Random Traffic March 2016

I don’t actually go looking for parallel posts;  maybe it’s just that my brain thinks and eyes see in similar ways from one year to the next in March, but here and here are posts from exactly four years ago.

Although this blog focuses on work boats, I’ll comment on backgrounds today.  What’s on the water is fluid, but all the constant transformations on the landsides here are more permanent and yet constantly evolving.  Baseline might have been 500 years ago, but even by then it had evolved.  The cruise ship here is docked at what today is called Cape Liberty Cruise Port;  thirty years ago it was MOTBY.

Frances waits at a barge anchorage near Anthem of the Seas

Over on the nearest shore, left half of the photo is evidence of work where next year an attraction called New York Wheel will spin.  I know we’re way past name discussions now, but I’m still for alternatives like Ferries Wheel or NY Wheeler Dealer . . . .  And with the reference to “pods,” I’m thinking of a series of sci-fi movies . . .

Eastern Welder fishes as New Jersey Responder exits the KVK.

The uneven, brown land just off the starboard bow of USNS Red Cloud is part of the Bayonne Golf Club, below the surface of which is a capped landfill.

Discovery Coast passes in front of Red Cloud.

Off to the left, you see current status of the Bayonne side of the bridge named for the same town.

From l. to r., there’s Chandra B, Celsius Manila, New Jersey Responder, and (I think) Robert E. McAllister.

Looking from behind the construction site for the Wheel, some miles to NE are part of the Statue of Liberty and  the iconic 1931 Empire State Building.

Anacostia (2009)  and Tangier Island (2014)  look a lot alike, but the older boat has 1200 more horsepower.

Note the double deck traffic on the VZ Bridge.

l. to r. it’s Caroline Oldendorff and Australian Spirit.

This is looking from the middle of Upper Bay across Red Hook to downtown Brooklyn.

In front of the busy background, it’s Alice Oldendorff, Rossini, and Robert E. McAllister.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Government Boats 17

Guess the vessel and river?

The small red one with all the rowers is DC Dragons, and by now some of you already know the large gray one.

If you haven’t identified the destroyer yet, it was named for a man from County Wexford, Ireland, but that’s misleading because

John Barry  was born in 1745.

Click here to read of USS Barry‘s service record.  Click here to read of  my visit to another Forrest Sherman-class destroyer here.  Question here:  is the small vessel called a tender?  a launch?

Barry has two of these stacks.

Another question:  what is the function of the horizontally-oriented drum here on the stern of Barry?

And while I’m asking questions, does anyone recognize this panel?  What transportation-related building bears it?  More clues tomorrow, unless someone identifies the building . . .

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who can’t wait for life to slow down a bit.  Oh, and the river is NOT the Potomac but the Anacostia.

Circum Staten Island

Working Harbor Committee (WHC) yesterday offered their first-ever trip around Staten Island;  tickets sold out fast.  Next circum with them:  next year.  Next trip with them:  August 18 and then the tug race.  I’ll post about the trip along the so-called “NJ inner coast” for the next few days.

A highlight for me was seeing the inimitable Nicole Leigh, one of Reinauer’s 7200 hp behemoths, also known to some as camera platform for some fantastic video of his rig moving with total control at a virtual 200+ knots. Here’s nytugmaster’s entire YouTube oeuvre to date.

Coming through Port Reading Reach, I saw Sandmaster–first time ever–out of the notch.   Sandmaster in notch was here the last foto here.

Southbound on Outerbridge Reach, we met Anacostia, another first for me.

Anacostia, four months since launch, is Vane’s most recent Patapsco-class tug.  More of that class soon.

Just south of Outerbridge Crossing, we passed Pati T Moran.  Outerbridge is named for Eugenius Outerbridge;  the fact that it’s geographically descriptive is entirely coincidental.

After a quick dash across Raritan Bay, we cut inside Swinburne Island as Duncan Island approached the Narrows.

Once in upper Bay, we encountered Charles McAllister and Ellen McAllister assisting CSAV Moema bound for sea.  More CSAV history here as well as a gallery of Panama Canal tugs here.

More inner coast soon.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  Many thanks to Working Harbor Committee for their efforts.