Yachts a Million 3

Here are previous installments.

I caught Invictus earlier this week as it came into the boro.  I had no idea then that by midweek, it would become newsworthy, although it would be on Page Six.  Anyone know what I’m talking about?  Answer follows.

I don’t know if this is the Invictus owner driving the tender or wearing the red shirt topside in the photo above, but this tender followed the bigger vessel in.  Invictus is US built by Delta, although it’s not US-flagged.

Lady May IV, tied up over at Chelsea Piers is Dutch built. It’s smaller than Invictus and for sale for about one-third the price of Invictus.

If I’m correct about the larger of two yachts directly below the Empire State Building, that Utopia IV, Italian built. I have seen a Utopia II and III in the boro in previous years, although I’m not sure there’s a connection.

Contina has been here before;  it appears to be Brazil built by Inace yachts of Fortaleza.  I wonder why the CO painted on the bow previously is no longer there.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, and here’s the story of Invictus, one that has to do with soccer champions, about half of whom come from California.  The rich and famous used to travel in style on ocean liners.

Again, notice the variety of shoreline backgrounds?

Related:  Here’s a conversion from commercial vessel to motor yacht Voyager I’d love to see when it’s complete.

 

Other Peoples Photos 39

Photos from Italy, Florida, and Trinidad, resp. The first photo comes thanks to Rod Clingman . . .tug Lourdes C towing Costa (not Concordia)  Fasonosa.  The second photo, thaks to Ashley Hutto, shows Florida Institute of Oceanography’s Weatherbird II–said to be first research vessel to reach Deepwater Horizon post-blowout.  The photo and the rest from S/V Maraki and my sister in Port-of-Spain.

 

Hither and Yon 2

This looks like but is not a “scull-vaults-palms” foto.  guess the location?

Here’s a bit more context.  Answer follows.

Different context . . . know this vessel and location?  Given the five boros’ idea these days for a BIG WHEEL on the waterfront, these things are recyclable!!  You can buy a preowned wheel or even rent one.    Who knew!?@!!  Also, note the stealthy one hoping to catch a ride on the floating pier?

Vessel is Geo Caspian, and AIS says therefore this must be Cape Town.

Here’s Colin from Cape Town on what she does:  “Geo Caspian finds out what rock is on the bottom of the sea in order to have a better idea if the rock is likely to be oil bearing or not.  She tows up to 16 wires and microphones and compressed air guns behind the ship and banging off with the guns a bit underwater and collecting the echo reflected from the bottom of the sea. The whole spread of cables astern can be up to 8,000 metres long and to get it to be wide as well they have foils in the water to spread the wires apart.  There are also “birds” connected along the tubes which carry all this stuff.The birds are able to move their wings so as to guide the instruments up or down deeper and are controlled from the ship.  A lot of this stuff is in plastic flexible tubes which contain light oil of the correct specific gravity to neither sink or pop out on the surface.   All this stuff is controlled with large winches in the stern and there are compressors there as well that produce compressed air at a very high pressure which is fed to the compressed air guns to make the noise under water.  The ship is guided by satnav as to where they want to survey and the information gathered goes to head office by satellite as well as being stored on tapes to be flown back when the ship enters port.”

Also in Cape Town at the moment is CS Leon Thevenin.  She replaces CS Chamarel, which was lost off Namibia in August 2012.

The four Cape Town fotos all come from Colin in Cape Town.  Colin and Pamela Syndercombe sent along info and fotos of the move overland of the South African steam tug Alwyn Vintcent;  click here for the latest newsletter on this project. The top two I’m using thanks to Maureen, who got the fotos on the scull on the Tiber in Rome.  Last spring Maureen sent these intriguing fotos from Venice.

For  info on a manufacturer of big wheels . . . a la Staten Island, click here.  Click here and scroll all the way down for pics of big wheels in different cities.

Really Random Tugs 6

Beat the heat . ..  by imagining change:  well, eastriver suggested the sixth boro annex the Conch Republic.  Hmmm.  Since the sixth boro is an archipelago like the Keys, maybe we could confederate the American archipelagos (besides the two already mentioned, we’d join with the Thimble Islands, the Thousand Islands, the Channel Islands, the Salish Islands, and maybe establish diplomatic relations with all archipelagos smaller than . . . Long Island, giving us many of the Antilles, a smattering of Pacific nations,  the Aeolian Islands and Greek Islands.   I know I’ve left many out, but it’s already sounding like good company in my heat-addled brain.

Or defocus on the scorching temperatures by looking at fotos below?

First one is a “tugster-sighting” just north of the sixth boro snapped by Joel Milton.  Tugster is on the foredeck of Patty Nolan  (1931) sans figurefigure as she tows sailing vessel sans-servingsails Lickity-Split some weeks back, here passing the Englewood Cliffs boat basin, I believe.

Next foto from John Watson . . . Eddie R (1971) towing a mystery barge.  Any guesses its mission?

Answer comes from Les Sonnenmark, longtime friend of the tugster blog:  it’s a cable-laying barge operated by Calwell Marine.  Info on the barge can be found in this pdf . . . starting on the unnumbered page 6ff.    In fact, this barge may be related to the work of Dolphin III in the sixth boro last summer:  click the link to “marine contractor” above the last foto in this post you find here.

Foto by tugster near the Chesapeake City Bridge as 2011-launched Mako ensures Penn No. 81 makes

its way Chesapeake-bound.  More info on the pilotboat in the background soon.

Foto by Jed of Vickie M McAllister (2001) docked at McAllister’s Blount Island yard on the St John’s River .

Foto by G. Justin Zizes Jr. of Kathleen Turecamo (1968)  and

and Matthew Tibbetts (1969) both high and dry at Caddell Shipyard in Staten Island.

Foto from Lou Rosenberg of Aegean Sea (1962) near Rockaway Inlet.  Aegean Sea used to

be called, in order,  Francis E. Roehrig, Jersey Coast, and John C. Barker.

This yard tug in Mayport seems to have a protection  bar, but in spite of the

the numbers on the stern, I’ve found no info on this type.  Fotos by tugster.  Orange bow on the right side of foto belongs to C-Tractor 13.

A final shot of Patty Nolan and Lickety Split headed upriver.

Thanks to Joel, John, Les, Jed, Justin, and Lou.

Only tangentially related:  For info on YTB-832, previously based in Mayport and now possibly in Greece by way of Italy, click here.

And an even less tenuous tangential connection to these fotos of vessels of  La Guardia di Finanza, which sounds like what our government is supposed to do but actually refers to something quite different . . . .  What it is can be found here.

More fotos will be forthcoming from the Conch Republic, a possible future residence.

Really Random Tugs 4

Really random . . . starts with this foto thanks to Maureen Cassidy-Geiger.  More of hers to come, fotos of other waters directly accessible FROM the sixth boro of NY and NJ.  This foto of unidentified cruiser and tug was off Livorno, Italia.   Hmmmm . . . maybe we need a new government agency with initials SBNYNJ . . . another place to get permits from and provide studies for . . . hmmm   NAH!!

Here’s a closer up.  Might it be the tug  seen in this youtube?  Here’s an article about some new Robert Allan designed tugs in that port.

Next two fotos from Bill Whateley showing a tug delivering a crane barge off the island of

Spinalonga east of Iraklion, Crete.  Bill usually blogs about the South Devon coast.

Moving into the waters that ARE the sixth boro . . . Elk River and Peter F Gellatly cater to the needs of Carnival Glory at the Manhattan passenger terminal.

McKinley Sea pushes northbound along the Manhattan from the GW, and

–a foto thanks to Captain Zizes–Ross Sea eastbound towards the disused Manhattan banana piers on the East River aka tidal strait, and in roughly the same location,

Beaufort Sea yesterday headed under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges and into the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and

Margaret Moran southbound last week headed southbound after assisting Universal Amsterdam with raw cane crystals for my “unprocessed”  friend “sugar,”  while

a miniscule white ball line (?) tug pushes Islip tug Barbara Ann in the Harlem River recently, and

Atlantic Salvor was tailed by a sailboat when Blue Marlin lingered in pre-load mode.

Thanks to Maureen, Bill, and Justin for some of these fotos.  All others by Will Van Dorp.  If you wish to share what you spot in exotic places–all accessible from the sixth boro because of the miracle of water–I’m happy to post.

Off topic:  last night northbound near Haverstraw Bay, I crossed path with –I believe–southbound steam yacht Cangarda.  Meeting this vessel around midnight in a wide, dark, calm part of the river almost seemed like an encounter in a dream, a pleasant hallucination.   Has anyone spotted her southbound on the Hudson this week?  If so, I’d love to put up your fotos;  grainy fotos I don’t like to use. . . . sorry.  Here’s a TV news report from last week about Cangarda.