Eastern Lights

I was unsuccessful in seeing the spectacular aurora, but I’m sure you’ve seen others’ photos or maybe you even saw the Northern Lights yourself.  I was out very early and it was the Eastern Lights that astounded me.

The ferry’s orange pales in comparison.

I was not the only one out.

Discovery Coast was moving.  Victoria Glory was taking on fuel before heading out to sea and Houston shortly after sunrise.

Ibsa solo sailor was coming into port.  More on Transat CIC in a later post.

That eastern light before sunrise is more delicious than mango sherbet.

 

Name that tugboat?

All images, any errors, WVD.

Details Change

Below is an image I posted on February 27, 2024.  Cape Kennedy had only recently arrived, the latest in a string of government vessels getting rehabbed at Bayonne Dry Dock & Repair.

Below is a photo I took yesterday.  Notice the detail change?

From a different angle, this is the door removed from the graving dock and being escorted out of the way by Sarah Ann and Nathan G.

Wind sock and door crew monitoring the float away.

In the presence of a mustering of McAllister tugs, Samantha Miller begins Cape Kennedy‘s exit.  The McAllister tugs (l to r) are Marjorie, Timothy, Capt Brian, and Rowan.

Positions are assumed the farther out the 5083 floats.

 

 

I’m wondering if the exit is timed so that a slight current can ease her in the direction of the KVK side of the pier.

Once alongside the pier, Timothy, Marjorie, and Capt. Brian stand by as she’s made fast.  USACE Moritz, foreground, must be serving some function, not just loitering.

I’ve posted photos of this process at least once before, as seen here.

All photos, any errors, WVD.

 

High and Dry 13

Here are the previous dozen posts in this series.  

All photos in this post were taken from water.  

Franklin turns 40 this year.

From this angle, the 144′ loa 1997 Rana Miller (ex-Sea Horse) is framed by some heavy-duty  NYC icons.

Work progresses on the 1995 Suzanne, ex-Condor and ex-Kinsman Condor.

And nestled between Franklin and Suzanne is the 1953 Sea Dart II.

All photos, any errors, WVD.

 

Random Tugs 407

I caught Gabby (?) trucking the other day.  

Some time later, I caught Gabby returning to her base, as Grace did the same.

Maddie K was southbound in the Upper Bay.

Haggerty Girls was at anchor with RTC 81 as Kristy Ann pushed RTC 80, likely toward the Gate.

Coral Coast pushed Cement Carrier 5300 out of the East River and into the North.

 

Mister T made fast to the flotilla of scows off Bayonne.

 

Earlier T had come out from somewhere.  Note the sea-miler Thomas in the background.

J. Arnold Witte, probably heading into the Kills with her scow,  took the stern of Driftmaster,.

I still register my almost catching J. Arnold several times summer ’23 in Port Colborne.

All photos, any errors, WVD.

 

Sixth Boro Details 18

It’s true of most complex relationships . . . the more details embodied, then the more satisfaction grows the longer you look, pay attention in any way.  I’ve been  looking closely at the harbor for almost 20 years, sharing images since 2006.  My perception when the boro adopted me was vastly different than it is now. 

Like this, whatever names or labels they carry now, it’s a fact that juxtaposed here is a research vessel once named Western Magellan,  a Singapore [Kwong Soon Engineering] built research vessel and a barge of scrap that may include stuff I once owned now waiting to be shipped overseas for transformation into something else I may or someone on any other continent may own.  

Here a 12-year-old US built truckable tug pushes a deck barge between Liberty Island and the dock on Staten Island.  On the barge is a law enforcement vehicle escorting–I suppose–technicians with whatever is in the framed pallet.  In the background, a scow with an Athens (?) sign and thousands of containers from everywhere waiting to deliver. 

Framed by the Left Coast Lifter, a bridge, a jet flying into Newark International, and a tanker, it’s a box ship coming in from Oman, one that no doubt transited Houthi harrassed waters before Maersk stopped sailing box ships through there.  In the foreground between the buoys, two escort tugs and likely a line handlers boat.

A-frames serve similar purposes on these two boats, although different fish are involved.  In the Brooklyn background, silos now over a century old that have been empty for most of their existence.

Cruising past the New Jersey shoreline and the Newark Bay I-78 bridge, housing, and a church [is that St. Vincent de Paul?] steeple, it’s a 1961 Osprey

with its upper wheelhouse folded down.  I’d love to see a 1961 view from roughly this perspective of that skyline.  Maybe in the not-too-distant future, augmented reality will provide a viewer allowing us to point the device, select a time period, and we’d see what this view looked like 20 or 200 years ago.

All photos, any misperceptions, any errors, any fanciful whimsy, WVD.

 

Sixth Boro Traffic 4

Traffic, when you’re trapped in it, is not fun.  Watching commercial marine traffic, for me, never gets old, as you might know.  The more things get, the more interesting the harbor seems.    A handful of sophisticated and expensive machinery and its skilled operators jam pack this image.  I see three Centerline boats, JRT, and Safmarine Nomazwe.

Roughly the same place and hour and some later, Thunder, just off the port side of Caroline M, shares this image with at least three other tugboats that almost blend into the cold humid morning.

Foreshortening makes Laura K and Doris Moran seem a lot closer together than they are. 

Here it’s Marilyn George, Coursen, Alex McAllister, and Wye River, I believe.

Besides the three tugs along the left side, that’s Alex, Kristy Ann with RTC 80, Barney, and Kristin Poling pushing Eva Leigh Cutler.  Between Barney and Kristin are at least two Kirby boats.

This was several minutes after the previous photo with some of the same boats.

Daisy Mae here pushes a CMT barge with a Vane unit in the distance, in front of an impossibly packed set of cliffs.

This is not so much packed as it is filled with very different examples of marine commercial traffic.

And in closing, clustered in front of USNS Red Cloud, clockwise starting from Cajun, it’s J. Arnold Witte, USACE Haward, and Marjorie B. McAllister.

All photos, any errors or omissions, WVD, who hits the road again tomorrow.  Peace on Earth!

 

Gabby

After being away much, I feel bogged down as I try to reconnect, catch up, figure out what’s next.

I do intend to do all those things, but I know it’s not as easy as making a list, completing tasks, and crossing them off.  So my solution is . . . walk away for a while, walk to the ferry, and distract myself with naked eye and lenses.  Then I noticed Gabby, again and again.

She’s there among the sights, working away.

 

All photos, any distractions, WVD, who just realized I may have missed Gabby’s anniversary.  Check out her sister, Linda L.

Random Sixth Boro 14

This is my title for times I’m feeling ADHDed out . . .  when I can’t focus on a big picture for all the divergent details.   So, who’s home court is this?

AS Felicia‘s crew, that’s who.  Any guesses on AS Felicia‘s teu capacity?

RN Weeks is a split hopper TS dredge, like Ocean Traverse Nord (OTN).  See OTN dumping spoils by splitting her hull here. 

Between the islands of Governors and Manhattan, specialized conveyances are used. 

SeatheCity must be gaining popularity, if they’ve added a boat II to their fleet.  I need to make my way over to the Morris Canal to check them out again. 

As they head for sea, these crew are working on the ladder and gangway. 

 

When I first saw this utility boat, I thought it was unmarked, but when I zoomed in 

the red D and half ring were clear, although I can’t tell whose logo this is. 

And let’s leave it here with explanation coming tomorrow . . . why’s Maverick towing that orange ball?

All photos, WVD. 

 

Alice Has One 2

This title goes back to 2006!!  here. Since that time, I’ve been inside one, although not as it free fell into the sea.

It’s standard equipment on vessels of all sorts.  For what’s inside, click here.

Sometimes they make their way inland and form encampments.  Just kidding, but this is an intriguing sight in these photos send along by Sean McQuilken.

If this were an Air B & B, I might consider staying.  Likely these are for sale or are used for training, or both.  Actually, people have turned these into yachts, as in this video.

But the other day when USNS Pomeroy was still in town, I noticed that one of the enclosed lifeboats was beside the hull, floating in the water.  It was no doubt a drill before the T-AKR-316 left town after a thorough refurb. 

Drill complete, crew transferred from the lifeboat into a launch, the lifeboat got hauled back into its cradle, 

and the crew made their way up the long companionway back aboard ship.  

Thanks to Sean for sharing the photos.  Previous photos from Sean can be seen here.  The others, WVD. 

Here’s an article I did on lifeboat drills some years ago.

Sixth Boro Details 16

It’s not the best photo maybe, although–hey– it was the golden hour when B. E. Lindholm came into the boro recently.  They’ve been working along the east side of Sandy Hook.

Some small craft traffic the boro all seasons of the year.  I suspect this is going out fishing, but I’m not sure.

Daisy Mae here southbound along Newport . . .  in a clash of horizontal lines. 

This morning had Meaghan Marie, Eastern Dawn, and Evening Mist rafted up in Red Hook.

I’ve often seen David Auld Scudder on AIS, but not until the other day had I seen the boat,

diminutive beside Pegasus Star.

As have appeared here before, Millers Launch has a lot of small workboats like Erin Miller. 

Discovery Coast has been working a fair amount in the boro in recent weeks. 

Too distant to tell, but Twin Tube here is lifting new life rafts onto Nordic Harrier. 

Hayward dates from 1974, when the drift collection vessel came out of a Boston shipyard.

And there we’ll leave it.  All photos and any errors, WVD.