Small Craft 31

Miller Boys . . .

Seatow’s Ralph, 

the 598,

with a work crew on and under the dock, 

Christina, 

Bobby G. Miller in the thick of it, 

 

Nicholas, 

Gaines, 

Jessica Ann, 

and Emily sidling up to Aitolos.  There are a lot of small work boats in the area, and a  lot of them are operated by Miller’s Launch.

All photos, WVD. 

 

Christmas Eve 2020

Having seen the forecast for December 25, I did my watch on Christmas eve.    These are the latest sunrises of the entire cycle . . . photo taken around 0745, and the sky was still reddish and offering very little light.   Fort McHenry and survey boat Christina cross. Yes, Christina . . . namesake you know who. 

Diane B was pushing John Blanche deep in the water with heating fuel.

Fort McHenry passes my station.

Ocean Endeavour was heading in ahead of the strong winds . . . or maybe just to be at the dock for Christmas.   Note the Staten Island ferry off her starboard and a tip of Twin Tube off port stern.

 

By now, it’s a little after 0800.

Twin Tube is the ultimate sixth boro Christmas boat;  there’s no Santa or reindeer, just a competent captain and enough horsepower to get alongside ships.

The reindeer . . . they’re atop the tarped salt pile.   Santa may have abandoned the sleigh, however.

All the above photos were taken before 0900.  The photo below. . .  it’s W. O. Decker, currently getting work done upriver, but ensconced between Wavertree and  work barge Progress a few years ago . .  .

All photos, WVD, who wishes you all Merry Christmas and gifts of life, health, and happiness however you find it.  And one more . .  . bravo to the Normandy crew for the decorations.

Small Craft 22

This will be a photo-rich post, starting with bridge workers currently at the Brooklyn side VZ tower, aka the former Fort Lafayette.

You might remember Michele Jean;  Christina is the replacement vessel.

Most small craft in the sixth boro work all year round, in either construction, hydrographic surveys,

boom handling, launch service,

law enforcement,

and more.  Some fishing takes place all year round although winter fishing employs different craft.

 

Fishing machines as below . . .  only from about April to October.

Annunziata is a fishing boat I see a lot on AIS, but this is my first time to confirm boat with name under way.

New York Media Boat has some of their vessels working all year round, but here’s a catch, a NY Media Boat RIB in front of the Hudson Yards endless staircase called the Vessel, parts of which appeared on this blog during construction.

Then, the red boat below with kayak on roof, that’s a summertime only boat for up here.

And let’s close with the boom handlers;  tankers and oil barges are boomed during some of their harbor operations, as a precaution in case of spillage.  All year round these small craft do their boom wrangling.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Survey Vessel 2

This exact title–sans the number–goes way back to 2007 here.   The orange vessel doing surveys in 2007 has been replaced by the one below, which I’d not seen until very recently.

The USACE has several survey boats in the boro, as

does Rogers.

Alpine Ocean has been surveying the harbor and the bight for some time now . . . with R/V Shearwater, which I’ve seen as far south as Norfolk.

Shearwater is 110′ loa; clearly here you see how Dina Polaris shrinks her size, the latter has five times the number of berths.

She was in briefly and out this past weekend, so I devote more space to her.

 

 

 

And while we’re in this general group, I couldn’t pass up this vessel, which I’ve not seen.  She may be the one doing working on the WW2 tanker wreck Coimbra, 30 miles south of Shinnecock Inlet. Has anyone gotten photos of her?

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wishes you all a happy may day . . .