Contact?

Damaged?  Spamaged!  15:10:59?

15:10:40?

15:14:05?

15:15:39?

The wind was howling!  Bravo to the crews of all the vessels, and Shelby . . .  the world’s only tugboat with wings.

Fotos by Will Van Dorp.

And this video is fine, but “unceremoniously aboard a barge “    what is this?  If a “barge” is regal for the diamond jubilee queen, why is it NOT for Enterprise?

Voyage of the Starship Enterprise

Six weeks ago, the Shuttle Enterprise flew over the sixth boro; today the saga continued.

14:46 . . .  the tow moves through Grassy Bay and Winhole Channel with JFK Airport in the distance.  This too is the sixth boro.

14:51 . . . it passes just beyond the approach to the Beach Channel Swing Bridge of the A subway, yes . .  subway.

15:13 . . . with an assist from Susan Miller, the tow squeezes through and makes

for the Cross Bay Memorial Bridge, where several hundred watch . . . and are watched.  Folks on the bridge cheered and excited baitfish churned up the surface a mere 52 feet below.

Shelby leads and

Kathleen tails.   USCGC 47315 Sandy Hook flanks.

Whoever rode those subways got a show.   And given the challenge of fitting through the rail bridge on the gusty day it was, I guess it could be said that shuttle and tug crews demonstrated they could “boldly go where no shuttle has gone before.”

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

For John “Control Geek” Huntington’s take, click here.  We happened to be on the same bridge watching the same unique event and so mesmerized by it, we didn’t even realize we rubbed elbows!!

Patty Nolan’s Travels

The first time I saw Patty was on the foto here (fifth one) although when Jed sent that foto, neither he nor I could identify it.    Ultimately I met Patty and her guardians (She accepts no other terms.)  About two years ago I had the good fortune of crewing for a similar tow.  Sunday I happened to glance at AIS and saw this blip just west of SeaGate/Norton Point, which told me to mobilize the hot air balloon/photography team**.

As we zoomed in, we caught Patty and tow . . .with West Bank Light in the distance, and …

the Parachute Jump off to port her port.

This has all the appearance of a “Patchogue floating home”  coming across

the west end of Jamaica Bay, with its antipodes Breezy Point to the left and Norton Point to the right.  For a post I did two years ago about the fascinating but incongruous wildlife in Jamaica Bay, click here.

For you outatowners, Patty and house are traversing the sixth boro, that central previously-unnamed core

of New York City, with its Barren Island-turned-airfield-turned-Barren Island Park and

its distant views of Manhattan cliffs, and its

other 32 islands in Jamaica Bay alone.  This too is Brooklyn!

And looking over into Queens and then Long Island, that in the distance is JFK (ex-Idlewild) Airport.  After delivering its tow, Patty races

back upriver with a favorable tide.

**Oh . . . I lied about the hot air balloon.  A total fabrication . . . a shameless bit of dissembling that was, but it sounds so much more exciting than the prosaic “I hurried to southern Brooklyn for a shot from Gil Hodges Bridge.”

The final shot here of Patty in stealth mode trying to blending into April foliage . . . thanks to bowsprite.  All others by Will Van Dorp, virtual hot-air balloonist photographer.

Someone asked why Patty has an awning:  in addition to commercial tows, she does picnic charters!!  A virtual Patty-of-all-trades.

Safe Travel

If you must travel this weekend or summer, be safe.  And you might consider taking your house with you . . . either the actual house or some some of it.  You house needs to get out.  It might be tired of the same scenery all the time, or

the same neighbors, lawn,  or landscaping.

Your house walls hear you talking about the big city . . . well, it may just want to see it once.

It may have heard you talk of large elegant houses that float . . . like Norwegian Epic, and might desire to catch a momentary even blurry glimpse of such miraculous things.

Your house might seek adventure and stay out all night!  See where the wild side leads.

It might crave a sunrise in a most unimagined location.

If so, get in touch with Patty Nolan . . .  the tugboat with the figure figure.  No, she didn’t get a new bikini for this season, but who cares.  She’s one prodigious guide.

More later.  I’m away, and so may be our houses, hausmann and hausfrau.   Please be safe whatever the reason for your travel . . . be it distraction, catchup, business, work, pleasure.  See you soon.

Any resemblance to events or persons or houses is only coincidental.  If you saw something like this, it was possibly a mirage.

At Play Near J-Bay

Forces at play include:  sun, earth, season, tide, surf, and many more.  J aka Jamaica Bay is not not more than 10 nautical miles (goose-flying miles) from Manhattan, about the same distance the Meadowlands is, if you continued that straight line between my vantage point and the Empire State Building, then beyond.

Here’s a map.  Doubleclick to enlarge;  see “you are here” and continue clockwise around the indicated yellow path and look toward Duck Point Marshes;   Manhattan is to the northwest.  J-Bay is an NPS area.  Click here for info on the National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy.

See the Verrazano Bridge on the far side of Floyd Bennett Field.

Osprey respond to all those same forces at play.

On the far side of a pond, a wildlife volunteer (aka midwife?) observes an egret,

a snowy egret, gossiping and waiting . . .  as they all are.

So what’s this volunteer doing?  Note the pendant and the red dot.

After the eggs get laid–prompted by all these forces–

and a thorough burying process happens,

the red-dot mama gets weighed, and all relevant info gets encoded.  I saw a half dozen egg-layers summoned by the forces in a one-mile walk in the preserve yesterday.  A year ago, on the northeast side of J-Bay, the terrapin shut down JFK.  See the story here.

Humans think the terrapin obey signs?    From the volunteer, I learned that another force at play here is an overpopulation of raccoons.  And for hatchlings, predators include wading birds and voracious fish.

Well, it’s time for us all to kick back and enjoy all those same forces at play:  Saturday . . . Coney.    Or if you’re upriver . . .  Clearwater.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, himself beset by forces and tribal ritual of spring.

For info on terrapin mating, see here and here.

For another rite of spring in the sixth boro, click here.