Really Random Tugs 46

Happy 4th of July.  Here’s some sixth boro, some heartland, and some Pacific Northwest.  Here‘s the series.

But let’s start with Robert IV, a workhorse who last appeared in this blog here.

Hundreds of Cheyenne photos have appeared on this blog, showing her in a range of colors and trims; this photo was taken last week in Manitowoc by a Great Lakes mariner, who, by the way, at one time worked in the sixth boro.

Ellen McAllister has worked in the sixth boro longer than I’ve been taking photos here; as a result, hundreds of photos of her can be found here.

For a red-white-blue tug today, what could be better than a Nicholas Vinik photo.

 

An outa-towner has come through the sixth boro twice this week with an unusual bargeload;  bad decision-making means this is the best photo I got.  Sorry, Elizabeth Anne.  Did anyone get a better photo?  Any idea what the “marshmallow” load on that barge is?

Two of the tugs assisting in a Cosco Shipping ULCV, Brendan Turecamo and JRT Moran, seem small but bring adequate power to the task.

Another view of Cheyenne shows her location on the Manitowoc River, adjacent to Erich.

Thanks to Kyle Stubbs for sending along this photo of a raft of Boyer tugs.  L to r, it’s Sea, Billie H, Gretchen H, and Kirsten H.  You might have recognized Sea as the former Java Sea, a regular operating out of the sixth boro. Despite what’s on the bow, she’s now called Kinani H.  In the back row, that looks like Sonja H.

How about another red-white-blue boat for today?  This is from over 11 years ago. It’s the 1951 Dorothy Elizabeth, ex-Gotham, Christine Gellatly, Mobil 11, Socony 11.

To close out the set, Iron Salvor, a Vanuatu-flagged tug, is back in town. Anyone know her story . . . who she works for?

Many thanks to Great Lakes mariner, Kyle, and Tony A for some of these photos;  photos not otherwise attributed by WVD.

Random Tugs 291

Now that I’m at installment 291 of this series, I’m rethinking the adjective random.  Check out these meanings old and new here. But “random” it is until I come up with a better word.  I’d rejected the descriptor “miscellaneous” when I first started.  How about one from this list:  some, select, chance, serendipitous, entropic, stochastic . . ..

Enjoy this novel juxtaposition, Coney Island Light and Denise A., with her barge.  Denise A. is from 2014, a 4000hp tug with dimensions of 112′ x 35′ x 17′.

Marjorie B McAllister waits in the offing.  You might not guess that she’s worked since 1974 with her 4000hp and 112′ x 30′ hull.

Franklin Reinauer pirouettes her 81′ x 28′ hull right in front of me, the 1984 tug propelled by 2600 hp.

Capt. Brian A heads out for yet another job.

Meanwhile, Linda Lee Bouchard and two of her sisters, Ellen and Evening Star, bide their time at old Home Port. Linda Lee is from 2006, her 125′ x 38′ hull powered by 6140hp.  The sisters are 1982 104′ x 35′ and 3900hp and 2012 112′ x 35′ and 4000hp, respectively.

B. Franklin has been hard at work since 2012, measuring in at 112′ x 33′ and powered by 4000hp.

Robert IV came off the ways in 1975, and sometimes her  56′ x 22′ and  1050hp is just right.

More shots of Linda Lee

and Capt. Brian A.

and Evening Star.

And to conclude, hat tip to Stephen Reinauer, from 1970 and 101′ x 31′ and 3000 hp.

All photos, WVD, who thanks all who watched the Erie Canal presentation yesterday.  Here‘s more Erie Canal on Saturday.

 

 

Pilot Boat No. 1 New York Update

See the exciting announcement at the end of this post.

Sunday I got word thanks to Shipshooter–Jonathan Atkin–that the pilot boat-to-be would be moving from Caddell’s back to the Sandy Hook Pilots (SHP) base on Monday morning right around sunrise.  Pilot boat-to-be?  There’s still much work to do before she enters service.  And at 0626, I saw the shift begin, as Dorothy J pulled her away from the floating drydock that has been her home the past few months. I visited her here back in December 2019 after she’d appeared at the SHP base about a year ago.  The current SHP No. 1 New York is at sea at the sea buoy end of the Ambrose Channel.

Once clear of the dry docks, the several-mile tow got underway.

Dorothy J kept the bow pointed while Robert IV had the stern.

Just east of the salt pile, the tow was reconfigured so that Robert IV got the Pilot No. 1 on the nose.

Robert IV continued the push toward the Narrows, after Dorothy J had gone ahead.

Just off the pilot station, Dorothy J came back alongside . . .

and Pilot No. 1 slides in opposite side of the dock from Pilot No. 2 New Jersey.

 

All photos, WVD, who will update the continuing transformation as available.

Here‘s a NY Media Boat report on a day at sea on the current Pilot Boat No. 1.

The big announcement, click on the image below.  A week from today you can join me for a different type of virtual canal tour.

Random Tugs 265

A few weeks ago I posted photos erroneously identified as Dorothy J, even though plain as day Robert IV was on the bow.   That’s called distraction.  But the photo below, plain as day, is Dorothy J.  Here was Dorothy J on a foggy morning upriver almost two years ago.

Plain as day again . . .  Rebecca Ann in the KVK eastbound, and again

in a photo from Bob Stopper, plain as day way up the Erie Canal just below lock E27 with a barge loaded with reef fodder.  Here are previous photos from Bob.

Frances pushes a loaded scow westbound on the KVK, and

Janet D moves a spud barge over to the westside tower of the VZ Bridge, about to duck behind Sider Miami, previously known as Asian Prosperity.

Tug Ireland (renamed Hoppiness) has left the sixth boro for good

and is currently in the fresh waters of the Erie Canal, where I might see her soon.

Closing this post out, it’s an unnamed (to me) tug pushing a deck barge at the intersection of Hell Gate East River and the Harlem River.   The bridges there are the Triborough and the Hell Gate.

Thanks to Bob for his photo from Lyons;  all other photos by Will Van Dorp, who will be leaving the sixth boro tomorrow for a lot of weeks.

 

Dorothy J* and Oil Barge No. 6

This is a long-overdue post:  Dorothy J Robert IV has frequently appeared on this blog, but never had a post devoted to her.  And then there’s the generic-sounding Oil Barge No. 6;  I’ve often noticed that by the St George Ferry Terminal, yet I’ve not even taken a photo of it in too many years for me to checked out in my archives.

I always wondered who moved that barge, but here is proof of who moved it the other day.

Hats off, Dorothy J.  Hats off to Robert IV too. And please scroll through this link for some of the jobs she’s worked in recent years.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

*Thanks to Chris R for pointing out a quite basic error in this post.  I’ll have to do a REAL Dorothy J post to make up for this.  By way of defense, all I can say is  . . .  the heat is baking my brain.

 

Random Tugs 259

Memorial Day weekend 2019 . . .  and we should all remember the meaning, whether we’re working or vacating from work.

You can read the names on the vessels or on the tags.

 

 

 

 

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’d included no links in this post except the one that follows and which I hope you read in its entirety here.

Random Tugs 251

Here’s a different perspective on the sixth boro, different from my more usual ones.  And in this morning light, Sarah Ann looks like a beauty as she heads somewhere past Robbins Reef Light and

well . . . along that island.

Let’s continue trying to get some different POVs.  Patricia has some fine lines here accentuated by the low light of dawn.

Elk River and Hunting Creek pass, with missions in opposite directions.

Evelyn Cutler moves product for somewhere up the North River.

Paula Atwell moves garbage containers past an incoming green new shipment, and

Julie Anne, a new one for me in the sixth boro although I have posted a “down south” photo of her here, moves a scow up toward the Passaic River.  Notice that until I got to the Norfolk tugs, there were no tugs with even a drip of red paint on them in this post?

And finally, Brian Nicholas is neither a huge nor a small tug, 72′ loa, but as she passes the stern of CMA CGM Nabucco, she

looks almost like a toy.  My first reaction was excitement  . ..  erroneously thinking I’d see either the elusive  Susan E. or Elizabeth Anna.  But don’t get me wrong, greetings to Brian Nicholas!

All photos and sentiments here the product of and/or the opinion of Will Van Dorp.

 

 

Random Tugs 238

Pacific Reliance (9280 hp) transfers cargo before heading to Texas . . .

with the 155,000 bbl barge 650-1.

B. Franklin Reinauer (4000 hp) passes by

with RTC 82 (80,000 bbl, if I read that right)

and Austin (3900 hp) eastbound here light.

Dean Reinauer (4720 hp) moves westbound under the Bayonne Bridge.

Foxy 3 (1600 hp) and Brooklyn (2400 hp) wait at the dock west of Caddell Drydock.  Foxy was previously Barker Boys, and this Brooklyn, Labrador Sea.

Brooklyn on her way to a job.

Delta Fox (1200 hp) and Morton S. Bouchard IV (6140 hp) tied up here  just east of Foxy 3 and Brooklyn.

Morton S. Bouchard IV makes up the next three photos here:  in front of a Saint Lawrence like eglise

against the Brooklyn skyline, and

and still more in front of T-AKR-306 USNS Benavidez.

And let’s finish up with Patrica (1200 hp) and Robert (1800 hp).

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who alone is responsible for any errors in info here.

 

 

Random Tugs 231

Let’s start out at Little Falls NY, above Lock E-17, where Jay Bee V had just departed and was now delivering the Glass Barge to the wall there.  Notice C. L. Churchill along the left edge of the photo.

Here above Lock C-7, it’s Margot.

On the Hudson River, tis is my first closeup view of Liz Vinik, formerly Maryland.

Westbound on the East River, it’s Sea Wolf moving uncontainerized thrown-aways.

Farther east, it’s Hudson with a fuel barge,

and meeting her, it’s Morgan Reinauer with the same.

Notice here, looking toward the Queensboro Bridge, Morgan and Hudson.

Here at the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge project, it’s  Dorothy J.

and to close this post out back on the Hudson, it’s Elizabeth, moving Weeks 533.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Infrastructure 4

Thanks to John Paul for this photo of the big crane as seen the land area called Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx.   The tidal strait–entrance/exit of the Harlem river–is also called Spuyten Duyvil.  That 328′ boom shrinks the swing bridge it’s assisting with the repair of.  Of course the crane is the one that arrived from California 4.5 years ago here to raise components of the new TZ Bridge and lower the old one.

Paul Strubeck caught the crane from the water side, showing relative size of crane and swing bridge.  The higher bridge is Henry Hudson crossing.  For much more info on that bridge, click here.

I got these photos yesterday from Inwood Hill Park.  The railroad swing bridge was opened in 1900, although it was closed for most of the 1980s.  Now it carries 30 trains a day and opens about 1000 times a year, mostly for Circle Line boats.

According to this source, maintenance will focus on mechanical and electrical equipment damaged by Hurricane Sandy.   “Navigation strikes” may be another explanation.

The crane is rated at lifting capacity of 1929 tons, powered by three diesel 601 kW (806 hp) main generators and one 91 kW (122 hp) auxiliary generator provide its lifting power.  It has no propulsion power of its own.

The manufacturer is ZPMC, the same Chinese firm that provides state-of-the-art port gantry cranes here and here.

I’m not sure whose crew boat this is,

but the tugs on the scene are Dorothy J and

Robert.

Maybe I’ll find time to go back up that way tomorrow.