From the Line Locker 30

Have you read or heard references to a “trackless sea” or “trackless deep”?  Last night I was looking a “whole ocean” views of traffic.  Notice the magenta stream?  Recall that the magenta arrowheads show recreational vessels.  The green (cargo ships) and red (tanker) arrowheads seem much more random, but the magenta . . . pink . . . ones, they are totally following a track.

Ditto here; notice the magenta stream showing the “coconut milk run” on the tradewinds to the west to the Marquesas, French Polynesia, and beyond from Panama.

If we look at the Indian Ocean, the red icons heading east out of the Persian/Arab Gulf and the green ones heading both ways around southern Africa . . .  does rush hour on highways around any major metropolitan center come to mind?  It does for me.

Given all the sea shanties dating from the 19th century and references to Cape Horn, how about a shanty or two about the Cape of Good Hope?

Tracks in the southern Atlantic form an X. Try it out yourself.  Without AIS, we’d still talk of “trackless seas.”

A “little sister” Statue of Liberty will be displayed on a sixth boro island later this month and next.  Note the photo credit;  I wonder if the half-ton statue will arrive by CMA CGM water cargo or air cargo.

And finally . . . thanks to a Great Lakes mariner for this page from the Detroit Marine Historian Newsletter.  Grouper was a name yet to be when that publication hit the stands. The auction info is here.

I use the term “line locker” where some might say “miscellaneous.”  That’s the bright red hull of Issuma a decade ago as it encountered a local mammal while transiting the Northwest Passage.  You might wonder what became of Richard Hudson and his boat.  The good news is that he’s still sailing, and the better news is that he’s creating a rich offering of sailing videos on YouTube.  Check them out here. 

Screen grabs, WVD.

 

Flags of Convenience 4

That declaration . . . it’s good to read it now and again, especially these days.  And since I choose to post at noon, this post will be up for half the holiday, even if the holiday is NOT the actual date the document was signed.

In civilian life, flags are freely displayed, without compulsion.  The current US flag is the 27th design.  Careb also flies the AGLCA banner and the flag of New Mexico, a location impossible to navigate to.

 

Tug Churchill and sailing canal boat Lois McClure each fly a flag, every day under way and not just on holidays.

The signers–SOME of the delegates to the Second Continental Congress–remained committed in their discussions despite their many disagreements.   A number of delegates would not sign. And the country has been the greatest possible ever since, mistakes notwithstanding.

All photos and sentiments by Will Van Dorp.

Previous flag posts can be read here.

 

Atlantic Basin 1

(Back in New York)  You’ve seen this before here.  No, it’s not named for a boat competition, as someone suggested to me yesterday.  The paint is spiffied up, but

imagine my surprise and delight when

Cape Race glided into Atlantic Basin yesterday under

her own power, accompanied by music from her own Cat 3512.

Ah joy!  Eggs hatch (or make delicious souffles), apples ripen, oysters open, bread rises, and projects evolve.  Click here and here for festivities in Atlantic Basin last year, and come

check out this calendar of July events planned there this month and next, including Underwater New York (Check out their “An Oral history of Atlantis“)  and a movie about Poppa Neutrino.

First five fotos by Will Van Dorp.  Composite by Carolina Salguero.  By the way, if you do Facebook, you could befriend Mary Whalen, the 613-ton ambassador (See post for 2/20/2008).

Tangentially related and from the other side of the continent, check out these blog posts (thanks to Tom Larkin)  on

Log broncs (a variation on truckable tugs)

Seattle’s Tug race

A collage of wooden boats and other delights.

Fireboat

Unrelated:  See a new blog on my blogroll:  the Newtown Pentacle; Newtown, as in the Creek.  Also, another swimming post from Capt JP on swimming with urchins.  Oh, the stories I could tell about my close encounters with fire coral in the Red Sea.  Leave it to Frogma (I added this late the other day) to tell a pleasant tale about the swimming with parrotfish and their friends.

All fotos but the one directly below were taken yesterday, but what you see below is what John J. Harvey, ex-Engine 57, Engine 86, and Marine 2, does:  in its prime, it pumped up to 18,000 gallons per minute.  And  now, the vessel and crew get invited from near and far to pump these prodigious amounts of water;  I’ll call it the wet equivalent of fireworks . . . waterworks!!

Yesterday, thanks the the Harvey crew and Bernie & friends,  I traveled Harvey the 6.5 hours to Poughkeepsie, queen of the Hudson.

Seven a.m. sharp departure was delayed by sizeable traffic in the middle of the channel (just forward of Bel Espoir 2) , but

other traffic–Comet southbound and Patapsco north–kept to the Jersey side.

At the Passenger Terminal, Taurus and Caribbean Sea stand by with a bunker barge for the sizeable traffic, shown earlier,  delivering a morning load of travellers.

Lucy Reinauer waits at anchor with RTC 83,  as Patapsco trails us, pushing fuel northbound.

Local traffic moves south with any serviceable conveyance.

Off the Palisades across from the Yonkers sugar mill,  Falcon waits.  Note that two Falcons at least inhabit the sixth boro, one is K-Sea and the other is green.  Anyone know who operates this Falcon and Socrates and where the sugar comes from?

Just north of Tappan Zee we encounter Glen Cove, pushing stone.

Patrolman Walburger Launch No. 5 greets us in that same stretch of the river.

Harvey purrs and rides very steady in minor river chop, here passing Newburgh.

Poughkeepsie is almost in view.

The captain explains the difference between the larger and smaller diameter wheels (the smaller serves as a switch to trigger the larger).

Deck crew demonstrate their impressive  line toss skill.

With only a short break before Harvey is called to perform, some crew (Carl, Huntley [captain], and Lucy) kicks back.

I wished I could have stayed but .  .

before the water fest began, many of us took the train back to Grand Central.

Waterworks, fireworks, or just plain working, Happy Independence Day.  John Adams, one of the luminaries of this day 233 years ago, suggests the following celebratory events:   “pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”  Harvey, a bell boat, brings pomp, show, water guns aka monitors, puts out bonfires, and entertains during illuminations.  I think Adams would come aboard with enthusiasm.

As you recall in enjoyment your 4 July BBQs, consider Henry Hudson’s grub of a then-insignificant-date, 4 July 1607, Gregorian calendar, bacalao, hard tack, and genever after watch.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.