2020 Calendar April and May

I did not forget in the beginning of April about the 2020 calendar enhancement;  there were just too any things going on! So today I both catch up, and get ahead.  And according to my accounting robot, today I post for the 4,500th time.  Champagne is spilling all over my editor’s floor, but he’s not sharing.

YM World came in last April as Anthem of the Seas was departing.  If one keeps records with the goal of tracking change, few industries have changed as profoundly as the cruise industry has in the past year, and all that in the past two months.

Truly YM World, an ULCV,is huge.  But earlier this week, MSC Anna sailed under the Golden Gate, over 100′ longer, almost 40′ wider, giving her a total teu capacity of over 19k, compared with around 14k here.  That 5000 teu difference equals the total capacity of an average container ship serving the sixth boro 10 years ago.

 

The May calendar page features James D Moran nosing up against a pink magenta wall.

Here she comes in to meet off the starboard side.

Then she matches speed

and comes alongside to drop off the docking pilot.

All photos, WVD.

 

 

Life Savers/Life Saving 3

Here are the previous installments.

It was the color and shape that caught my eye, and I’m guessing that’s the whole point.  If you were a searcher, you’d want a color and shape or anything else to catch your eye.

It turns out I’ve caught them here before . . . and I’m glad for these drills.

Here are more of these craft hanging from the starboard side of Anthem of the Seas.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Tale of the Tape 5

When I saw Anthem of the Seas departing the Narrows as I waited for “da world” the other day, I was aware of a possible shot . . .  juxtaposing a large cruise ship with an ULCV.  Is there a ULCV/ULCC-type abbreviation for cruise ships . . .  eg, ULPV?  But I digress.  Imagine for now how that juxtaposition would look…

Earlier the same week, I’d seen QM2 at the Brooklyn Passenger vessel . . .  so let’s throw the tapes at that.  I recall reading the QM2 funnel was designed to accommodate the NYC market, more precisely, the fit under the VZ Bridge.

I know it’s a different vantage point again, but here was YM World entering the Narrows.

And here are World and Anthem, and it surprised me how much more air draft on Anthem this shows.

So here are the lengths:  World  1200′  Anthem 1139′ and QM2  1132′

Beams  World  167′  Anthem  162′  and QM2  135′

And for air draft, I know World‘s as it came in, but for the two passenger vessels, I’ll estimate air draft from “height minus deep draft,” using published numbers.  You naval architects may take issue with that, as may others of you with specific expertise I lack.

Anthem  208′  (Is that possible?)   QM2  199′  and World  177′

I’d expected the air draft of YM World to be greater.

So here’s a question I don’t know the answer to:  how many crew work on World?  Total crew on Anthem is listed as 760 and on QM2 is 1253, for 4905 and 2695 passengers, respectively.

Here are more numbers.

 

Random Tugs 217

Genesis Vision has just gone onto the wire from alongside, and

tightens it, moving the barge outbound for Florida.  Click here for a 2013 photo of Genesis Vision as Superior Service.

Stephen Reinauer steams out to the Lower Bay to stand by with a barge just

vacated by Timothy L.

McKinley Sea returns in the direction of its barge out in the Upper Bay.

Hunting Creek provides a needed boost as Pokomoke moves Double Skin 39 out of the dock at IMTT.

In the fog, there’s a negotiation going on between Evening Mist and Evening Star that took me a bit to figure out . . . Ah . . .

Star goes into the notch of B. No. 250, and then Mist assists in the 180 degree turn.  Note the pink ribbon on Mist’s stack?

My father would say, “Dean‘s lit up like a Christmas tree.”

Helen Laraway . . . assisting?

 

The truth about Helen is that she was waiting as Anthem was departing.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Scale 10

I think of ROROs like Dignity Ace as being fairly large, but this juxtaposition made me re-evaluate.

So let’s let the tape tell its tale:  three vessels here are (l to r) Anthem of the Seas, YM Utmost, and Dignity Ace with respect to their length and breadth; and I realize that the photo does nothing to show loa.  It comes out as 1141′ x 162′  v.  1099′ x 140′ v.  656′ x 106.’

The two Vane tugs are 90′ x 32,’  although I know it’s Fort McHenry alongside Anthem and cannot identify the tug alongside Dignity.

I’m guessing the fishing boat anchored here is about 20′ and

Franklin Reinauer is 81′ x 27.9 . . . .

And since we’re doing numbers . . . from the “globe” atop the “sky arm” to the water . . . that’s 300.’

That puts some perspective on scale of some sixth boro traffic.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

KVK Surprises 2

Surprises can be ranked in degrees.  Here was a surprise . . . people walking way up on the Bayonne Bridge back in 2011.  Ditto here I was looking into a hot tub on the stern of a scrap-carrying bunker (photo#7).

The surprises in this post emerge slowly.

This PCTC has been on this blog before, as has Kirby Moran.

That it’s called Don Juan was surprising the first time I saw it, but this line names some of its vessels after characters from opera, so Don Juan fits.

But the detail below–just forward of the radomes– blew me away.  In fact, when I took the photo, I had no idea what it was, maybe some netting, I imagined.  But a painted-on bower?  Or is it painted on . . . maybe it’s real bougainvillea?  Is there a Don Juan aboard who uses this as his love nest?  Here’s stanza XVIII from Lord Byon’s epic Don Juan Canto 1:

Perfect she was, but as perfection is
Insipid in this naughty world of ours,
Where our first parents never learned to kiss
Till they were exiled from their earlier bowers,
Where all was peace, and innocence, and bliss,[b]
(I wonder how they got through the twelve hours),
Don José, like a lineal son of Eve,
Went plucking various fruit without her leave.

Next . . . even stranger, I think.  See TS Kennedy over next to the GMD Graving Dock and Anthem of the Seas out beyond that?  Surprise?

A giraffe?!  !@#!

Maybe it’s an amusement.  Maybe it’s a stand-in for emergency drills?  I went looking and found out about Gigi.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Whatzit 34

Call this one a triple whatzit, my series driven by the watch word “if you see something, say  (or post) something.

I’ll just put up the photos, and then say what I know or don’t know.

Below, I don’t know but think it’s

a lifeboat drill performed while Anthem of the Seas was in town the other day.

I know the vessel as the one that’s been studying

 

 

sharks around the world, most recently off Montauk and southern New England.  Here’s their site.  I don’t know if they are studying sharks in the sixth boro.

And this final one, I don’t know but  am wondering if this might be part of a future Marine One fleet, doing

test landings the other day.  Here’s more on that.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who always tries to keep his eyes wide open.

Random Ships 50

Oleander has to be the most regular ship coming into the sixth boro.  Put it this way:  if it’s Thursday, Oleander will arrive from Bermuda, the B in BCL.

Ever Diamond seems basically to shuttle between eastern Asia and eastern US.

Some day I should see how many of the 10 Ever Dainty-class of Evergreen Marine container ships I have photos of in the sixth boro.

IMHO, vessels like Anthem of the Seas are most interesting under some unusual light, like dawn here last week.

I lamented the fact there were no dancers in the glass ball.

 

MV Loujiane Loujaine is part of GBX, serving, I gather, as both bulk storage of cementitious material and movie set.

Has anyone ever seen photos of Loujaine, ex-Abu-Loujaine, ex-Bahma . . . arriving in the sixth boro?  She must have arrived here at some point in the 1990s, by the photo comments here.

Over in Walkabout Bay in the spot where Alice often discharges, Pagona was working the other day.

Rounding out the post, it’s the vessel everyone in NYC should be familiar with, especially her being in proximity to the bridge she nearly brought down.  Recognize her?

It’s Chemical Pioneer.   During the decade I’ve been watching she’s been a hardworking vessel, but

here’s the NTSB report.  Click here for one of her ITB fleet mates, now scrapped.

All photos, WVD.

 

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.

Random Ships 46

What can you tell about this vessel?  Here’s a clue . . . try to give it at least 30 seconds of a listen.

Here’s a bit more of her.  Actually, I’d love to get a fast rescue craft to explore harbors with . . .  Anyone know of a online marketplace for used FRCs?  Norsafe is a leading manufacturer, and their site introduced me to a new term, daughter craft.    But I digress.

The sixth boro can be quite crowded sometimes.  Like here, how many large vessels do you count?

From left to right, there’s Red Cloud, STI Fulham, Maersk Weymouth, Opal Express, Anthem of the Seas, and Leopard Sea, with an unidentified tug and barge unit along Opal Express port side;  and when I move the camera to the right, there also Zircon, with Sunny Williams delivering lube oil and I can’t identify the tug bunkering.

Still farther to the right, there’s Marie Kirk, Irish Sea, and an unidentified fishing boat her the CNJRR station.

A bit earlier, I caught this photo of Kirby Moran escorting STI Fulham out of the “inner harbor” to the anchorage.

Over by the salt pile and deeply laden with ice remover . . .

it’s Arcturus, newly arrived from the Antofagasta region, waiting to be discharged.

Which returns us to the mystery ship at the top of this post.  It’s Carmen.  WW has named many of its PCTCs after characters from operas.

Click here and here for more of these WW vessels. That’s either Miriam or Margaret Moran seeing Carmen in.

 

All photos here by Will Van Dorp.