Summer Sail 4

Here are previous iterations of this title.   Of course, many options exist for getting onto sixth boro waters.  One delightful way I’m most familiar with is aboard schooner Pioneer;  get tickets here.  Enjoy these photos, mostly taken from the cabin top starboard side and outboard the foremast earlier this week.

Soon after leaving the pier, we passed a 1920s schooner Pilot repurposed as an eatery/drinkery on the Brooklyn side, Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.  More on Pilot and its owners here.  Click for more on the rest of the fleet and their restaurants.   Pilot came into the sixth boro as Highlander Sea, towed by Jaguar.

Within minutes of leaving the pier, four sails were set and we made our way south;  the engine was shut off as soon as it was no longer needed.

Looking astern toward Red Hook container terminal, I noticed a tugboat following us.

You would not expect an 1885 schooner to have anything other than traditional sails.

Without engine against a flood tide, we rounded Governors Island and got as far south as we could before entering the shallows off Bayonne, and we tacked and started out return to Manhattan.   With the engine silent, it was a magical sail.

 

Although other schooners like Clipper City take passengers to sail the harbor, Pioneer is by far, by very far, the oldest . . .

As we made our way back to the pier, night was falling, and we dropped sail and motored back under the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

All photos, WVD, who invites you to come sailing while the summer is here.

An invitation:  Any group of friends want to all sign up for an evening sail, say in early August while the days are still longer than later?  Either Pioneer grads or tugster folks or Pegasus alums or any other bond?

 

High and Dry: Caddells 4

The “4” here refers to the dry dock, not the fourth post in this series.  The last post on Caddell  was Something Different 57.  And in the “high and dry” series, this would be number 11.  I’m just trying to anchor this post in the previous body of work. Also, I believe this dry dock was originally built as an auxilliary floating dry dock (ARD) by the USN to lift submarines out of their watery habitat, but I can’t corroborate that.

In Dry Dock 4 a half dozen years ago was the pilot boat New York.  I put this first so that the vessels in the rest of the photos can be compared against a standard, the dimensions of the same dry dock.

See above for scale.  On this date, winter 2014, Dry Dock 4 was shared by W. O. Decker and schooner Pioneer, currently both in Albany getting refurbished and improved. 

This boat’s a mystery to me;  the livery on upper pilothouse says it’s a Reinauer boat, but I took this photo over 10 years ago and have lost track of its identity.  You may know?

McAllisters Brothers was originally called Dalzelleagle.  I believe it’s currently in the sixth boro but mothballed.

The Fireboat John J. Harvey had some work done in Dry Dock 4 .  She has a long and storied career.

Doris Moran is a 4610 hp tugboat that does some sixth boro work, although she’s currently in Louisiana.

East Coast has not appeared on this blog very often.  She used to tow the sugar barge, and she may well still do so.

Let’s get to the end of this post with Clipper City, having some bottom work done on a cold winter’s day eight years ago already. 

All photos, WVD, who’d love to know more about the history of Dry Dock 4.

 

 

Other Peoples Photos 67

Here are previous installments.

Let’s start with a shot from Oswego.  To me, it captures the magic of the Canal in that city and the stately buildings that surround it.  The photo is by Jennifer Mays, who calls it “Old man Winter is on his way #headedsouth #oswegocanal.  It shows research vessel DelMor (ex-Kaho) upbound in the Oswego Canal between lacks E-8 and E-7.  DelMor is in the “canalized” portion of the Oswego River;  the wild portion of the river–divided by the ruins of central dock–distinguishes itself by its obvious current.   The yellow building farthest left is the 1913 Pontiac Hotel.  For more sights along the Oswego Canal, click here. Pontiac, the Odawa leader of his confederacy post-French & Indian War, signed a peace treaty in Oswego in July 1766. 

The next two photos come from Patrick Gallagher. The shots taken from the East River show the Brooklyn Bridge and Clipper City beyond that.   The colors are the magic of sunset as recorded by a smartphone camera.

 

Clipper City is a 158′ replica of a Great Lakes schooner built in Manitowoc in 1854.  The image below comes from the must-have book The Freighters of Manitowoc by Tom Wenstadt.

And last but certainly not least, Paul Strubeck got a close-up photo of a newcomer in the sixth boro, a floating electronic billboard created by Ballyhoo Media.  A floating billboard . . . would that be a bill boat?

Matt OHara caught the billboat departing Morris Canal, leaving the NJCRR terminal to starboard.  If you do FB, you can see a sped-up version of it being built here.  Since that shipyard is upriver, it must have escaped detection by river watchers upstream.  Glenn?

When I saw the billboat Sunday, the image/advert changed every few seconds.  The vessel size is estimated at 72′  . . . with 65′ screens.  What’s next . . . a billboat that carries sports events, political debates, feature films, documentaries about the harbor?  What else?

Many thanks to Jennifer, Patrick, Matt, and Paul for use of these photos.

Meanwhile, I’m waiting for a sunny day and for a certain pink-hulled ship called ONE Stork to either arrive or depart in bright daylight.  She arrived in the sixth boro and departed again, twice . . . in the dark hours.

 

Summer Sail 2

Here was Summer Sail 1; and since that dates from almost two years ago.

Clipper City looks great juxtaposed against the skyline, but

ketch Catriona . . . she has Herreshoff pedigree.

No matter . . . larger schooner or smaller and more intimate ketch,

one is pampered moving by sail in the sixth boro. And that includes the option of sailing aboard the oldest harbor schooner of all . . . Pioneer.

 

Above and below, it’s Pioneer, and below the other schooner is one you won’t see in the sixth boro for a few years . . . Lettie G. Howard.  Of course, if you head over to Lake Erie–where I’ll be n a few weeks–you may catch a glimpse, even catch a ride.

And finishing it off, it’s America 2.0.

All photos taken by Will Van Dorp in the past 365 days.

 

Sixth Boro Summer

I’ve written about summertime and about summertime blues–about beating them.  But since you can’t ever step into the same river twice, or gallivant in the same primordial first boro, here’s the 2016 version of trying to capture the sixth boro with a camera on a hot summer weekend afternoon, looking for shade–any shade will do– as much as looking for novel compositions.

These days odd juxtapositions can be found on west Manhattan piers and

beyond, like Eagle and the fast bird and Loveland Island with a pilot on board and some folks gathered on the starboard bridge wing .  For a post I did last year with close-ups of details of USCGC Eagle AND for a book I highly recommend reading about her appropriate by the US post-WW2, click here.  Speaking of piers, here’s an interesting article on the engineering and construction of Pier 57.

Or come for a tour on Janet D Cruises . . .

with four sails set.

Long Beach comes to Bayonne along with a Celebrity ship and a PWC . . . pesky workless canoe?

Flagship Ivy clings for a spell to the bottom over by the VZ Bridge.

Margaret Moran heads for the next job–or the yard, with Queens’ current and future tallest buildings in the background,

while YP 704 sails past Governors Island, which has sprouted some new hillocks frequented by lots of people.

Joan Turecamo exits the Buttermilk west with a light (?) dry bulk barge Montville, which probably recently carried coal.

All photos Sunday by Will Van Dorp.  for some contrast, see this winter set and this.   More of the summer selects, tomorrow.

 

A Slew of Sail

There’s winter sail, spring sail, and autumn sail.  And today I’m just staying inside culling photos.   Since moving by wind has been around for millennia, Pioneer is a relatively modern vessel.

Pioneer, 1885

This vessel below can be “insanely fast.” I took this photos and ones that follow back on May 11, 2015 in Morris Canal.

Lending Club 2, 2015

Here’s another sixth boro regular, the largest NYC-based schooner.  See her here in winter maintenance.

Check out these special sails on Clipper City.

Here LC2‘s just finished the 635 nm run in less than 24 hours.

From Seth Tane on the Columbia River, it’s HMCS Oriole, US-built in 1921.

I’d love to see the interior of Lending Club 2, but my guess is . . . spartan.

Also from back in May . . . it’s Wavertree in the last feet of its transit for a major makeover, Thomas J. Brown sliding her over.

Here’s another shot of L’Hermione entering the Upper Bay for the first time.

And what do you make of this?

Maybe more on that last photo tomorrow.

Except for the photo by Seth Tane, all photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Government Boats 35

First, two photos from Jason LaDue, up in Lyons on the Erie Canal.  Click here to see some of the many photos Jason has sent along over the past years from Lyons and the Great Lakes.  The vessel Lyons, below, has been painted NY blue and gold since it last appeared here two plus months ago.

Docked astern of Lyons is Salem, which has also gotten some new paint recently.

From the Canal to the sixth boro, here’s the sight I caught last week from the MediaBoat, as we entered North Cove.  The vessel is the New York Naval Militia’s 440 Moose boat.   Click here to see some of NYNM’s previous vessels.

I’m not sure where the group was headed.  The schooner is Clipper City, which I really need to get out on one of these days soon.

Top two photos . . . thanks to Jason LaDue;  last three by Will Van Dorp.

 

Autumn Sail 10

Here was 9.

It seems that sailing just gets better as summer turns into fall.  Like Pioneer.   Click here for bookings via Water Taxi.

America 2.0

Shearwater

Adirondack

There are also those sailing vessels I’d like to see under sail.  Like Angel’s Share with its twin helms, here

a close-up of the port helm.

Slim Gunboat 6606

with its Marshall Islands flag

Heron . . . which I’ve seen as far south as Puerto Rico.

Clipper City

I’d love to find the time and invitations to sail on all those wind vessels.  But I actually did sail on Pioneer the other day.  Come with the vessel and crew as we leave the pier,

ride the wind in a busy harbor for a few hours, and

then lower sail before returning to the pier.

All fotos taken this week by Will Van Dorp.  Time’s now for me to head out and enjoy more of this autumn air.

Sixth Boro Sundries

Springtime . . . and motion gives a renewed sense of life to the watery boro.  Emerald Sea‘s been around all winter, but she’s not moved loads like this.  Diner?  Prefab beach buildings for post-Sandy reconstruction?  Many thanks to Ashley Hutto for this shot taken along Roxbury, Queens.

Eclipse, the huge yacht in the distance has taller masts than Clipper City, the tallest sailing vessel operating in the the harbor.  Eclipse left the harbor Tuesday, headed for Gibraltar.

Schooner Virginia left Wednesday, headed for Virginia . . . by way of Portland, Maine.

Anyone know the manufacturer of the speedboat in the foreground?  In the background is Zephyr, launched 10 years ago from the Austal Shipyard in Mobile, AL . . . and Wavertree, launched 128 years ago in Southampton, UK.

I could almost imagine this boat has a bowsprit.

Smaller workboats seem more commonplace this time of year like Henry Hudson,

this Oyster Bay government boat,

an OCC vessel,

and of course the ubiquitous all-weather sludge tanker North River, frequently mentioned on this blog.

Thanks to Ashley for the first foto, and I’d love to know what that structure on the Weeks barge is.  All other fotos by Will Van Dorp, who feels the urge to go somewhere too.

Clipper City

When the sixth boro looks like this, I recall

the warmth of late summer and

even late spring, truly splendid times to sail  It’s Clipper City above and  .  . following Dewaruci, Clipper City below.  But to ensure the vessels are ready, crews dedicate winter

to visiting places like this

for haul-out.

The vessel gets inspected

everywhere, even under the keel.

Wear and tear gets repaired and

and reinspected.

Exactly 90 days from today (April 26, 2013), the 158′ vessel begins season 2013.  Clipper City is one of two vessels operated by Manhattan by Sail, the other being Shearwater.  Click here for more info on Clipper City, a 1984 replica of a Manitowoc lumber schooner  that operated on Lake Michigan between 1854 and 1890 and capable of sailing 115 miles in less than 8 hours.

Manhattan by Sail is owned by Tom Berton, who first sailed on Petrel, a now-gone pioneer of sixth boro public sail operated by Nick Van Nes.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.

For profiles of Clipper City, Shearwater, and many other vessels from June 2009, click here.  For fotos of Clipper City bound for the yard, click here.