Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Along this stretch of  . . . bird habitat, Meow man has signed in . . .

and an official boat might just be verifying the authenticity.

Meanwhile, I’m just over two miles off the center of the VZ Narrows bridge . . . doing some of my own verifying.  Those round objects . . . half a dozen of them  . . . are they . . .

. . . could they be . .  see that one splash . . .

harbor seals?    This one seems to negotiate for that rock with . . .  a ruddy turnstone . . . ?

See the press release here for the NYC Audubon tours here.

Read here about the seal scientists who were on board yesterday also.

What is that canoe-shaped object in the upper left side of this photo?

Anyhow, forget about the cold and book a seal and bird tour  . . . on only a few Sunday trips left.

Thanks to bowsprite who suggested this as a birthday present.  I may go out and take this trip again to get the photo I missed of a squadron of long-tailed ducks  circling our boat.

We stayed on the west side of Swinburne Island (it should be renamed Seal Island.) as MOL Endowment arrived with a delivery along the east side.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.  Nearly three years ago I reported on a seal I interviewed on Fire Island.

Somehow . . . don’t ask me how . ..  meow man seems to have “signed” what used to be a white ceramic mug that usually occupies my desk.  How DID he deliver that?  . . . !@#@!!

Really Random Tugs 17

This is the series for photos from all over.

First, from Bob Stopper, who makes it his business to –among other things–document Erie Canal life up in the  county where I grew up, it’s  . . . can you guess what’s under all that snow?

It’s a hibernating Grouper.  I’ve done more than two dozen posts on this boat, which I keep hoping comes back to life.   Here’s a post that shows her working on the big lakes, the northern coast of the USA.

And from the Maraki crew currently getting their passports stamped in the Conch Republic . . .  some Stock Island residents . . . like Robert W. Tomlinson (ex-YT-399 Numa) and

Dutch tug turned yacht Itinerante (ex-Havendienst 1, Vulcanus).

Here’s one of my photos:  that’s Iver Foss tailing the big ZPMC Shanghai-built crane as RORO Hoegh Shanghai follows them in through the Narrows last week.

Some photos from Brian DeForest . . . Joyce D. Brown delivering a crane barge as

RORO Don Juan rolls some vehicles off and some others on over in Port Newark.

Here’s are two photos lacking a photographer both showing Tradewind Towing Rachel powering USS SS Mount Washington AOT-5076 on its final voyage.  The photo below I screen-grabbed from the Crystal Serenity, which is now off Japan.   Mount Washington is at the scrapyard and Rachel is preparing for the next job.

This photo comes from the Gatun Locks webcam.

Bowsprite caught these three last week:  apparent L to R, Arabian Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Patricia in Red Hook.

Thanks to Bob, Lucy my sister, Franco for standing in the cold with me at the Narrows, Brian, bowsprite, and the remote cameras for these photos.

Government Boats 27

What on earth–or on the river–could cause all these NYWaterways ferries to stick so close to the terminal?  Like fish in a weir . . . must be something big around . . . although I see no vessel between Resolute and Robert E. McAllister on AIS . . .

Praise the day!  Bowsprite–who loves gray or otherwise stealthy and can sometimes clear away the miasma and draw them, if you ask her nicely– ascended to a rooftop yesterday to see what MIGHT lurk between the two aforementioned tugboats.

Here is the current bearer of that name, but there’ve been at least six prior iterations.

She passes the clock–now being restored–and the light

but I was not there.  So here’s my chance to place another government boat in the proximity of Robbins Reef.

Bowsprite, my favorite harbor illustrator,  snapped all fotos except this last one above–of USACE Hayward–which I took.

For another of her ink renderings of sixth boro details, click here.

NYC Tugboat Race 2013 c

And the winner of the speed race . . .

in a record setting 0 days, 0 hours, and precisely five minutes and 0 seconds . . ..

. . . sorry . . .  this is part of the day too; click on the foto for bowsprite’s rare foto coverage.

The winner   of the speed event will be revealed, uncovered, somewhat shorn  . . . at the end of this post.  But first, besides the tattoo contest, other contests include line toss.

Jamie of Susan Miller shows how it’s done.

Then . .  there’s sanctioned, precision pushing.

Can you spot the difference between the white-and-green tug to the right above and the one below?

Vane had twins in the race, and one near-clone.

I’m not sure what this event would be called . . . mustering maybe.

There’s sizing up and

retreat.

On the pier, winners wear not laurels but spinach . . . .  Someone inspired by the anthropological study of the Nacirema people might write this up as a study of a late summer ritual called Ecar Toabgut.

There are raffles that landed some this bowsprite print of a boat that represents–I believe–the first Vane participation in this race on

September 2, 2007.

And after the race–if it hadn’t happened before–boats might pose with the great Lady.

Here are some of the crew of the fastest boat . . .

Resolute.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Congratulations to the crew of Working Harbor Committee for their work;  many thanks to all the companies and crews for participating.

And let’s make this Tubing Tuesday, with a video of the race in NYC, the one in Gloucester and this tour in port of Antwerpen . . al  this same weekend.

How to Swim FROM a Tugboat

You may have seen this foto sequence yesterday of Orlando Duque diving from a helicopter near the Statue of Liberty?  Well . .  more on the foto below later in this post, but the diver here is in fact she who inspired my post today by her instructions on how to swim from a schooner . . . a few years back.

If you’ve looked at bowsprite’s link above, you’ll notice that my instructions begin differently.

1.  Choose your location, and few locations are as enticing to me as the Hudson north of the Bear Mountain Bridge, where I hiked a few months back.

2.  Select a tugboat.  Buchanan 12, here managing eight stone scows just below Breakneck Ridge,  is photogenic but absolutely the wrong choice for this.

Nor should you choose Kimberly Poling, here headed southbound on the Hudson in the same bends.

Patty Nolan, however, fits the specs perfectly.  You may remember Patty here  from a few years back looking just a little different and facing a dilemma.

3.  Here’s where I concur with bowsprite’s first item:  find a captain who will let you off the boat.    We did.  The dock worker here belongs to the blue-hatted union.

And off we go in search of an anchorage.  Now I know that since contemporary life comes with an infinite lists of troubles and limitations,  to relax . . . and celebrate life  . . . you gotta do it!

The mature days of summer demand celebration.

4.  Anchor in a safe location.  Bannerman, haunting in springtime, seems more welcoming in late summer.

5.  Check the equipment.  Will Patty the figure figure be enticed to come up out of her cabin by this gold lamé?

6.  Set up the sturgeoncam

and deploy

the crane.

7.  Swim . . . without the strap or

or with, in a variety of entrance styles.

8.  Board the boat when the day is done . . . if you can figure out how.  I need to work on that one.  Or sturgeoncam here might have to swim down the Hudson . . . .  In late summer, that’s not a bad option.

Would you believe this waterspotted lens proves I followed Patty and crew all the way back to Bear Mountain?

Do you think I’d conclude this post without a video of tugster swinging from the crane?  Click on the foto to see.

Don’t let Labor Day find you without a Hudson River dip in your experience.

By the way, from the local paper, one of my favorite weekly columns,  twelve places you should also visit in the Hudson Valley. 

Sea Wolf Moves Yankee

No, this isn’t the January River.  I leave for there today, but this . . .   !!  These next four fotos come from the perspicacious bowsprite, taken yesterday afternoon.   The tug in the foreground is Sea Wolf is 1982.  In the background is –of course–Ellis Island, 1900.  In between with the yellow stack is

Yankee, 1907.  Her long history includes a stint as Machigonne moving passengers across the sixth boro from Ellis Island to other boros and to NJ.   The tow began at the far right of this foto.

More tugster on Yankee when I return, but before then, I’m sure there’ll be other info.

Six plus years ago, a friend Mike caught these fotos of Sea Wolf‘s sister–Sea Lion–moving an unusual vessel named Abora III out of the Morris Canal to sea.   The reed craft made it more than halfway across the Atlantic.

All fotos by bowsprite.  Advance notice came thanks to Rod Smith, who once worked as deckhand on Yankee and who will have his own account of this move . . . to Brooklyn.  Here (2007) and here (2011) are my previous posts with Yankee fotos from New Jersey.  Click here to get some backstory–and video of Sea Wolf departing with ferry– from a supporter who wanted to keep them on the watery edge of Hoboken.

Now, I pack and head south myself.    Vou escrever mais em breve.

Other People’s Fotos 23

You may once have ridden this vessel.  Thirty months ago you could have made a bid on it.  Eighteen months ago it was topheavy and listing.  Two weeks ago Paul Strubeck caught this foto.  Might you call it a major haircut.

Around the same time, Paul caught this vessel in Verplanck. That looks like Cornell to the left also.   I don’t know what Cormorant‘s future will be.

I caught Planetsolar on my way outatown, but bowsprite studied the first solar-powered circumnavigator up close and impersonal and shares these fotos.

Inside these caps are props.  Click here and here to see the props.

Enjoy these views starting with this view looking forward along the portside and moving counterclockwise around the boat.

Click here for a compilation of clips taken over two years on Turanor PlanetSolar.  And if you have 40 minutes to watch this video from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, you could like it.  I especially liked the  Singapore dry dock section beginning around 31 minutes in.   And from yesterday’s NYTimes, here’s a story about the boat’s current research mission.

Many thanks to Paul and bowsprite for these fotos.

Speaking of bowsprite . . .  if you’re local and free on Saturday, come  down to Pier 25 where she has organized the craft market called Radio Lilac, named for the 1933 lighthouse tender there.

Tale of Two Tugboats

The two tugs in question really have nothing to do with each other, although almost all these fotos have been taken in the past month.  Bluefin, launched summer 2009, waits on the hook with Penn No. 80.  Although the colors haven’t caught up, the unit–one of 16 Penn Maritime tugs and 18 heated barges– is now owned by Kirby, in exchange for almost $300 million.

This foto and the others of this unit you can enjoy thanks to bowsprite.  The red tug–Reliant–is about 20 years older than Bluefin.

Each designed for its own purpose, Bluefin is 111 feet, whereas

Reliant . . . 30′.

Coho, launched November 2008, on paper is an identical twin of the 4000 hp Bluefin.  I took this foto in October 2009.

Here’s a foto I took of Reliant over on the west side of Bergen Point a few years back.

Thanks to bowsprite for contributing the fotos of Reliant over at WorldFi ferry terminal.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

Pier 25 Marine Art Show

Pier 25 is unmistakeable on the Hudson side of lower Manhattan.  I posted fotos of Lilac moving to Pier 25 aka “historic ships pier” back a year and some months ago.   On some of those fotos, you can see bowsprite catching lines from the Miller’s Launch crew assisting Lilac’s arrival.  Bowsprite also goes by the name “Christina Sun,” who is half of the art show proclaimed on the dockside sign below.

Here she was hanging the show last weekend.  If you’ve looked at her site much, you’d have seen her rendering of RB 45614 (below) on her artblog here.

The other half of the art show (up til the end of August!!) is Frank Hanavan.    I’ve painted with Frank, like here on this bowsprit at least six years ago, and posted on this blog here back in 2007.  This foto and the next by Maggie Flanagan.

But besides painting in places that require a harness, Frank also paints

en plein air with an easel. In fact, this piece, part of his show, he did ON Pier 25 back in May when Picton Castle docked there for a few days.  Click on that link  (scroll through) and you’ll

see what message was printed on the square sail on the foremast.  Frank’s art is all contained in one room on Lilac, but

bowsprite’s 38 prints are spread through Lilac, leading the observer on a treasure hunt . . .  even through the engine room!

But I can’t look at a piece like this and NOT remember the delightful story on her blog about excavator dredge J. P. Boisseau with remembering the whale that appeared in Lower NY Bay, no doubt coming to check who was scratching the harbor’s bottom . . . and why.

Lilac is a unique vessel open to the public Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.  Hours are here.  In fact, this Saturday evening, besides art, you can also see the world premiere of a documentary about MV Liemba, the nearly century old steam ferry (I believe very recently dieselized but still running) on Lake Tangayika.  For a press release about the film from Lilac Museum director, Mary Habstritt, click here.

Historic ships, art, film, music, drinks, warm summer evening on the Hudson in Lower Manhattan . .  . . . .  see you there!!  Bring some $$ too and take home some beautiful marine art for your walls.

Here’s Frank’s official site.   And here’s Christina’s online “sketchbook.”

Unrelated:  Here’s a 13-minute interview I did with John Doswell of Working Harbor Committee (WHC) back in 2010.  I’d never heard it until today.  And remember  . . . here’s info on the WHC-sponsored 20th annual tugboat race coming up in NYC’s sixth boro in less than three weeks!!

Along Bayou Lafourche

At my age . . . I’ve come to some places where –at each–I could spend a lifetime;  choices need to be made.  And if I can’t spend that much time at each, the alternative might be to just keep moving . . . since it’s too hard to figure out how

to get access.  Those do look like parts of the superstructure of USS New York, which makes the Avondale Shipyard over there somewhere.  In the sixth boro, tugboat Dorothy Elizabeth and prison barge Vernon C. Bain come out of Avondale, along with this huge international list.

Bayou Lafourche along 308 sports signs like this, birthplace of lots of Vane Brothers tugs, a Gellatly & Criscione, and several Penn Maritimes.

A couple of twists and turns later, there’s this Bollinger yard, home to the Sentinel-class of Coast Guard cutter.  Consider this, two major US shipyards in a town of  less than 3000!!  Here’s more info on those cutters.

Continue south for 12 miles and you’ll see North American Shipbuilding, one of several Edison-Chouest Offshore facilities.  Provider was delivered in 1999.

Manufacturing and then . . . those are banana “trees.”   And in this tropical waterway, a cornucopia of boats can be found like

Victor J. Curole, (1979)

as well as

Capt. Thuan, (1987)

Squeegee and Sponge,  (turns out they’re oil recovery vessels or were at one time, 1966)

Wyoming, (1940 fishing vessel)

nameless and Big Tattoo,  (1981)

a floating home?

Mia Molloy bow and

stern,

Winds of Change . . . (2002) which appears to have a pusher knee integrated into its bow,

Mr Russell,  (1995)

and I’d love to know more about this one,

Capt. Manuel,  (1982)

this nameless variation on Lil Rip,

lots of dipnetters,

nameless, Carissa Breigh, (1980)  and Junie Bop, (1981)

Lugger Tug,  (maybe 1981)

swarms of swamp fans,

… let me stop here on this post which breaks my record for number of fotos . . .  nameless, but I can almost make out the spelling of TUGSTER on the stern.  Is it possible I’ve found myself and my place to settle here?  She looks to have some pedigree . . . 1940s lines?  Can anyone help with a bit of history here?

Time for tugster  (1952) to stop this trip and contemplate and refresh with some Bayou Teche biere pale . . . .   For more on Bayou Teche, the place, click here.

I intend to return to the Bayou soon, spend more time, and  . . . who knows what might transpire.

All fotos here by either Will or Christina, partners in this jaunt-within-a-gallivant.

For a waterman’s view of the general area, click here.