Retro Sixth Boro 26 b

Ten years ago . . .  it seems like a lifetime sometimes.  Minerva Joanna is still afloat, albeit at anchor along with dozens of other tankers off Lomie, Togo.  Laura K Moran, currently working in Savannah.

Mel E. Lemmerhirt is now Evelyn Cutler, currently anchored off the Palisades.

Cosco Panama is now called Minerva and working among the islands of Indonesia. She was a 2005 Blohm & Voss build, with capacity of 2702 teu.  She’s NOT to be confused with Cosco Shipping Panama, at 9443 teu.

Escort was still calling in the sixth boro. Now I understand she’s working in southern NJ, but I’ve not seen her in much at all since 2010.

Sassafras has left the Vane fleet; now she’s George Holland of Norfolk tugs, and again, not around here.

Colleen McAllister . . . she’s in the Great Lakes, although I’m not sure she’s working.

Maurania III is busy, now in Wilmington  NC.

I never did learn the name of this boat, not the manufacturer, but it has simple beautiful lines in wood.  Is it still around?  For sale?

And sailing . . .  I don’t think this’ll be happening this month in the sixth boro, given the number of passengers.

We’ll hold it up here.

All photos, WVD, who has begun going out by private transportation.   It really is somewhat odd to walk around this way, but it makes sense to me.

Autumn Sail 12

Here are previous posts in this series.

Many thanks to Capt. Justin Zizes for these next six photos, all taken on November 6 during the transit of two Scarano schooners from NYC’s sixth boro up to Albany.

I would have joined as crew, but had obligations down river.  Here they glide under the TZ,

 

and northward . . . .

The highlands look positively fjord-like, because of course that is what that stretch of river is.

Here the boat approaches the bridges in Poughkeepsie.

Not quite a month ago–October 19–I caught another Scarano schooner up

by the Bear Mountain Brdge.

Unrelated:  Here’s an article on damage to insured recreational vessels from the hurricanes of 2017.

Autumn Sail 10

Here was 9.

It seems that sailing just gets better as summer turns into fall.  Like Pioneer.   Click here for bookings via Water Taxi.

America 2.0

Shearwater

Adirondack

There are also those sailing vessels I’d like to see under sail.  Like Angel’s Share with its twin helms, here

a close-up of the port helm.

Slim Gunboat 6606

with its Marshall Islands flag

Heron . . . which I’ve seen as far south as Puerto Rico.

Clipper City

I’d love to find the time and invitations to sail on all those wind vessels.  But I actually did sail on Pioneer the other day.  Come with the vessel and crew as we leave the pier,

ride the wind in a busy harbor for a few hours, and

then lower sail before returning to the pier.

All fotos taken this week by Will Van Dorp.  Time’s now for me to head out and enjoy more of this autumn air.

Around the Sixth Boro 3

Here was ASB 2.  There might be eight million stories in the naked city, but in its primary boro aka the sixth boro at least half again that number of other stories could be told  . .  by the collective whoever knows them.

Captain Zeke moves with the diverse stone trade past folks waiting below our very own waving girl and

all those folks waving and taking fotos from the ferry and every other water conveyance.

The 1950 Nantucket‘s back in town . .  for the winter.

Yup . . . no one could have predicted these . . .

back when Shearwater was launched in 1929.

A cruise ship shuffles passengers as Peter F. Gellatly bunkers.

Kristy Ann Reinauer stands by a construction barge.

Mary A. Whalen . . . is a survivor from another time.

A barge named Progress has returned to South Street Seaport Museum, here between Wavertree and Peking.

Emerald Coast is eastbound on the East River.

Two views of Adirondack, one with WTC1 –or is it 1 WTC or something else–and

another with the Arabian Sea unit.

And Sea Wolf heads north . . . .

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Clearwater Rebuild

All fotos and information here comes from John Sperr, last referred to here in relation to ice yacht Galatea, as its pilot.

Today’s post comes from the same area of the Hudson where iceboating was happening a mere two months ago.  Ice has now given  way to the fine color heralding leaves.  Clearwater has wintered on a mobile shipyard, a barge.  The “whiskey plank”  aka the last part of the hull to be closed up post-repair was recently steamed, jacked into place, and fastened.

Libation followed and then

parade, as the shipyard itself danced upriver clutched tight by Cornell to be offloaded in anticipation of rigging, which

would happen at

Scarano Boat.  The barge was slid into the travel-lift dock, slings

moved like fingers under the hull, and

Clearwater, cradled in these sturdy arms, was

carried onto the high-and-dry.  Notice Onrust in the background?  And Adirondack directly beyond Clearwater‘s stern?

This left the barge Black Diamond to assume other duties, become other things.

All fotos by John Sperr.  Thanks, John.

By the way, start imagining the weekend of June 19 and 20.  Mermaids on Saturday (with Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed !@#@! as Queen Mermaid and King Neptune)  and music on Sunday (with Pete Seeger and Lucy Kaplansky and many more!@#@##@!!)  ?  How can one make a choice like that?

Also, a tall ship and volunteer opportunity in Brooklyn:  PortSide NewYork FreeSail Clipper City 4-12-2010

Meditations W

W . . . worry.  No way!  work?  nah.  Wonderment and wanderlust resonate much more profoundly, leaving me hungering for new vistas and thirsting for novel experience.  Sometimes this may be slaked by a two-hour sail on the incomparable Pioneer, a vessel with a century and a quarter’s life.

Or a sprint aboard the harbor’s greyhound . . . Adirondack.

According to IBI (International Boating Industry) statistics, 1 in 23 Americans owns a boat, whereas in Sweden that number is 1 in 7 and in China virtually no one does.  See statistics here.  Some quench their thirst for wandering then aboard their own boat, like this sloop from Rhode Island, headed up past Pier 66 or

or this mini-trawler  from Texas up by Poughkeepsie or

of this larger trawler from

Alaska.

Wanderlust for a vacation is real though compartmentalized into a small percentage of the year.  What would it be like to choose an occupation that would

take you all around the world (the 70.8 percent of the planet’s surface that’s navigable) all the time, as on this container vessel Zim Shenzhen.  Would it always soothe the spirit  or would it make one

wary . . . and weary.  Can feelings like weariness co-exist with wanderlust?

Where does wanderlust with all its curiosity come from?  Is it innate or learned at home?

I don’t know.  But I do know I’m grateful for my wanderlusty nature, wherever it may lead.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  I highly highly recommend you wander up to SUNY New Paltz to see Greg Miller‘s “Panorama of the Hudson River.”  Traveling in various boats including Adirondack this spring, Miller took about 3000 fotos  documenting every single section of the Hudson–west AND east bank–between the Statue of Liberty and Albany.  The results are assembled in a sinuous print in the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art.  Tugs by Vane Brothers, Moran, and McAllister randomly show up.  As if Miller”s accomplishment were not wondrous enough, what makes it even more remarkable is that Miller’s panorama is juxtaposed with G. Willard Shear’s 1910 panorama of all that same geography.  In other words, 2009 shot of the Statue of Liberty is directly above the 1910 one.  Ditto the Palisades, Dunderberg Mountain, Storm King, etc.  You ask about the George Washington Bridge . . .  oops . . . in 1910 the GW was not even planned for.      And the coup de grace . . . in the adjoining gallery is displayed an 1844 sketchbook designed  to help steamer passengers identify riverbank features . . . like the ones I mentioned above.  Along with towns and ridgelines, quaint drawing of steamers appear.  Like a steamer named River Witch. (Now that’s a name begging to be recycled!)  Another, a steam tug pulling a separate passenger barge, designed to keep passengers far away from the boiler.

Also, unrelated,  check out this great blog created by the crew of a tanker called Palva, which sometimes calls in the sixth boro.  Tugster examined Palva here, back in April 2007.  Greetings Palva!  When are you back in New York?

Finally related by topic:  Fielding, whom I know from sailing on Pioneer, is following his wanderlust in South America.  His blog–Under the Northern Star–is listed on my blogroll.

Two Hours of the Hudson 2

I took all but the last two fotos here between 1230 and 230 today at Pier 66, where Elizabeth and I met Rick of Old Salt for lunch.  Good company, tasty grub, wild weather, diverse traffic describe the lunch;  see if you agree.

First Robbins Reef passed southbound,  some swells washing the stem bitt.

Spartan Service pushed oil upriver.  I’ve never previously seen Spartan.  Weehawken cliffs make up the horizon.

Bandersnatch (a sailboat converted to a powerboat?)  of Charleston heads south, a great Lewis Carrollian name for a snarky hybrid.

Lunch over, we were packed up and ready to head out when the skies opened, water washing off the roof atop us like snow past Bounty‘s bountiful figurehead, whose garments then clung to her body.  The bowsprit just beyond Bounty belongs to Bel Espoir 2, of Brest.

Rain reduced visibility to less than a mile at this point.  Notice here as Adirondack powers upriver, the tower at the Hoboken Terminal is barely visible; the menacing point… resembling thunderbolt, is Bounty‘s martingale.  And the crew and passengers huddled in the yellow slickers give the impression of all members of the same religious order, reminiscent of one of my favorite all-time Bowsprite drawings here.  Rain then

tapered off as Dutch ketch Saeftinge, Falcon, , plowed northward.  Imitating Hudson?   Geer is a tiny village less than 20 miles south of Amsterdam.

Falcon moved a light barge on the hip,  southward past the Lincoln Tunnel vent.

Speaking of Bowsprite, here’s a tribute foto, with two visitors–Bel Espoir 2 and Bounty–as backup.  Strangely, I was seeing shadow and still covering my camera from rain as I took this.

By the time Erie Service headed past, the air felt positively (negatively?) tropical.

The next two fotos were taken yesterday.  As the western sky over North Hoboken reddened, I couldn’t resist hauling out my camera.

Cameras are vision-aids for me.  The more I looked, the more what I saw on the French three-masted schooner intrigued me.  Note the “collage” through the glass on the aft end of the cabin.  Would this combination EVER appear on an American vessel?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

By the way, I just got an email from Rick in which he swears he saw an old man in a strange large vessel made of gopher wood and pitch and carrying a lot of animals, pairs male and female,  as he ferried over the Hudson to Hoboken.  I watched what Rick drank at lunch, and he consumed in moderation, so . . .  draw your own conclusions here.

River Day 1

River Day is eight days if you want to be technical.  I’d like to do all of them, but . . .  The fotos here are roughly chronological and exclude relatively new active duty government boats.  Most of these vessels have appeared on this blog before;  use the search window if you wish to locate these posts.  Minimal prose today.  First, the raison d’etre, Half Moon passing Robbins Light.

The “other” Dutch boat Onrust, not actually a replica of a boat made in the Low Countries.

Shearwater passing in front of MOT (or MOTBY) and Explorer of the Seas.

Fireboat John J Harvey.

Vintage sky traffic.

Mystic Whaler

Clipper City

Clearwater

R. Ian Fletcher

Governor Cleveland

Adirondack

Harvey again

Onrust again

OK, this is the quiz portion of the post.

Quiz continues. . . .

. . .

A little over 25 miles (and six hours)  from the starting point, Half Moon passes the Tarrytown Light.

And judging from the “face” in the stern of Onrust, launched less than a month ago, she’s a happy yacht.

River Day will give Bowsprite so much fodder for continuing her sailing ship guide that she might not know where to begin!  Tomorrow’s itinerary is the 30 miles approximately between the Tappan Zee and Newburgh.

Many thanks to ExploreNY400 for the press passes and to Nicole for going the extra mile so that we got got the best fotos as well as to the staff of Circle Line who ran the very hospitable but unpictured vessel we were on.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp on River Day 1.  More to come.

So . . . can you think of any sixth boro schooners NOT depicted here?  I can think of a handful.  I wonder why they didn’t participate . . . .

Also, given the dearth of historical detail on the real Henry Hudson, Bowsprite and I have been reading his mate–R Juet’s log–and “interpreting/extrapolating Henry’s thoughts here.

Autumn Sail 2

Uh . . . ?  from a rainy Chesapeake comes this foto of a unique amalgamation.  What might it be?  Answer below.

And what vessels might these be,  with what connection to the six boro?  Answer also below, as is the rest of this post.

Back in the boro, where the sun blessed us this weekend, I imagined having a blast–my love and I on the river-– in a tiny sprit sail boat,  [Play music from the “my love…” link while reading rest of post.]

racing past the Palisades.

For others, Imagine carried more gregarious folks past the metropolis

with a jaunty captain at the helm. . .

while its sister ship Adirondack headed for the Statue.

Technically replica Half Moon isn’t sailing here, but with all her flags flying, this motoring yacht is autumn resplendant, especially beside the equally autumnal Hayward.  Anyone identify Half Moon’s flags?  Answer below.

Fore to aft:

foremast:  flag of the province of South Holland.  main:  stripes of the seven provinces.

mizzen:  three crosses of city of Amsterdam, often called XXX.

Answers:  Norfolk Rebel, tugantine, had its keel laid on April Fools Day 1978.  Next, schooners are Amistad pursuing Lettie G. Howard.  Lettie, built in Essex, MA, in 1893, has New York as its current homeport.

Put up whatever flags you will, and sail with your mates and thoughts before winter intrudes.  There really are so many ways to mess about in wind boats, and from here, you can sail around the world.

Top two fotos, compliments of Jed.  All others, Will Van Dorp.

Classic Week

If you noticed a lot of sail on the sixth boro the past few days amidst all variety of weather, then you witnessed at least part of New York Classic Week.  Below, Pride of Baltimore2 and When and If pass below the cliffs of lower Manhattan.  Foto compliments of bowsprite;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

Here When and If, Adirondack and Pride of Baltimore2 head for the Statue in the “farewell race” today.  Notice crewman setting a topsail on Pride.

Here, a view from the water, shows some of Lower Manhattan’s cliffs aka “the new palisades.”

The foto below taken yesterday just seconds after the red racing flag appeared shows America II, Black Watch (ex-Tabor Boy and ex-Edlu II), Imagine, and Adirondack.  For info on each of the vessels, click here, then navigate to NY Classic Week and then 2008 participating yachts.  Winner was Black Watch, with Adirondack, 3rd.

Also, at the start yesterday, When and If and Pride, finishing 6 and 5 respectively.  By the way, When and If was built for General Patton.

Naturally, a tug appears in these fotos . . . here a Buchanan moves a sand scow downriver as the sailing yachts prepare for the red flag signalling the race start.