Aweigh 2017

It turns out, I’ve done a post like this once before . . .  in 2012 here.  When I took the next two photos on Tuesday, I’d thought all the fleet week vessels had already departed.  Well, wrong . . . there went LHD-3 USS Kearsarge . . .

which reminded me this would be

a good time to use a photo by a jolly tar back about 10 years ago.  Notice the long-gone, long transformed Odin bunkering LHD-3….

Mid afternoon Tuesday this was a sight to behold along the East River, here approaching the Williamsburg Bridge . . . whatzit?

It’s another of the fleet leaving town . . . USNS Yuma (T-EPF-8).  The photo above and next two come from an alert Tony A doing his commerce on the East River.  In the photo below, it’s the green-fronted UN Building along with river with Trump Tower (dark) rising behind it.

When I caught notice of this, I thought I could hurry to Fort Wadsworth to catch photos of Yuma with Manhattan behind it, but my underestimation of  EPF’s speed and the coincidence of hitting every stoplight on Bay Terrace meant that when I got to the Fort,

Yuma was already making almost two dozen knots and headed for Norfolk, a trip that took less than 24 hours.

The EFTs are a further evolution of the HSTs, which I posted about here. By the way, Alakai was renamed USNS Puerto Rico, but then later that name was removed, since there’s a new EFT with the name USNS Puerto Rico in the offing.   So is the former Alakai now nameless?

Many thanks to Tony A for sending along the East River photos. Thanks to JED for the Odin/USS Kearsarge shot, and all the others by Will Van Dorp.

Happy June!

Sixth Boro Seven Plus

Sometimes I like to start new categories so that the numbers don’t get so high, boats no longer extant or frequent get a second look, and we realize that time is passing pretty fast.  So all the photos here I took more than seven years ago.  Some have been on the blog before, but not together and not edited exactly as they are now.

Like Norwegian Sea, she used to be a wintertime staple running up the River, easily recognizable by her upper wheelhouse.

Juliet is still around but not very busy under her new name . . . it seems.

This boat, like her namesake, is gone too soon. Pegasus is still around but no longer looks this way.

Zeus was on the Great Lakes after working in the sixth boro, but I’ve lost track of her.

Volunteer, another unmistakable profile, now long time gone from here.

Zachery  . . . still around and still working. High Peace is now registered Vietnamese and goes by Pvt Dolphin.

Just to break the pattern here, here’s a photo I took of Zachery a few days ago.

Take my word for this last photo . . . the distant unit I can’t identify although I’m guessing a Reinauer boat, but the closer vessel is outrageous.  Actually I mean Outrageous.  That’s the name.  Click here (and scroll) for a previous photo of Outrageous, which I believe used to be based in the sixth boro.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Time Warp 2

I did this once before here.  This time I was deleting near duplicates to limit the size of my photo library to accommodate the many photos I brought back from the gallivants, and my mind quickly formed today’s post.  Enjoy all these from August through October 2009 and marvel at how much the harbor changes.   As I went through the archives, this is where I stopped, given the recent developments in Bella Bella BC.

For background on this tug, check here.

Notice also the Bayonne approach to the bridge.

IMO 8983117 was still orange back then.

King Philip, Thomas Dann, and Patriot Service . . .

…

Odin . . .  now has a fixed profile.

And these two clean looking machines — Coral Queen and

John B. Caddell — were still with us.

This is a digression to March 2010, but since I’m in a temporally warped thought, let me add this photo of the long-gone Kristin Poling.

Back to 2009, Rosemary looked sweet here in fall scenes.

John Reinauer . . . I wonder what that tug looks like today over in Nigeria.

And Newtown Creek, now the deep Lady Luck of the Depths, sure looked good back then.

And while I’m at it, I’ve finally solved a puzzle that’s bugged me for a few years.  Remember this post from three and a half years ago about a group of aging Dutch sailors who wanted to hold a reunion on their vessel but couldn’t find the boat, a former Royal Dutch Navy tug named Wamandai A870?  Well, here’s the boat today!  Well, maybe . . .

Another boat you can dive on is United Caribbean aka Golden Venture.

Photos and tangents by Will Van Dorp.

 

Really Random Tugs 33 and More

I’m trying to catch up with the photos you all have been good enough to share on tugster.  The first five here come from some salts up on the Caloosahatchee Canal in Florida.  John Parrish was westbound here, but a week later it showed up in the sixth boro, and by publication of this post, it’s already back to Norfolk.   That’s some sea miles.  Here are some of my previous photos of John Parrish.

Also, westbound in that Canal, it’s Brittany Beyel.  She’s Beyel Brothers equipment, who have a dramatic photo on that link.

This one’s eastbound on the Canal with a crane.  I can’t quite make out the name, but the the steersman has great visibility.

Boomalong was getting hauled out.  Her fine lines made me think she has a storied past, and it turns out she does.  She began life in 1944 in Owen Sound, ON as HMCS Neville, HMCS being Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship.   She’s a Russel Brothers boat that has been around, currently quite far from

Sault Ste. Marie.

Thanks to Jed, who previously contributed many photos, here’s a photo and text:  “it’s Stephanie S (1986) returning to Port Canaveral after escorting the bulk carrier VENTURE out of the port.”

photo date 11 MARCH 2016

From Birk Thomas, it’s Barents Sea, now over in Port Newark, having moved for the first time in at least five years.  She looks rough, but I’m hoping there’s a make-over in the works for her.   If she moves again, I’d love to see some photos.

 

Here’s my photo of W. O. Decker, docked at Caddell Dry Dock, being worked on  . . . or waiting for Wavertree to make her promenade back to South Street.

From Jason LaDue, here’s a good view of the underbelly of Grouper, frequently referred to in this blog.  Such belly will be visible until the pool level of the Erie Canal is brought back up for the start of the season.  Jason’s also a frequent contributor.

Now here’s an oldie but goodie from the other JED.  It shows Labrador Sea and Taurus, significant because now that Taurus is being phased out, Labrador Sea–which had worked on the Mississippi and Gulf for the past few years, has moved back up here into Taurus‘ place, I’m told.   And they’re in K-Sea colors.

And I said “and more” in the title?  Here’s the more, a new dock book from Tony Acabono.  If it’s your business to know where berth 60 is in Port Elizabeth in relation to berth 61 in Port Newark, you might want to check it out.

Many thanks to the secrets salts and the not-so-secret ones for sending along these photos.

 

CMT Pike

Once upon a time in the sixth boro, there was a tug named Odin.  The photo below is from April 2010.

Yesterday, I first thought Odin had returned, although I know that is not possible.

Pike comes to CMT from the cleanup project up on the Champlain Canal.  Siblings of Pike back then were Hawk, Beaver, Otter, and Bass, some of which can be seen here.

For now, let me just say I love the color scheme.  For history on Pike, click here.

She’d be ideal for work on the Erie Canal, I’d think.

And if you never saw Odin, here are a few more photos from 2010, and

 

–is that a bell on the port rail?–

and one photo from September 2008, showing how high she could raise the house.  To see how low she went, click here.

Odin has since been completely (!!!) rebuilt and now looks like this, believe it or not.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Seven Seas 5

Here was 4.  Of course, many more than seven Seas exist and work east, south, and west of the United States.

Let’s start with Irish Sea, which was called something before that . . . .

taken September 2009, with Iona McAllister in Brooklyn Navy Yard

 

taken February 2016

Siberian Sea, before it was called that.

taken in 2007

 

taken in 2009

 

taken in 2013

 

taken in 2015

Barents Sea . . . .  anyone have news on her?  She too had names before it became Barents, although I suspect Barents Sea will be her last name ever.

taken in 2015

Mediterranean Sea, which  originally painted green.

taken in 2015

McKinley Sea, and I hope you get the point that all these boats had previous names.

taken in February 2016

Ross Sea, which actually shows its Thoma-Sea heritage. If you don’t know what I mean, look at the string of vessels built by Thoma-Sea just after Ross Sea was launched in February 2003. Thoma-Sea here actually makes eight seas.

taken in 2015

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Checking Back 2015 b

Picking up this retrospective post with the beginning of May 2015, it’s a nearly 40-year-old and tired Barents Sea, waiting then as now for what’ll likely be a “fish habitat” future.

The end of May saw Quantico Creek move Mary Whalen to its public space over in Atlantic Basin.  Was there a docking pilot calling it out from the drone?

Here’s first glimpse of an early June trip I’ve never reported on via this blog.  More on this vessel will appear soon–currently working in the Dominican Republic.  The red vessel in the distance is F. C. G. Smith, a Canadian Coast Guard survey boat.

Eastern Dawn pushes Port Chester toward the Kills.

July opens with the ghost of Lafayette arriving back in the harbor aboard L’Hermione. Click here for the set of posts I did about this person. 

I’m omitting a lot from my account here;

The end of July brought me back to the south bank of the KVK watching Joyce D. Brown go by.   July was a truly trying month . .  is all I’ll say for now.

In early August Wavertree awaited the next step into its rehab, and I

made a gallivanting stop in New Bedford, a place I’d not visited in too long.

 

All photos by will Van Dorp.

Waiting 2

Here was the first in the series.  That one ended on a “back-to-work” note.

This one . . . probably will not have a happy ending, unless of course you’re a fish looking for structure or a diver wanting to explore.  Here’s a view of the vessel pre-sixth boro days. And here’s the last time I saw her run.   Call Barents Sea high . . . and potentially wetter and wetter.

Have a look while you can.

When she gets reefed, I’d love photos.

Thanks to Birk, here’s her history.

Click here for a guide to fishing and diving on New Jersey reefs.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 138

Most if not all of these vessels have appeared here before, but bear with me because a surprise follows.

Gramma Lee T Moran,

Margaret  Moran, 

Brendan Turecamo, 

Ruby M with dredge Glenn Edwards in the distance,

Eric McAllister,

Emerald Coast going head-to-head–not really–with Red Hook,

Paul Andrew eastbound on the East River,

heading in the same direction about the same hour are Catherine Miller and

Susan Miller.  By the way, in the pic above here’s a close-up of that green sculpture almost dead center of the photo.

Ok, now we’re getting to the “different” part.  Note Maryland in December 2008 and

in early April 2015.

Ditto Baltic Sea in August 2009 and –gasp—

last year.  I concur with someone on FB who said it appears she’s been whitewashed with some trim made out of crude oil mixed with pulverized charcoal.  This is sad to see.

And these photos are from an ad that’s now over a year old.  I wonder if they changed hands . . .

Can anyone identify the other tug in the center of the photo below?

All photos except the last three by Will Van Dorp.

Change 3

Here was 2.

So let’s remember how Viking looked in 2011, and

how she looked this past week.

Ditto . . . here was Annabelle V. Roehrig is early 2008, which

looked like this in 2009.  Notice the pins in the modified bow.

And here she was this weekend, departing Bayonne with

assistance from Taurus, which itself

has changed from this in 2009 to

this today.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who along with the rest of us . . . never changes.  Ha!