North on Gallatin’s Ditches 7

This leg from New York harbor, aka the sixth boro,  to Narragansett Bay was not proposed in Gallatin’s report, but we have gotten here by means after much time and miles in his ditches. We depart a few hours after dark and head into the

East River under some puffy clouds.

The 1903 Williamsburg Bridge seemed especially iconic this night…

At Hell Gate, we passed Evening Light towing a fuel barge.

Then we headed under the spans between Queens and the Bronx.

I shot once, a look back before getting too far eastward.

At foggy daylight, we passed Patuxent with barge and

some draggers with nets filtering through the Sound.

Block Island dashes ahead of us between Point Judith and its namesake island.

Lights at Point Judith and

Castle Hill guide us in, as they do

other vessels.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

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Invisible Gold 4

Here are the previous posts I’ve done on the wind farm southeast of Block Island.  I took the photo below on June 27, as blades to spin the turbines arrived in Narragansett Bay.

Rod Smith took the rest of these photos in late July and early August.

It shows Brave Tern as it prepared to sail out to the farm, deploy its sea legs . .  aka spuds  . .

and put the caps atop the columns onto the bases.

 

For the specs on Brave Tern, you can check them out here,

or here,

or

here.

 

And check out the froth from her stern!

To keep up with construction off Block Island, check out the Deepwater Water site.  Or for even more updates, friend them on FB.

Many thanks to Rod Smith for all these photos except the first one.

I hope to get out that way in October.

People Movers 6

Here are previous posts in this series, ranging from exclusive to popular.

What the boats in today’s series have in common is Block Island.

Block Island, built 1997

The year-round route to Block Island is from Point Judith, which I intend to visit more often.

Below is the wake of the fast ferry on the route, Athena.  By the way, in the winter of 2009, Athena was working in the sixth boro, and was one of seven vessels that rescued passengers from the ill-fated US Airways 1549, covered here on tugster.

Click here for info on the entire Block Island ferry fleet.

Athena, built 2001

 

Here Athena enters New Shoreham harbor.

 

Here Carol Jean arrives in New Shoreham in late afternoon,

Carol Jean, built 1984

steered from the aft controls.

 

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Tug Petersburg

Here is one of the previous photos I’ve posted of Petersburg, a Higgins-built LT-2088, delivered in 1954.

Floating in a soup of eelgrass on a windless afternoon after a stormy week, every part of this half-century vessel begs to be admired.

 

 

The small fish in the clear water of New Harbor could not ever disturb the reflections.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Click here for more info on Petersburg, from an article in the NYTimes a few years back.

Unrelated:  In the late 1980s a “pirate radio” ship broadcasting as RNI  anchored off Jones Beach.  The ship was called variously Lichfield II and Sarah.  According to this entry in wikipedia, “it was towed to its location off Long Island by Frank Ganter using his tugboat the M/V Munzer.”  Does anyone know anything about Munzer or Mr. Ganter?

Invisible Gold 3

Here were the previous posts on Deepwater Wind.

The work on the first US offshore wind farm is becoming visible from Block Island, these taken from Monhegan Bluffs.

There is one . . .

no  .  . two

actually five bases emerging from the waters,

each in a different state of completion.

Here Stephanie Dann tows a barge with three further elaborations of bases.  A barge passed through the sixth boro two months ago, as shown here.

Here’s a vessel I’d like to see close up . . . L/B Robert.  Each of those legs is 335′ long, allowing it to place them on the ocean floor in water as deep as 280 feet. Click here for more info on the self-propelled L/B Robert.

 

Click here for more ongoing news about the project from the Block Island Times.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Three Hours on the Sound 2

Here was the previous post.

It was all highlights while taking two ferries to get from Long Island to my destination, but here are some photos.  I left Orient Point along with small fishing boats like Fishy Business, 1995 built.

North Star, built in 1968 as an offshore supply vessel, was purchased by Cross Sound Ferry in 1984 and converted to an auto/passenger ferry.

 

As North Star arrived, the 2007 Plum Island left Orient for its namesake island.

Hudson River-bound Grande Caribe (1997) cut across the Sound with its unique profile.

Eventually the destination appears . . . the cliffs off the north side of Block Island.

 

The unmistakeable Viking (1976) passes as we round the island toward New Shoreham.

Interstate Navigation’s Block Island (1997) welcomes us into the old port.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Invisible Gold 1

What is this?

How about a little more of the same shot?  Now can you guess?  Cashman is a familiar New England company .  . . but that tug, Todd Danos, is not exactly a name known in these parts.

Have you figured out the location?  Dace Reinauer and Senesco are the best clues here. Of course, this is the Narragansett Bay.

Weeks tugs Robert and

Elizabeth sometimes work in the sixth boro . . . as here in June 2012.

“Invisible gold” is the term used at the event below–subject of tomorrow’s post.  The speaker to the right is Jeffrey Grybowski, CEO of Deepwater Wind, the project to place wind turbines in +70′ of water southeast of Block Island.  It’s happening now, and all the photos in this post–except the one below–were taken in July and early August by Nate Lopez.

And providing supply and crew support to get “steel in the water” are Rosemary Miller and

Josephine K. Miller.

Again many thanks to Nate for these photos.  More on this project in tomorrow’s post.