Onrust Splash Plus One

..plus one year, that is, not quite.  A year ago, work to ready the vessel for a mid-May splash reached frenzied levels, but the Adriaen aka Aerjan Block replica made an early June appointment to be part of River Day.  Here Onrust follows Half Moon in the direction of Tappan Zee Bridge, distant background.

Here she dangled, late May 2009, minutes before splash, and

here she shivers, nine months later, February 2010, in an Albany shipyard awaiting warmer weather.

Here was two days post-splash, just above Lock 9, and

… February 2010, Albany shipyard.

Here, in suspension  . . . merest seconds before the first ever splash, and

… February 2010, Albany.

And some 70 miles south of Albany . . . Half Moon waits in a protected area for all the ice to clear out.   I wonder if the ghost of Henry migrates south to this bend in the river to find solace in the dark months . . .

and if so . . . what are his dreams, his obsessions . . .   And if that’s true, whose ghost inhabits the replica of Onrust?

Plans for Onrust for this coming season include completing the interior and doing other finishings that’ll allow further voyages, maybe in time . . . retracing the travels of Captain Block.  After four voyages to North America, Block never returned;  he continued to sail but into the cold regions north of Scandanavia once explored by Hudson.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

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Atlantic Basin Barge Muster

Those lucky Hudson Valley towns:  the “flat-bottoms” move upriver today after a festive send-0ff yesterday from Atlantic Basin.  Portside NewYork had published a wonderful PDF guide to Red Hook and the barges available here.

The setting sun in Red Hook has too rarely enjoyed such beautiful surfaces to paint with low-angle light and color.

The clouds heightened the sense of ceremony as

the barges paraded in . . . singles or

pairs . . .  to

the shelter of the enclosed Basin within

of New York skyline.  (By the way . . . two fotos up following the two skutsjes into the Basin is the barquentine Peacemaker.  More on them later.)  After dark the

music man appeared with his vessel Cecelia to

create magic.  More fotos of this muster later.

Thanks to all involved from this dweller of the banks around the sixth boro.  And if you live upriver in the next two weeks, enjoy!  And if you get great fotos and want me to share them here, send me an email.

Here and here are some foto links.

By the way, exactly 400 years ago today, according to Juet’s journal, the Half Moon made it up to present-day West Point.  See Henrysobsession.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.

Narrows Encounter

This morning at dawn,  replica Half Moon, was anchored in Gravesend Bay.  Four hundred years ago, VOC Half Moon was, and worlds began to collide.  Today they continue to collide.  They don’t need to.  Empathize.

Let’s dance to our neighbor’s drum as well as to our own.  Foto above was taken at the Salt Festival on August 29.  Thanks to Red Storm Drum & Dance Troupe for posing.

Bowsprite and I have been trying to imagine this collision, with all its casualties and boons, angst and ecstasy, steps forward and back . . . in Henry’s Obsession.

NY400 Week Armada 2

So here is most of the rest of the fleet.  Of course, Half Moon was the flagship, the raison d’etre of the event.  Following behind is Onrust, its first season teaching history.  Use the search window to find more on both.  For a creative-nonfiction account of Henry Hudson’s journey channeled across 400 years, click here.

Tjalk Hoop en Vertrouwen (Hope and Trust, Confidence) dates from 1913!

Check out the four rows of reef points in the sail!

Lemsteraak LE89 dates from 2005. Partly obscured is Windroos, the hoogaars from 1925.

Check out the crew shirts that read “Touch of Dutch.”

Ommeswaaij is a Lemsteraak from 1995.

First in this pack is the tjalk De Tijd zal t Leeren (Time Will Learn It), dating from 1912.

All in all it was a lovely parade.  Standing on Pier 84 I was moved to tears, especially during the gun salute as I heard background chatter mostly in my mother tongue.  Given all the preparation that went into these festivities, I have a complaint:  the outermost portion of that pier has been incomplete for some time.  Almost finished but NOT.  That outer portion would also have been the best platform for fotos, which a lot of people recognized to be true.  Since no signs prohibited access, a few dozen folks stepped over the fence and started snapping fotos and cheering friends and relatives–yes, relatives–on the boats.  Until various authorities arrived, threatening $100 fines.  It troubled me to hear threats used against tourists who might have marginal control of English.

My question is . . . why is this decking work not complete in time to be used for such high-profile events as this.  After all, less than 300 feet away were the Mayor, the US Secretary of State, and the Crown Prince and Princess of the Netherlands?

And when a certain boat blocked these fotografers, some of them were unhappy, especially that tall guy, arms akimbo.

And what view was this certain boat blocking . . . you ask?  Check this out!!  And please finish the pier decking!  I’ll even volunteer to help with the installation.

I have a request:  certain folks would like the opportunity to photograph and sketch these classic and exotic boats in all their lush detail.  There is a viewing scheduled on Governors Island on Sunday, but the time is short.  Also, might there be a back-up time if –say–it rains?  For specifics on each of the Dutch boats, click here.

Arms akimbo-guy . . . oh, that’s tugster.

All fotos except the last two by Will Van Dorp.  The last two come from Bernard Ente.  Thank you!

KVK Fest

Quick post on the 1st annual Atlantic Salt Maritime Fest.  Atlantic Salt brings salt from Ireland, Chile, and Mexico through the sixth boro to keep icy roads less treacherous.  Where salt made a huge mound in this winter post, today there was frivolity, free food, and lots of smiles.  Thank you, Atlantic Salt.  Below Half Moon and container vessel Sumida meet.

Kristy Ann Reinauer and Thomas Witte paraded past, and

as did  Rana Miller.  More Rana later; she’s quite similar to Guardian, posted here last winter.

There was singing, drumming, and dancing.

Did it rain??

No, problem.  Did tugster find friends?  Oh, this is getting frivolous.

Bowsprite took the foto above; all others by Will Van Dorp.  By the way, if you know the Where’s Waldo series, bowsprite is depicted in TWO of the fotos above.  Where’s bowsprite?

By the way, as of this writing, Flinterduin, the 15-masted motor vessel,  approaches 50 degrees west, due south of Newfoundland.  She should enter the harbor before Monday morning; I will do the math later to narrow the ETA.  Remember the foto contest.

Dutch Sail

Spring 2009  promises the start of an invasion of Dutch culture to the sixth boro.  Who knows . . . we might be renamed New Amsterdam before year’s end, since Wall Street these days needs a face lift.  But that’s another story.

When Henry Hudson arrived in the sixth boro in September 1609, he commanded a jacht.  Onrust, expected in the boro in September 2009, is also a jacht design.   Besides jachts, other Dutch sailing vessels include fluiten, pinasen, galjooten, botters, gundels, hoogaars, skutsjes, punters, schookers, and the list goes on.  See some fotos here.  The fotos below,  compliments of SeaBart, first officer of Smit Kamara, show an annual skutsje sailing event in the Netherlands called Skûtsjesilen.  As a child, I imagined these boats part-fish, given the large varnished leeboards that look like fins and hawses like eyes.  See really high-resolution fotos here.

More fotos here and here; read the fotos, not the language.

Check out the really exciting racing here in this video complete with the shotgun start.   In this video, check out the crashes and fans.

So as the Dutch invasion happens this year with respect to the 400th anniversary of Hudson’s arrival in the boro, imagine skutsje racing in our fair boro had transformation to New York never happened.

Finally, March 25 is the 400th anniversary of Henry’s departure from Amsterdam, headed here by way of northern Norway, Sable Island, and Virginia.

Again, all fotos here compliments of the irreverent Seabart.

More Half Moon

Jed captured these shots of Half Moon several leagues south of Albany.  Might it be what Henry’s welcome party saw 399 years ago?

A closer-up shows a little of the polychrome that had been designed as ostentatious, to show the discretionary wealth of the VOC.

The fierce leeuw figurehead sets the fall foliage ablaze.

Half Moon–the name and logo–speaks of the anti-Spanish “commercial” alliances the Dutch formed.  One Dutchman Jan Jansen, slightly later than Hudson,  in fact turned pirate, sailing with the Moors to prey on the Spanish.

If you’re wondering what the window under the moon and stars leads to . . .

it’s a magical cabin.

Check out the latest on henrysobsession . . . now that we have a glitch out.  Channeling the man through 400 years is as tough as  . . . some other research projects threatening to drown me.

All fotos unless attributed otherwise by Will Van Dorp.