Bruce, Meloi, and Ellen

and that would be in order of appearance.  

But check out this lead photo, a scene  no longer so common in the sixth boro, a ship being escorted in the direction of Manhattan and 

then turning into the East River.

When you see that, it likely means aggregates, cement, or shipyard.

I was fortunate to follow Bruce A. McAllister and Meloi as they made their way toward the Brooklyn Bridge earlier this week.  Here’s info on the Japan-built, Panama-flagged, and Greek-owned bulker.

I’m supposing the name is Greek, but other meanings of that word, that spelling in other languages, exist. 

 

I’ve been unable to determine where the aggregates originated, but where they’ll reside for the next century is in five boros’ construction.

 

All photos, WVD. 

 

Random Sixth Boro 13

Here was the post I’d planned for yesterday, put together in a moment when I thought a single focus was too elusive, random scenes, like a container ship anchored off Stapleton, elusive detail in a set all diverging from usual patterns. 

Or seeing a Mein Schiff vessel in town after a hiatus… with Wye River passing along her stern?

Or this bayou boat discovering it offers solutions all over the boro and beyond, here passing a lifting machine?

How about this speedboat chasing a tugboat, or appearing to, with lots of hulls in the distance?

Or a single terrapin crawling out of the surf in a non-bulkheaded margin of the wet boro?

Two pink ONEs at Global terminal?

A ketch named Libra or Libre heading south with a scrap ship at Claremont?

Two commercial vessels out at Bayonne?

Two Ellens?

And finally two elongated RIBs with

camouflage-clad Coasties aboard?

All photos, seen as slight deviants from existing patterns, WVD.

 

Carfloating 2

This series goes back more than a decade to here. 

But this is only the second time the 2019 NYNJR200 (rail) carfloat is identified.  Metal Trades of Yonges Island SC built it less than a half dozen years ago. 

The previous time the carfloat appeared here, it was handled by the Brown boats, now history.  James E. Brown is now Kayla T.  Any updates on Thomas J. Brown?

The contract to move cross-harbor rail is currently with McAllister, and Marjorie B. does that and other jobs daily. Click here and here for more on this car floating operation. 

There’s also a NYNJR100 float here.

All photos this week, WVD.

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 15

Here’s the newest, following directly from 12 for Sandy Ground and 10 for SSG Michael H. Ollis.  Or how about a redux for both. 

Now unless ferry and tug travel on a maglev frictionless cushion of air when offshore and distant, this is just the fata morgana effect when the vessels are seen a ways off, in this case, about six miles.   In the photo below, there’s a hint that Sarah Dann is riding on a foil board, 

and that the ferry has a dreadnought shaped hull.

Well . . . I’m just messin’.  These were photos of yesterday’s arrival of the third of three new ferries.  Note New York Media Boat out to snap their first welcome photos. Photos of the christening down in Florida happened months ago here.

Here the tow enters the Narrows, and the ocean called the Upper Bay, where Dorothy Day will transport hundreds of thousands and even millions of passengers in the next decades.

Ellen McAllister moves in close, not to provide the assist but rather to convey photographers needing to confirm that the vessel is in fact a ferry for the City of New York.  confirmation provided andn documented.

 

All photos, WVD, who’s ridden aboard MHO but not yet Sandy Ground. 

For reportage on all three newest ferries, check out this report from New York Media Boat here.

 

Random Tugs 379

Janet D, product of 2015, comes in a 67′ x 26′.

 

Ellen McAllister, the oldest here launched in 1967, measures 102′ x 29′.

Marjorie B McAllister, from 1974, is bigger than I imagined . . .   112′ x 30′.

The two McAllister tugs were heading to assist tanker Sakura Belle, 26960 dwt contained within 558′ x 88′, launched in 2011.

Janice Ann Reinauer, the newest tugboat here, came off the ways in 2020.  She measures 113′ x 35′.

 

And finally, doing dredge spoils runs, we have Douglas J, 2004, 110′ x 38′ and

 

Atlantic Enterprise, 1976, and the largest tugboat in this post, measuring 136′ x 40′.

 

All photos, this week, WVD.

Random Tugs 378

Let’s jump back to the present . . .  and Doris Moran, both light

and moving containers across the harbor to the other container port back fields. If I count right, that’s 160 containers not on chassis pulled by trucks on the BQE, SIE, or other such clogged arteries.

Brinn Courtney is moving a scow, as

is Eastern Dawn.

Mister Jim and all the CMT boats seem to

be getting

a makeover.

Marjorie B. might be going to pick up her daily train cars.

Kimberly Poling basks in the dawn liight.

All photos, recently, in the sixth boro, WVD, who won’t be in the boro for the rumored tugboat race this weekend.  If you’re out there, take photos, especially ones with splash!

 

Random Tugs 376

I am way out of the boro again and hoping to leave the bayous in the desired fashion.  So yes, the robots are back on the button, sticks, and levers.  The robots seem to love posts like this, random collections of mostly tugboat traffic,

like Ava escorting MSC Christiana out of the port, while

Timothy follows.  MSC Christiana is currently following the West African coastline, east to west.

Durham must have been working all night and was entering the Kills from the Upper Bay.

Vane’s Brooklyn was eastbound and met

Mister T.

Andrea went to rejoin her barge, and

Jordan looks resplendent in her new livery.

We started with Ava, so she makes the last image as well,

standing by as Mustafa Dayi waits, anchored in a location where container ships rarely do.

All photos, WVD, with posting by the tugster tower robotic team!

 

Helen’s Last Waltz Redux

If it seems I’m doing a lot of redux, etc. these days, my explanation is that 2012 was a great time for my being out there taking photos.  It was entirely by chance that I walked past this scene on July 17, 2012 before 0900.  I can’t even remember why I was there.  Now it matters no more because as soon as I saw this, scuttlebutt told me what was happening.  A towline on Helen‘s stern after all those years meant

she was moving.  I raced around Peking to get a different perspective.   She was indeed being towed out and made fast to the car float with the green spud.

I saw McAllister Responder there, but I had’t figured out why, yet.

After spinning around (does Decker have z-drives?!!)  [just kidding], deckhand made up head to head with Helen on Decker‘s port side, and

began to move astern.

At the same time, Responder crawled astern on the far side of the opening.  Now it wasn’t until today, studying these photos, that I noticed the crewman about midships on the stern deck.  Would that have been the late Capt. Brian?

But as I said, I hadn’t noticed that person until today. He shows up in another photo. 

Once Decker had Helen out of the “anchorage” enough that Responder could take Helen alongside, Decker threw off her lines and

 Responder took over as dance partner for the the 1900 Helen. Notice the crewman on the stern deck?

Away they went on

might have been Helen‘s last transit of the Buttermilk channel.

All photos, WVD, who last posted photos of Helen here half a year ago.

One of the photos from this July 2022 event was memorialized here, I’m happy to report.

 

Lynne M. Rose

Years ago [in 2008] I caught a mega-Bouchard tug in the KVK.  It was Danielle M., now Rebekah Rose.

But yesterday I saw the much newer sister of the boat from 2008.  Escorted into the Arthur Kill by Ellen McAllister and another tug,

and pushing RCM 270, a 250,000 bbl barge, it was

the massive 144′ x 44′ and 10,000 hp tugboat

wearing the livery and stack logo of Rose Cay Maritime.

 

Welcome

Lynne M. Rose.  Check the spelling.

According to AIS, she made a six-day eighteen-hour trip to the sixth boro from Corpus Christi, a port I’ve yet to visit, although I will only go there in winter months.

Any errors and all photos, WVD.

While doing this post, I came to realize I’d seen this very boat before, back on December 1, 2021 here

and here at the Bollinger yard in Algiers, LA.

Enjoy this contrasting parting shot.

 

Random Tugs 375

Random and quick for now .  . . the 2015 Janet D makes her way across the Bay.

 

The 1974 Marjorie B. McAllister  moves its car float float from NJ to NY.

 

The 1996 Martin Explorer and her barge has been in town at least once before here a little over a half year ago.

 

 

And finally, the 2012 Jordan Rose came into the sixth boro for the first time as Evening Star a decade ago. 

Here‘s a post from five years ago when Evening Star was still painted in red and yellow.

All photos this week, WVD.