Christmas Eve 2022

Can you identify this text?  “Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.”  I’ll provide the answer at the end of this post. 

Thanks much to George Schneider for sending along this “cheer,”  Wedell Foss, Port Angeles WA and taken last night.

As for me, I’m staying inside mostly today and not going out looking for Christmas Eve festivity photos, but I planned ahead and have these to share.  Know this be-decked-the-decks boat?

 

South Street Seaport Museum always decorates the boats. 

And this captain, maybe he supports his whirlwind worldwide Christmas Eve navigations by peregrinating the sixth boro days and nights all the rest of the year?  Did you realize the North Pole elf king had a USCG license?

So merry Christmas eve from tugster tower.  Thanks for reading the blog, commenting, sending along photos, sending me cards, sharing tips, and especially leaving me off the list when the subpoenas go out. 

Now that quote . . . I remember friends used to have posters on their walls with that text way back when.  Here’s more:

“… As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit….

Whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.”   It’s Max Ehrmann’s Desiderata.  That link gets you the whole short text.

Since it was 7 degrees F this morning in the sixth boro, here are some southern Christmas tips, southern as in Chile, that is.  I think of warm Chile in northern winter because around the five boros and beyond, it’s where our road salt comes from.  

Many thanks to George for sending along the photo, and the ferry captain for transporting cheer around the sixth boro.  Gary Steele, thanks for reminding me about Desiderata, product of Terre Haute IN. 

If you have your own tugsteresque seasonal photos you wish to share, please send them. 

Pairs in Fall

I’ve seen lots of pairs in winter, some in spring, but never until now in fall, at least not acknowledged until this post.

Two sets of pairs appear below, one Centerline and another Moran, the latter escorting in CSCL South China Sea.

Ellen and Patrice here are going to different jobs.

Mary Turecamo and James D Moran here work on the CSCL box ship.

Lots are boats here;  clockwise from the farthest, Haggerty Girls (I think), James D, Margaret, Marjorie B, and James William.

Around 0900, a brace of migratory birds headed north . . .  F-18s maybe.

B. Franklin got an assist from Matthew Tibbetts.

Two old ferries ply their trade:  Barberi with the highest flagpoles and Marchi.

Two top of the line sixth boro McAllister tugs joins forces.

Two old style boats:  Manhattan II and Wanderer, the latter from the Sippican River.

And finally, this juxtaposition passed and allows a comparison of the lines of the 2015 6000 hp Kirby Moran with the 2008 5100 hp Laura K.

All photos in the past week, WVD.

People on the Boro 33

Keyport Princess dropped anchor in front of the Statue the other morning.  Does anyone need more proof that fish are currently thriving in the boro?

Climate Change also came through the boro from the Sound, no doubt heading for warmed waters for the next half year, but while transiting, 

this boater takes in the beauty of the day in the seas’ water of the boro.

Red Hook and RV Blue Sea pass each other, making me wonder what the students might be learning about the GUP vessel it’s passing.

James William alternates between containerized trash and crushed rock.  Here a deckhand has pleasant weather for the job. 

Over in Whitehall, three workers on a beam

attend to maintenance on a “wall” of the ferry rack. 

Hayward periodically serves as a boro VIP excursion vessel.

The intended purpose of that boom is fishing out floating or sunken debris that might pose a hazard to navigation. 

Pioneer takes another set of folks around the sylvan edges of the Upper Bay to enjoy the warmth of the waning year.

And finally, I’m grateful that in the design process for the latest generation of ferries, decisions were made to ensure that Sandy Ground and her two sisters have ample space for folks to enjoy the views as they transit the Bay.

All photos, WVD, who himself loves this time of year.

Brinn Courtney and RS815

All day long, one ferry or another crosses the harbor, and one tug or another

travels light from point A to

point B and

makes up to another vessel

to move it to where it’s needed.

I was fortunate to see this vignette

of one part of someone’s day play out.

All photos, WVD.

Crushed stone is a commodity indispensable for construction.  Previous commodity posts can be seen here from 2010, here 2011, here 2013, here 2017, and many other instances not identified as such, like this one.

Random Sixth Boro 13

Here was the post I’d planned for yesterday, put together in a moment when I thought a single focus was too elusive, random scenes, like a container ship anchored off Stapleton, elusive detail in a set all diverging from usual patterns. 

Or seeing a Mein Schiff vessel in town after a hiatus… with Wye River passing along her stern?

Or this bayou boat discovering it offers solutions all over the boro and beyond, here passing a lifting machine?

How about this speedboat chasing a tugboat, or appearing to, with lots of hulls in the distance?

Or a single terrapin crawling out of the surf in a non-bulkheaded margin of the wet boro?

Two pink ONEs at Global terminal?

A ketch named Libra or Libre heading south with a scrap ship at Claremont?

Two commercial vessels out at Bayonne?

Two Ellens?

And finally two elongated RIBs with

camouflage-clad Coasties aboard?

All photos, seen as slight deviants from existing patterns, WVD.

 

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 15

Here’s the newest, following directly from 12 for Sandy Ground and 10 for SSG Michael H. Ollis.  Or how about a redux for both. 

Now unless ferry and tug travel on a maglev frictionless cushion of air when offshore and distant, this is just the fata morgana effect when the vessels are seen a ways off, in this case, about six miles.   In the photo below, there’s a hint that Sarah Dann is riding on a foil board, 

and that the ferry has a dreadnought shaped hull.

Well . . . I’m just messin’.  These were photos of yesterday’s arrival of the third of three new ferries.  Note New York Media Boat out to snap their first welcome photos. Photos of the christening down in Florida happened months ago here.

Here the tow enters the Narrows, and the ocean called the Upper Bay, where Dorothy Day will transport hundreds of thousands and even millions of passengers in the next decades.

Ellen McAllister moves in close, not to provide the assist but rather to convey photographers needing to confirm that the vessel is in fact a ferry for the City of New York.  confirmation provided andn documented.

 

All photos, WVD, who’s ridden aboard MHO but not yet Sandy Ground. 

For reportage on all three newest ferries, check out this report from New York Media Boat here.

 

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 10 and 12 Redux

Less than a year ago, MHO came into town . .   MHO?  It appears to be the accepted abridged nomenclature for the ferry SSG Michael H. Ollis. I had wondered how that long name would evolve in common parlance.

MHO looks like this . . . key in on the rescue boats and the double doors midships.  But since I was riding MHO, I wondered what I’d missed in my time away, so somewhart belatedly, i snapped this photo.

Later I caught that “other” new ferry at St George . . . .  See the name?

There we have it . . . it’s taken about half a year for Sandy Ground [aka SG?]  to get from first arrival to being in service.

All photos yesterday, WVD.

Happy Lady and the Green Giants

I’ve posted a lot of unusual ship names here over the years. 

If you don’t read Greek, as I don’t, the one above and below are the same ship, just from different angles.

Triton is a 14k+ teu vessel, making it quite the giant. 

Whether it’s jolly or not, i can’t tell.  It is truly jam-packed.

Over on the far side of Triton, yup, that’s Happy Lady.

 

Justine, Ava, and Ellen all played a role in getting Triton safely into if not out of the sixth boro.

 

Taipei Triumph is a bit newer and has roughly the same teu-capacity. Notice how small the ferry Barberi, which is closer, looks in comparion.

Gregg McAllister is working the starboard bow, 

with an untethered JRT Moran following, and Bruce A. ready when needed.

Bow and stern on the two green giants are slightly different.

Other than the sixth boro setting, the escort tugs, my framing in the post, and the fact that all the photos were taken by me, WVD, they are unrelated.

Anyone catch the vessel in this post that I did not acknowledge in any way?

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 12

How about a new day, a new month, a new year, and a new hull in the sixth boro!  Can you recognize the profiles sans color?

As it passes Norton Point inbound, you begin to make out the color.

Once well inside Gravesend Bay–that’s the west end of Coney Island in the background–the colors increase in their vividness.

Here is the moment when the new ferry,

Sandy Ground, actually enters the Upper Bay portion of the boro, where she will work, if ferry JFK is her model, until the year 2078!!  That’s 56 years from now, and I’ve no clue what the sixth boro will look like–or what vessels will traffic it– 56 years from now.  Here‘s more context on Sandy Ground, Staten Island.

Once she was inside the VZ Bridge, I ran from South Beach, where I got the photos above, to Fort Wadsworth, and caught Margaret Moran sidling up to Sarah Dann.

I first thought the final portion of the tow would be Margaret‘s, but I was wrong; 

while Susan Miller provided a close-up platform, Margaret then delivered

crew to the new ferry, and

lines came across from Doris Moran, the tailboat for the last several miles to Caddell‘s , where the protective gear will be removed and the ferry prepped for service. 

 

By this hour, the fog had cleared just enough that the iconic skyline of Brooklyn and Manhattan was blotted out, giving the illusion that the tow is still at sea. 

All photos December 31 morning by WVD, who likes illusions and unreality sometimes.

Healthy, harmonious, hard-working, hearty 2022 from all of us at tugster tower.

And if you’re not going on a First Hike today, check out Trevor’s Seapixonline from New Zealand and beyond.  Tell him tugster suggested it.

For some other high profile tows done by Sarah Dann recently, click here.

 

Orange Government Boats

Look at the Staten Island ferries at St George.  “They all look the same,” I once asserted to bowsprite.  She set me straight.   Right now the second Ollis-class, soon to be newest hull in the boro, is making its way up the Jersey coastline at the end of a towline, its bow and windows boarded up for protection from waves.

So on this New Year’s Eve eve, let’s do an out-with-the-old . . . .  John F. Kennedy, currently the oldest–in service since 1965!!–will be the first out.  In fact, a fly on someone’s wall says

she’s already out of service. By the way, who were you in 1965, or what were you listening to?  Or, what were you driving or drooling over?  Watching?

Barberi [1981] will be next out, along

with Newhouse. 

 

And in the with new . . .  seen here next to the 1986 Alice Austen.

SSG Michael H. Ollis has been the training vessel for all three ferries of the newest class. She arrived in August here.  Whether at the dock being prepped or

running the harbor and practicing arrivals and departures, Ollis and her crew have been busy.

All photos, recently, WVD, who can’t wait to ride the new ferries and who hopes to get photos of the newest, newest hull in the boro tomorrow.

See my story on Ollis on page 18 here.