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.

 

Random Tugs 229

Let’s do the numbers again.  No, Pelham is NOT becoming a tugantine in the tradition of Norfolk Rebel.  Seeing Pelham out of the water really reveals a beauty I hadn’t noticed before.

OK, numbers, built in 1960 and rated at 3000 hp.

Atlantic Coast, 2007 and 3000hp.

 

Genesis Vision, 1981 and 3000hp.

Margaret Moran, 1979 and 3000hp.

(l to r) Fort Schuyler 2015 and 3000hp, Patuxent 2008 and 4200, and Kings Point 2014 and 3000.

Note the difference in “neck” length leading to the upper wheelhouse;  that hints at the difference in engines.

Resolve, 2007 and 9280hp.

Brownsville, 2008 and 12,000hp.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who is playing in the Great Lakes by this time.

Random Tugs 221

Just to reiterate . . . random in the sixth boro these are.  And the other day, I felt blessed for reasons you’ll understand by the end of this post.  Here Atlantic Enterprise emerges from the Arthur Kill and heads for home in Newark Bay.  That church, “a scaled down copy of the great cathedral at Cologne,” makes this seem quite a European-inflected image.

I took all these photos that weather day last week . . . note how the rain in downtown Elizabeth washes out the Union County Courthouse tower.

A bit later Mister Jim enters the east end of the Kills and then

feigns a ship assist.

The mighty Patricia travels east for a scrap run.

 

as Janet D moves in the direction

of her base.

Why did I feel blessed . . . ?  In the same but of morning, I saw both Atlantic Enterprise and Atlantic Salvor

although not in the same frame, they must have met up in the DonJon yard over in Port Newark.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Weather 11

Here are the previous weather posts.  Below . . . that’s easy:  it’s a local shower;  Evening Tide and Evening Light were in the rain, and I was not, yet.

But a half hour later at the opposite end of the KVK, the clouds were truly wild.  Is there a word for these conditions?  Again, it wasn’t raining at my location.

Air currents swirled beyond the busy waterway, l to r, Stolt Loyalty, Stone 1, Phoenix Dream, Kimberly Turecamo, and Hoegh Seoul assisted by Bruce A. McAllister.

The Stolt tanker passes Graecia Aeterna before meeting the wild swirl head-on.

Add one more tug to the mix.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’d like to know what you call this type of fast-moving dispersal of fog.

 

 

12 Tugboats a

Kudos to Ginger, who guessed what the anniversary alluded to yesterday was.  Today begins year 12 of this blog.  So in the midst of all the references to CYBER- this and that, I’ll be my default contrarian self and call the next series a CYPHER series, lots of posts beginning with the number 12.  In today’s I took a photo from the top “hit” month in each year since 2006.

So in 2006, December was the top month, and the photo below (or one like it)  appeared in KVK.

In 2007, September was the top month, and this was from Historic Tug.

In 2008, June, and this was from Transitioning.

September in 2009 and from Divers 2. 

In 2010, November, and this is from Pilot and the Princesa.

June 2011, and context is Like Groundhog Day 3. 

2012, May, and Blueing Beyond the Sixth Boro. 

2013, March, and Looking for a Ship.

2014, March, and Botruc Plum Isle. 

March again in 2015, and this has context in Highway 4. 

March yet again, 2016, and Backing Down Heina. 

And finally, the greatest number of hits in 2017 was in July, likely because of the posts related to Peking‘s move. 

A reason to glance backward periodically is to see what has changed.  The corollary then is that a reason to do a daily waterblog is to record what was present when. And doing that permits me to see changes in myself and my tools.   Blogging, as you might guess, takes a fair amount of my time and guides a bulk of my focus, but it rewards me enough to continue.  I can’t say for how long, nor do I have to.  I’ve always refused to sign my boss’s multimillion dollar contract, although that might cost me the cover story on some high-profile magazine . . .

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

And let’s hear some applause for Ginger.

 

Random Tugs 210

Different day . . . different character . . .  the Hudson can have thick patches of fog, which

allow Dorothy J to slip past structures on a mysterious shore.

Farther along, Miss Gill guards some incongruous piles of

coal that surely did not arrive through the Delaware and Hudson Canal, which I visited recently but didn’t dip my foot into.

Wendell Sea waits alongside a fuel barge, and

Christiana–not a frequent visitor in the sixth boro–does in her own way

up by the GW Bridge.

 

Helen Laraway stands by scows of different sized crushed stone.

And this gets us down to the sixth boro.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Combi Dock III and the Peking Saga 3

No need for much language here.  I started these photos around 0830.  Despite some rain, conditions were ideal for this loading . . . or engulfing.

Here Dorothy J gently moves the antique barque foot by foot closer to Hamburg.

Combo-Dock III, the engulfer, lies in wait.

Robert IV assists when needed.

Without the zoom, I imagined the gentleman with the yellow helmet to stand by on the helm.

We have 20 meters and closing . . .

 

 

 

With big power on minuscule tolerances, Dorothy J eases her in.

 

 

 

The barque floats gently forward in the hold.

Lines to capstans on the heavy lift ship are doing the work, as the tugs stand by until released from service.

 

 

 

 

 

Peking is now engulfed.  Time is about 1130.  Operations to make fast and secure now begin before they head out into the Atlantic for Germany.

Many thanks to Jonathan Kabak and Jonathan Boulware for the floating platform.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp, who is thrilled to have seen this today.