman as well.

Smarter heads prevail and the fishermen move out of the immediate danger.

 

Sarah Andrie and her A-390 have discharged in Tonowanda and are

 

upbound for Lake Michigan.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Post-Stormy Miscellany 2

Two weeks ago, Sandy raged, leaving a deadly and disastrous trail through the sixth boro and surrounding land masses.  Athena has also blanketed us, through many green leaves somehow remain on trees.  Companies are attempting to return to routine.  Ever notice how much the KVK channel zigzags, as seen here with APL Spinel tailing Meagan Ann and her scow.  The strait’s not at all straight.

Clearly what’s blasted from and scooped out of the AK is virgin rock.

Sandy scoured away much of the volunteer vegetation along the KVK.  A foto taken here a month ago would show lots of weeds and a quite living tree.

The absence of cover makes it easier for this hawk to spot the “shore squirrels.”

Storms eroding a beach sometimes uncover shipwreck (here and here) , treasure, skeletons . . . all manner of stuff. See the last foto here, taken about 20 years ago.  The surge along one section of the KVK unearthed dozens of these bricks.  Is Belgian Syndicate a local firm?

A fair number of government boats are still around, like this one . . . taking advantage of unseasonal warmth . . . and

Clean Waters, a Region 2 EPA vessel I’d heard about but never seen until yesterday.  Given Region 2’s size, I wonder how many other vessels–I saw Kenneth Biglane once once and that was already three years ago–they have and where they’re usually homeported.

Wright and Kennedy (only the stacks are visible forward of Wright’s house) are still in town.  Understandably, some folks I’ve talked to still live in conditions far from normal.

I’m guessing this train–unusual as it is– has to do with the completion of a job, not Sandy:  Sea Bear tows a train of eight or nine vessels, including  Iron Wolf.

Yet, recreational sail has returned. Sun Dragon is the nearer.

Line handlers aboard CSAV Rio Aysen . . .  (check their recent stops at that link) take in all this harbor activity.   Vessel is named for a river in southern Chile.

All fotos yesterday by Will Van Dorp, for whom the sixth boro is among other things an ever-changing puzzle.

Government Boats 16

GB15 was here.

About the foto below, I love  surprising discoveries like this:  Rikers Island has a launch, Officer Guy Hudson.  I wonder if the launch has ever figured in searches for escaping Rikers’ inmates.  Click here for foto and video tour of Rikers.*

Below foto taken last weekend, Kojima has made the sixth boro an “annual” stop the past two summer solstices!  I also spotted them here in early summer a few years back, too.  Suppose they come for the mermaid parade?

Thanks to Captain Zizes for this foto of the Bravest, the most recent FDNY Marine unit, commissioned less than a month ago on May 26.  Info thanks to Harold Tartell.

Another shot of EPA Bold arriving through the Narrows a few weeks back.  I love the small boat on a trailer on starboard side.  Bold was docked at Riverbank State Park–the park over the sewage treatment plant!!–less than two weeks ago.

Lower Stapleton (?) serves as homeport for this fleet of speedy USCG vessels . . . just north of the Narrows.

Yesterday’s post featured a Robert Allan tug in Italy; here’s Fire Fighter II,  the latest Robert Allan-designed fireboat in the sixth boro.

Special trash skimmer DEP Shearwater . . .  I’d love to hear more about it, and is Jamaica Bay still around also?

I believe this is an NYS Environmental Conservation vessel over by SUNY Maritime;  Wednesday it was having a hard time dragging some docks . ..  horsepower YES but torque NO.

Foto #3 thanks to Captain Zizes.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelateds:  Has no one gotten a foto of Cangarda in the past 36 hours?  Does the unique vessel only steam Captain Nemo-style under concealment of night?

And the NYTimes CityBlogs had this article recently . . . a story about the tug Petersburg;  a foto of a certain deckhand handling Petersburg lines appeared here almost two years back on tugster . . . see the last foto.

Finally . ..  if you’re free Sunday night, come to BAM’s short film series for Jessica Edwards’ Tugs.  I think I’ll be there.

*Embedded in the Riker’s Island link is some interesting budget info:  Riker’s recent budget info (?.. ok this takes more sourcing) reveals that it spends $860 million at the correctional facility to “control”  [wikipedia’s term] 14,000 inmates with 7000 corrections officers and an additional 1500 civilians;  less than 20 miles to the southeast, Nassau Community College (NCC)  spends $200 million to serve 22,000 students with 740 fulltime professors number currently in flux)  and  an undetermined (by me) number of parttime professors and administrative folks.  I realize that Rikers has to feed, house, etc. their 14,000 “controlees,” but also added into the equation should be that NCC students depart with skills for upwardly mobile jobs.

Other People’s Fotos 1

A general thanks for people sending me fotos.  Blogging allows some stupendous collaborations.

Thanks to M. McMorrow for sending.  Notice the cruise ship, the Intrepid, several sizes and types of tugs, as well as the Concorde!  Unfortunately, the blimp–on its way to the tennis tournament–had just escaped from the foto.

Thanks to Stephen Sisler.  Any guesses who’s atop the wheelhouse?

Do you recall that Cornell struggled in a pushing contest with The Bronx?  (That’s “struggled” to restrain all forward movement.)  The next two fotos come compliments of Jim Levantino, who saw that struggle from The Bronx having the pleasure of getting buried

deep within Cornell‘s … er … whiskers.

Here’s my foto of the very same moment, as recorded from high atop the house.

Thanks to Elizabeth … it’s a blogger fotografing within the confines of Troy’s Federal Lock.

And going back to late August, thanks to Eric Graybill, crewman on Bold  (See 6th foto down.), who sent these fotos of  Gazela making

her way, motorsailing

up Delaware Bay.  Recognize anyone on deck Gazela?  Gazela will be returning through the sixth boro in mid-October on its way to the oysterfest.  Keep your eyes peeled; this blogger will await them at the Narrows or –near the “Gate”  in the East River.

All fotos as credited.  Only the fifth foto by Will Van Dorp.

Delaware Tugs 2

Part 1 of this series looked like this.  Now more.

Madeline, 2008

Duty, 2006

Lindsey, 1989

Brandywine, 2006

More Lindsey

More Duty.

More Madeline.

More Brandywine, and Amberjack and Bold.

Of course Brandywine ranges far and wide, and these days, maybe so does Inland Sea heading south here from the Ben Franklin Bridge.

All fotos last week by Will Van Dorp.

Gazela Returns to Philly

To see an excellent Flickr foto of Gazela by Gregg M, click here.  And for an account plus video of Gazela‘s trip to New Bedford earlier this summer, click here. For my earlier pics of Gazela in Atlantic Basin Red Hook, click here.

As Gazela sailed back to Philly between daybreak last Wednesday and late afternoon Thursday, I was fortunate to be a very “green” member of the crew, my first time sailing on a barquentine.  Other vessels passed and overtook us, and I’m including those fotos here in hopes that anyone aboard these other vessels who photographed us might be willing to share those shots of Gazela.  Please do.

Gazela departs through the Narrows under a drizzle;  precipitation had been off and on for three days, delaying departure by 48 hours.  (For pics, doubleclick enlarges.)

From midships, looking aft . . . notice the crew wearing foulies.

Tanker British Serenity overtakes us outside the Narrows.  By sunset, 10 hours later, we’d motorsailed off Atlantic City, surfing swells and getting soaked with on & off drizzle.

Skies clear overnight, giving us a just-past-full moon.   I stand a midnight–6 am watch from Cape May and up Delaware Bay.  This is sunrise.

After breakfast, I nap for an hour until a lurch awakens me.  “Must be someone’s wake,” I imagine, grab my camera, and go on deck.  I believe it was Amberjack, also headed up the Bay.

Astern, two vessels are catching up to us:  broad on the port beam were EPA-Bold and Vane Brothers Brandywine.

For info on what Bold is doing in Delaware Bay and its schedule for the rest of 2010, click here.

If you have Thursday morning fotos of Gazela, please get in touch.  I have additional Bold shots.

Doubleskin 141 looks formidable as it passes and

soon leaves us astern just

southeast of the PSEG power plants.  By the way, light was unfavorable to get fotos of the five wind turbines in Atlantic City.

Amsterdam-registered Suomigracht passes us.  For more Suomigracht shots, click here and here.

Austin Reinauer was anchored just south of the C & D Canal.

Near the Delaware Pennsylvania line, we cross paths with Aframax tanker Amalthea, which may or may not

have delivered Venezuelan crude.

Gazela was built in Setubal, Portugal;  as such, which language might you expect here?  A primary wood used is angelique.

A trip that begins in rain might end like this:  honey colored sunshine after a trip well done, this member of the crew a little less green.

If you were on any of the vessels above and have pics of Gazela, please get in touch.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.

Many thanks to the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild and wonderful crew for the opportunity to sail.  If you are interested in volunteering, click here.  Gazela expects to be back up through the sixth boro once more this fall.