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I made my way through all the weird car wrecks on the Belt Parkway this morning to get to my cliff just before sunrise. A small bulk carrier headed to Gravesend Anchorage while a tanker was anchored farther out. About those wrecks . . . three multiple-car collisions in same-direction lanes between Woodhaven and the VZ . . . what is it about impairment and driving that people don’t yet know!!?
Motorboat Yankee headed out to the mothership.
Miss Emma McCall was just off the USCG quarantine station.
From a different perspective, this is bulk carrier/general cargo vessel Meloi anchored.
When the sun rose, it painted ABC-1 and pilot boat New Jersey in light.
Philadelphia and
Josephine waited to rejoin their barges.
Sunlight began to hit the tops of the cranes on Castlegate, a bulker with Chilean salt.
All photos, WVD.
This is not a great photo, but given the temperatures out, it is the only one I was going to get. It’s hard to believe today how icy it was just yesterday.
How could I not want to get photos of a Dutch general cargo vessel named for one of my favorite venues in the “dry” boros? If you’ve never listened to “selected shorts,” it’s story telling at its best. But I digress.
My regret is that I didn’t get to see the bow of Symphony Space, a Schuilte & Bruns ship launched in 2016. She appears to have been in port for bunkers. As is often true, had I stayed out there in the cold another few hours . . . brrr! . . . I could have seen that bow as she headed out to sea, bound for Quebec’s Saguenay River.
Since I’m posting mediocre photos today, here’s one of two vessels with the same name–incoming and outgoing–Pilot No. 1. Technically, only the nearer mother ship can claim that name now, I suppose.
All photos, Sunday, WVD.
It’s back, and with reconstruction complete, training can begin. To see how the new pilot boat got to this point, see updates here from May and August 2020. For a glimpse of the 1972 vessel this one replaces, click here. The 1972 pilot boat measures 155′ x 28′; this rebuilt 1993 OSRV measures 210′ x 46,’ so this is a massively larger boat.
For today’s post, enjoy these spectacular shots Bjoern of New York Media Boat got as she transited a rainy sixth boro yesterday evening.
Many thanks to Bjoern for permission to share these photos.
Meanwhile, keep your eyes turned toward the harbor and you may catch the new No. 1 with the old.
Sandy Hook Pilots vessels are the first glimpse of the sixth boro traffic for incoming vessels, but many folks on the sixth boro periphery might rarely see any trace of them or their vessels. The other windy day, however, they appeared to be training near the VZ Bridge, whose shadow you see as a dark band across the water in the photo below.
Click here for the fleet, made up of station boats (mother ships) and launches, 16 m boats shown below.
I believe that’s Phantom.
For more history of the Sandy Hook Pilots, albeit from an outdated NYTimes article, click here.
All photos, WVD.
The “4” here refers to the dry dock, not the fourth post in this series. The last post on Caddell was Something Different 57. And in the “high and dry” series, this would be number 11. I’m just trying to anchor this post in the previous body of work. Also, I believe this dry dock was originally built as an auxilliary floating dry dock (ARD) by the USN to lift submarines out of their watery habitat, but I can’t corroborate that.
In Dry Dock 4 a half dozen years ago was the pilot boat New York. I put this first so that the vessels in the rest of the photos can be compared against a standard, the dimensions of the same dry dock.
See above for scale. On this date, winter 2014, Dry Dock 4 was shared by W. O. Decker and schooner Pioneer, currently both in Albany getting refurbished and improved.
This boat’s a mystery to me; the livery on upper pilothouse says it’s a Reinauer boat, but I took this photo over 10 years ago and have lost track of its identity. You may know?
McAllisters Brothers was originally called Dalzelleagle. I believe it’s currently in the sixth boro but mothballed.
The Fireboat John J. Harvey had some work done in Dry Dock 4 . She has a long and storied career.
Doris Moran is a 4610 hp tugboat that does some sixth boro work, although she’s currently in Louisiana.
East Coast has not appeared on this blog very often. She used to tow the sugar barge, and she may well still do so.
Let’s get to the end of this post with Clipper City, having some bottom work done on a cold winter’s day eight years ago already.
All photos, WVD, who’d love to know more about the history of Dry Dock 4.
Here are previous installments. What’s different here is that in this case I’m inside the Narrows and shooting to the east and north.
Yankee passes in light before sunrise.
I rotate the lens 90 degrees to the right and Margaret stands by
along with James D to support Maersk Chicago, anchored in Stapleton. As I write this, 24 hours later, the container ship is leaving port, although her destination shows NYC as both “from” and “to”….
Meanwhile Mary Turecamo comes out of its base in the KVK
just as the sun rises above the horizon and its cloudbank and gets reflected.
All photos, WVD, who thinks this set perfectly illustrates why I take photos at dawn whenever I can. It’s worth getting up and out.
I’d planned something else for today, but then I saw the tree! See it on the bow of Pilot No 2 New Jersey? And that reminded me it was Three Kings day, Epiphany.
The colors are always best when wind chills are biting. Pilot No 2 and the smaller boat, America, went out as it were in a procession.
America stayed out over the horizon, but New Jersey returned, tree intact.
This reminded me also of photos I’d taken from New York Media Boat and had intended to use for my Christmas post. From its station out at the sea end of Ambrose Channel, the VZ Bridge is clearly seen.
Coming from sea, this is first glimpse of the port, two states and all six boros.
Safe year to all.
All photos, WVD. Thanks to New York Media Boat.
Six years ago, I posted this for Three Kings. And the tree makes this a great complementary bookend for this season.
“As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean” is a line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner 220 years ago. This ship might be painted, and the ocean and sky nicely colored, but that ship is certainly not idle.
MOL Glide . . . glided in through the Narrows a few days ago, and has also glided out, heading for Charleston SC. The approach to the sixth boro is not always that pretty.
When Leda Maersk arrived, the sky was overcast and the colors subdued.
Overcast with wispy clouds that allow some reflection from OOCL Berlin.
It was just after 0800, so I’d
call this morning fog.
All photos, WVD.
Today will be a two-post day. Here’s the first one, and it follows on this May update. These photos come thanks to Kevin Oldenburg. The next post will come in an hour.
She was headed up to Feeney’s Shipyard in the Rondout for a continuation of the conversion from oil spill response vessel to pilot boat mother ship. Atone point, she was identical to New Jersey Responder or Deep Blue Responder.
Unlike her move back in May, only a few miles, this time she traveled under her own power. And travel she did . . . . 13 knots worth.
Hat tip to Kevin. Previous photos attributed to Kevin can be found here.
On the 2020 calendar, the top right photo shows a shore fisherman, a small fishing boat, a tug, and a tanker. The 2013 and 49,999 dwt tanker, Elandra Sea, as of this morning is in the Java Sea, likely almost as far from the sixth boro as you can get. The tug escorting her in is Capt. Brian A. McAllister. It turns out that was the only photo I took of that vessel, because of the fisherman, small boat, and industrial vessels and setting.
What I was really there for that morning was the mothership of Sandy Hook Pilots, New York No. 1, the current one as the new one is being created. It seemed to be an event happening on the after deck. Surprisingly, I believe I’ve never posted this shot until now.
Upper left on the June 2020 page is Helen Laraway; seconds before I took the photo chosen for the calendar, she passed this this container ship E. R. Montecito, escorted in by James D.
The 2004 and 7544teu container ship is currently in the Malacca Strait, heading for Durban SA, and carries a new name. . . GSL Grania. I cherish info like this, reinforcing the fact that the sixth boro is but a tiny place on a planet of countless coastlines.
Assisting her in were James D, JRT, and Margaret.
The lower photo on the calendar was taken in the Mohawk Valley, lock E-13, easily accessed via the westbound lanes of the NYS Thruway. Grande Caribe was Chicago bound. For more info on E-13, click here.
As she departed the lock, she passed one of the newest tugboats on the Erie Canal, Port Jackson, named for the part of Amsterdam NY on the south side of the river. It turns out that the family of the namesake of Port Jackson moved west and distinguished himself. The barge attached to Port Jackson no doubt has an identified; I wish I knew it and its history, given the riveted hull.
The next shot after the one on the calendar shows the 183′ x 40′ Grande Caribe shrinking as it juxtaposes with the ridge that makes up the Noses. Grande Caribe is currently in Warren RI, as Blount Small Ships Adventures has decided that in the wake of COVID, it’s better to use 2020 to plan for 2021. So, neither of the Grande vessels will be transiting the canal this year. Given the virus, I’ve planed some gallivants, but as is true for everyone, much of that is on hold. I’m free to gallivant now, but my sense of responsibility says I stay put and see this all as opportunity to craft a different path.
All photos, WVD, who is working his way through his library again. Last week it was Pieces of the Frame and Uncommon Carriers. I’m currently re-reading The Night Inspector, historical novel by Frederick Busch, on the exploits in post-Civil War New York featuring a mask-wearing disfigured wounded vet who worked as a sniper in the Civil War, and his friend M, who is none other than Herman Melville, the washed up writer who currently works in the harbor as a night inspector, aka a deputy inspector of Customs who would row out to any ships arriving inport in the dark hours and waiting until morning to clear customs. Here‘s another review.
I’ve also discovered the many videos of Tim B at Sea on youtube. Interesting stuff . . . answers to questions you’ve not even considered yet in some cases.
tugster: a waterblog 
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