Dense Traffic 5

Megalopolis roadways see dense traffic, and so do waterways in these areas.  I hope these photos convey a sense of that.  All but two of the seven vessels are underway.  Underway vessels, l to r, are Frederick E. Bouchard, MSC Athens, Jonathan C. Moran, C. F. Campbell, and Fort McHenry.

Dense means tight quarters, Brian Nicholas looking barely larger than the bulbous bow.

Here everything is in motion.

Again, everything here is in motion.  I’m not sure what the Reinauer units there are.

All are moving here too . .   Frederick E., Pegasus, Meaghan Marie, one of the Moran 6000s, Mister T, a bit of the bow of Mary Turecamo, and CMA CGM Nabucco.

 

Sometimes a confluence of schedules make the KVK resemble rush hour.  Photos, WVD.

Really Random Ships 1

Let’s try a variation:  I’ve random tugs and random ships, in which I’ve confined most pics to a single general location and a a single photographer . . . me.  “Really random tugs” combines locations, eras, and photographers.  So why not do the same with ships, although in this case I’ve taken almost all the photos but in a variety of locations and times.

But this first one launches the concept.  What can you surmise or identify about the photo below, not taken by me?  Answer at the end of this post.

Spring brings the Great Lakes back to life. Here is a March 11 AIS capture of traffic on the Lakes.  The “arrows” are US and Canadian CG doing ice ops.  The rivers system around Chicago has some traffic.

The NOAA satellite image below provides the explanation . . .  what looks ice covered IS.  With the Soo scheduled to open on Monday, March 25, icebreaking carries high priority.   Note Green Bay as well.

March 22 marked the opening of the Welland Canal.  The first upbound ship this year was Thunder Bay;  this photo I took in Quebec in October 2017.  The first down bounder through the Welland was Algoma Spirit, but I’ve never gotten a photo of her.

Kaye E. Barker was the first springtime vessel out of Duluth;  I took this photo in the last week of navigation before the Soo closed on January 15.  The Soo is scheduled to open on Monday, March 25.

The KVK is a busy place all year round, although it’s not uniformly busy.  On this day last month, Alpine Maya followed Port Richmond, which  followed Atlantic Sun.

Stolt Integrity here stemmed while waiting to replace the tanker in the distance to leave the berth.

Tankers come in a variety of sizes;  Selasse is a particular small one.

By now, have you figured out that first photo?  I’ll give you a clue:  vessel name is Nggapulu and as of last night she was in BauBau.

Traffic moves at all hours;  night photos turn out quite unsatisfying, but golden hour ones I enjoy.  Can you guess the hull color on this one?

Foreshortening belies the amount of distance actually between the stern of the Evergreen ship and Diane B/John Blanche.

The colorful Stena tankers, bears and all,  seem to appear mostly in winter.

So here you have the answer, sort of.  Indonesia, being a far-flung archipelago supports a ferry system called Pelni, an acronym.  As an example of distances here, find Jakarta lower left.  From there to Makassar roughly in the center is 1000 miles!  Pelni operates about two dozen ferries of various designs.  Ngga Pulu has classic lines and was launched in 2002.

Here’s an English language site about traveling the archipelago.   Restless?  Aye peri!

Many thanks to Hannah Miller for sharing the photo of Ngga Pulu.  I’m not sure how that’s pronounced, but it’s named for a mountain.  Learning about Pelni and seeing this map gives me a whole new appreciation of Dewaruci.

Assists 6

Here goes another 3-fer, three cargo vessels making their way again through the KVK simultaneously.  JRT here at dawn assists orange juice carrier Orange Blossom 2 through the ConHook Range.

Jonathan C passes in front of them, returning from assisting another vessel now bound for sea.

Right behind the juice carrier is a box ship.

 

As the juice ship nears midpoint in the KVK, notice a RORO rounding Bergen Point at the west end of the KVK.

As I said, congestion . ..   that’s routine.  Kimberly travels along the starboard bow of the RORO,

Meanwhile, that box ship mentioned earlier has Eric on port

and Capt Brian A. at the stern.

Glovis Safety . . . headed for Philly and as of this moment is midAtlantic on its way to Zeebrugge.

 

As I said . . .   skillful mariners make a congested waterway seem just routine.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.