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Credit for this post goes to Rod Clingman, who yesterday sent me info about tree swallow roosting on the Connecticut River. For info on this amazing gathering, click here and here.
All fotos here are thanks to my daughter, who sent them a month ago already from Guanabara Bay, aka the natural harbor of Rio. If you’re reading this blog for the first time, here was the last of my posts from Rio de Janeiro aka January river . . . JR . . . from last summer.
Enjoy these fotos. More of them–more tugster like–to come.
By the way, I see gatherings like this from the train over the Meadowlands, but New Jersey Transit never agrees to stop the train and let me go dillydally with my camera. Imagine their impatience!!
Ah! shipping. This foto looks toward the SE. That the city of Rio beyond the Niteroi Bridge.
This is my daughter’s take on this scene, and of course mine-from last July– was
this . . . two cranes: Manobrasso 5 in foreground, a 1500-ton sheerlegs (shearleg?) with Manobrasso 4 behind it, a 250-ton self propelled crane. Here’s a post I did on an even larger crane in JR.
Many thanks to Myriam for all the fotos except my one digression at the end.
Unrelated but direct from the Bronx River where herons and other birds live, a great story about NYC high school students planting oysters.
Two words juxtaposed in this headline from May 1914 NYTimes are not ones I expect to see . .. “Roosevelt” and “tug.” Click on the image and (I hope) you’ll get the rest of the article.
Below is Aidan, the Booth Line steamer which returned the former President from Belem, near the mouth of the Amazon.
On October 4, 1913, Roosevelt boarded the vessel below—S. S. Van Dyck–-for Brazil. Departure was from Brooklyn
Pier 8, to the left below. Click the foto to see the source.
What’s driving this post is Candice Millard’s 2005 The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, which I just finished reading. Learning about the namesake–Candido Rondon— for the vessel in foto 8 here while in Brazil last summer prompted me to finally read this book. Ever know that the ex-US President was stalked by invisible cannibals as he and Rondon led a joint Brazilian/American group down a 400-mile uncharted tributary of the Amazon, now referred to as Rio Roosevelt (pronounced Hio Hosevelt).
Well-worth the read!
Click here for an overview of Brazilian shipyards from about 18 months ago. STX OSV in Niteroi since then has become VARD, a Fincantieri holding. Skandi Salvador was at the VARD yard last week. Shipbuilding–like oil & gas–are multinational concerns clustered in locations of production, like the North Sea. The NYTimes this week had a story about a world center of petroleum expertise and innovation . . . Aberdeen.
The orange vessel to starboard of Skandi Salvador is CBO Manoella, built less than a mile away at the Alianca yard. Can anyone identify the smaller tug made to the starboard side of the small green and white tug SM Niteroi?
Moored off the bow of Skandi Salvador is (I believe) the future Skandi Urca.
And forward of that, on the high and dry, the soon-to-be Skandi Paraty.
And between the two, it’s Skandi Angra.
Recent products of that yard–albeit under old ownership–include the following: the 2012 Sea Brasil,
Siem Atlas (2012) and Seabulk Angra (2005),
and Skandi Amazonas (2011). To appreciate the rollers off Copacabana–where I took this foto–notice the small fishing boat in the trough on the beach side of Amazonas‘ stern.
And finally, one more product of the same yard is A. H. Giorgio P, 2008.
Finally . . . I’m curious . . what is the citizenship of the crews of these vessels and what are their hitches like?
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
I am back in NYC, safe and sound, and just read this article in the NYTimes about three million people on Copacabana today for today’s last mass by Papa Francisco, as he is referred to in Brasil. And how do three million people get to the beach? They march. I took this unsatisfying foto from the bus yesterday afternoon on the way to the airport. But now imagine this group with green tshirts, yellow backpacks, and national flags–and they snake around the bay here– filling a major avenue for at least eight miles . . ..
. . . here emerging from one of the tunnels leading to the beach.
Back a week and a half ago, this is how the main stage looked, and
here–taken yesterday–Copacabana with each of the white triangles in the distance . . . a booth for folks staffing the large screens projecting the proceedings. The main stage here is the cluster of white triangles to then right of the tallest building on the beach. Click here for a Rio Times article with foto showing this same beach last night. But . . .
here’s what was offshore.
More on these Brazilian naval vessels in a future post.
More Brazilian posts still to come . . . at least through the end of July.
With the imminent (I think) arrival in the sixth boro of a large shearleg crane for the Tappan Zee project, here’s a chance to look at one of these floating cranes. I believe the crane known as Left Coast Lifter has a lift capacity of just under 2000 tons. This one–Pelicano 1 (ex-Kaisei) has capacity over 2000 tons. I’ve not found much info about Kaisei.
The largest floating crane I’ve seen prior to this is Donjon’s Chesapeake 1000, which lifted segments of WTC antenna from barge to land back a half year ago.
Here’s Pelicano 1‘s tender.
Since a floating shearleg crane doesn’t rotate on a frame, it uses thrusters like these to position a lift.
The first time I had an opportunity to look at a Thrustmaster was here.
For an image of a US battleship converted to a floating crane about a century ago, click here.
More as soon as I can.
Niteroi water’s edge is to Rio as Richmond Terrace is to New York. Here, l to r . . . C Brilhante and Cape Cumbria.
Further up the cove, it’s CNL Ametista and Eridanus.
And finally . . . a larger set, some Trans Ship tugs like Abusado,
Soberano,
(my favorite) Poderoso,
and Assanhado.
And then there’s always the one that gets away, the foto I wish I could redo from multiple angles . . . the anti-pollution vessel Eco-Apolo. More somewhere soon . . .
I’m back from hiking in the national park portion of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, my stay here winding down.
But first . . . it’s a Petrobras residence vessel Aquarius Brazil, formerly a Selville-built RORO.
Fuel barge Icarai pushed by tug O Outro (?) passing stern of Aquarius Brasil.
Another view of Aquarius Brasil as seen beyond the bow of Itabuna
I’ve no info on this small container vessel.
Two LNG vessels at the Petrobras regasification terminal in the Bay. The nearer vessel–Sonangol Sambizanga is offloading a memorable cargo. Farther vessel is Exquisite.
And here’s where I’ve been the past few days. Temperature upper 40s F. Guanabara Bay is on the other side of that mountain.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
More from the Bay, starting with Sigma, as seen from starboard and 
stern.
Blue Shark looks like sister of Blue Marlin.
The bows of F. D. Honorable, A. H. Liguria, Seabulk Brasil, and a smidgeon of Carline Tide . . . .
Behold Maraba I and
Blue Angel.
GSO Marechal Rondon . . . . I need to digress here, as you may be glazing over with profile and name after profile and name. Marechal Rondon, however, is a significant figure in Brazil-US history, as he was the counterpart to Teddy Roosevelt during the then ex-President’s 1913-14 expedition into the Amazon, a trip that almost killed the Roosevelt.
small to large here . . . Cidade Nova Lima and Dundee. And the final ones are
Far Sampson,
Jean Charcot and Mar Limpo V
Amy Chouest and smaller unidentified tug.
and finally . . a north American style tugboat . . .
More soon . . . from Will Van Dorp.
Let’s travel farther into the interior of the watery reaches of what used to be called Ria de Janeiro to see close-ups of
secrets inland from the Rio-Niteroi Bridge, to borrow from the name of this small fishing boat.
Starting from the stern of the classic almost-40 year-old Teknik Perdana and looking at
Sealion Amazonia and Siem Atlas,
and my almost-namesake
dredger “Willem van Oranje.”
More soon from Will Van Dorp.
Seeing Cavendish Sea outbound . . . I thought of Atlantic Salvor and Barents Sea.
Cavendish Sea, like this unidentified tug, is operated by Camorim.
Not Camorim . . . I think . . this tug looks like it’s pulling dredge spoils . . .
Camorim does operate Cape Cumbria and
Atlantico . . . . as well as
tiny . . . appropriate size Flora and this barge.
All fots by Will Van Dorp, who thinks that every day is water day here and in many other cities.
tugster: a waterblog 
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