Augie Grows Up

Here was Augie when I first saw her, June 2012.

A few months later, here’s Augie alongside Cornell.

Ditto . . . Augie that year at Waterford Tugboat Roundup.  Start counting the days until the 2014 event.

Here are photos I took of Augie about six weeks ago in Kingston.  Notice some evolution?

Augie‘s now grown an upper helm!

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who lost his notes on Augie‘s history:  what I recall is Florida-built from the 1940s.

Waterford Tugboat Roundup 2013 a

It’s the weekend after Labor Day in Waterford, time to call a muster.

And stuff starts happening.  Atlantic Hunter arrives via the highway.

Tug-of-the-Year Gowanus Bay travels from the south.

Buffalo parades from Waterford back to Waterford.

Grand Erie travels as the dais.

As the parade approaches the Waterford Visitors Center, a water salute awaits Eighth Sea,

Frances, Margot, and Benjamin Elliott . . .

as well as Cornell and Iron Chief.

Parts B and more soon.  All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who met great people, missed many others, and heard fabulous stories to be followed up on soon.

Here are parts A   B   and C from 2012.    More links to past roundups tomorrow also.

x

Clearwater Maintenance 2013

If anyone out there needs to be convinced of the beauty of the Hudson Valley less than 100 miles north of the big city, take a glance at this foto by Tim Hetrick showing tanker Icdas 11 escorted by a paparazzi savvy eagle.

The foto below shows sloop Clearwater in mid-June arriving at the music festival that shares the same name.

A minute or so earlier . . . Clearwater rounded the bend following Woody Guthrie toward the shallows.

But if anyone has notions of operating a wooden vessel, it’s important to consider the regular maintenance.  Here was a post from about three years ago about work on Clearwater.  Currently way upriver this

is happening again.  All the following fotos now come thanks to Paul Strubeck.  In mid-December, Clearwater was downrigged and hauled out near Albany at Scarano Boat Building and

gently placed onto Black Diamond, with tug Cornell nearby.

Securing the big sloop for travel takes care and time, more time than there is light at the winter solstice end of the year.

But when all’s fast, the trip to where the winter maintenance crew can begin.

Click here for an article about Clearwater‘s winter home in the shadow of the Hudson River Maritime Museum.

Many thanks to Paul for sending these along.  It looks like I need to find time to get up to the Rondout.  The first two fotos in the post are mine.

Sixth Boro Sensations

Posting every day and trying to maintain a “brand” entails a measure of risk taking that I’ve accepted.    Maybe this will be a new series, one that might even get up to SBS 80, like the Random Tugs series.  So, here’s a different version of a foto I used yesterday.  Doubleclick enlarges.  I think there’s something remarkable about this gunner, and that’s all I’ll say.  Agree?

The links in this series relate in no way to the fotos, but check this out . . . $20 million in silver and other metals–7700 bars of it–somewhere along the bottom of the sixth boro since 1903?  Is this serious?

A grainy documentary foto from the ever-perspicacious bowsprite:  Cornell pushes a barge with a yellow schoolbus around the boro, certainly a remarkable cargo.

Another remarkable story, which I heard some time ago but have not followed up on:  15,000 pieces of munitions fell from USS Bennington into the Narrows in 1954, before the VZ Bridge construction began.  Have they now been removed?

And from the clear-sighted John Watson, here’s a foto of Sgt. Matej Kocak arriving last Monday from Diego Garcia, a remarkable place I’ll probably never visit.

Equally remarkable is this reference to the island of Lokoko on a sign outside the Hurricane Club (SW corner of 26th and Park Avenue) in Manhattan.  By the coordinates, Lokoko must be out there, near Tahiti.  I love imagined histories as well as real fictions and everyday miracles.  I haven’t been inside.  I just stumbled upon this while waiting for a friend the other day.  Read reviews here.

Fotos as credited.

Riverfront Festivals

But first . . . Blue Marlin has sailed!!  I went upriver Sunday midmorning, and soon thereafter, she headed for sea.  Actually for Bonny Town, ETA July 4, 2011.  Click here to see what this Niger River delta town looks like, and then you’ll know why they’re buying tugs–like ex-Curtis Reinauer below–and barges.  The link explains the unusual house configuration.  If anyone got fotos of Blue Marlin exiting the Narrows or  wishes to shares fotos of the journey, please get in touch.

Click here for history, economics,  and controversies related to the Niger delta.   The Niger River, 14th in the world in length, flows through unlikely places such as Timbuktu–high on my “gallivant list”–and drains 10 nations.  Name them?

 Yesterday I volunteered on Pegasus for the Riverdale Riverfest.  In fact, Robert Apuzzo just sent this foto; I’m the tall guy in faded blue on the “upper deck” in the gap between the stack and the house.  I volunteer because it’s fun and important.  As “safety officer,” I help ensure no one gets hurt, and since I like to talk, I answer questions.  I’ve noticed people like to see the boats but also their own communities FROM the river.    Ensuring “guest safety” is vital and sometimes difficult;  a tugboat has industrial-strength hazards . . . it moves and steel is hard and forgiving, yet it is a fascinating opportunity:  throbbing noise and vibration, power of invisible prop and rudder and versatile line, huge engine, …

Believe it or not, Riverdale IS in the Bronx!  Therefore, this water too is the sixth boro of NYC.  By the way, in the background are the Palisades on the Jersey side.

Cornell was there also, here coexisting with human-powered vessels (HPVs).   I love to kayak myself, but I suspect people in some HPVs underestimate commercial vessel speed and over-estimate their own visibility.

Spud barge Black Diamond served as a makeshift dock, serviceable but labor-intensive but the popularity of festivals like this illustrates the value of serviceable commercial docks in many more Hudsonsonian towns and cities.  Imagine not only entertainment but also food coming ashore from boats for several reasons including reducing highway congestion.   Vessels in Riverdale included also Mystic Whaler (1967 reproduction of a coastal cargo schooner) and fireboat  John J. Harvey.  Of course, the distinctive red barge is the itinerant  Waterfront Museum, aka 1914-built Lehigh Valley 79.

These festivals showcase the skill of  maritime professionals and, though fun, are stressful and laborious.

Just north of Riverdale is Yonkers.  This foto of Yonkers as a storm chased us upriver in 2010 shows two frequently inquired about buildings on the this part of the Hudson:  the Yonkers Power Station and the “Blue Cube,” which has had lives as diverse as a test lab for PhelpsDodge and a movie studio.

Yesterday a young peregrine (?) feasted on a fish high atop the Power Station.

Traffic headed up and down the Hudson is diverse:  trawler Manitou from Ludington, MI,

MV Universal Amsterdam with a load of sugar,  escorted here north from the George Washington Bridge by Mary Turecamo and Margaret Moran,

trawler Muddy Waters from Miami Beach, FL,

Thomas Witte towing a tall load of scrap metal for export,  and much

much more.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, except the one thanks to Robert Apuzzo.

Other People’s Fotos 1

A general thanks for people sending me fotos.  Blogging allows some stupendous collaborations.

Thanks to M. McMorrow for sending.  Notice the cruise ship, the Intrepid, several sizes and types of tugs, as well as the Concorde!  Unfortunately, the blimp–on its way to the tennis tournament–had just escaped from the foto.

Thanks to Stephen Sisler.  Any guesses who’s atop the wheelhouse?

Do you recall that Cornell struggled in a pushing contest with The Bronx?  (That’s “struggled” to restrain all forward movement.)  The next two fotos come compliments of Jim Levantino, who saw that struggle from The Bronx having the pleasure of getting buried

deep within Cornell‘s … er … whiskers.

Here’s my foto of the very same moment, as recorded from high atop the house.

Thanks to Elizabeth … it’s a blogger fotografing within the confines of Troy’s Federal Lock.

And going back to late August, thanks to Eric Graybill, crewman on Bold  (See 6th foto down.), who sent these fotos of  Gazela making

her way, motorsailing

up Delaware Bay.  Recognize anyone on deck Gazela?  Gazela will be returning through the sixth boro in mid-October on its way to the oysterfest.  Keep your eyes peeled; this blogger will await them at the Narrows or –near the “Gate”  in the East River.

All fotos as credited.  Only the fifth foto by Will Van Dorp.

On to Waterford

A week ago Lehigh Valley 79 closed up business at the dock in Brooklyn, keeping a weather eye open but eager to begin its gallivant northward on the hip of Pegasus.  Ultimate destination for 79 is the Roundup in Waterford, or as some say … Waterchevy.  Waterwärtsilä?

By Friday morning Earl had weakened, veered, and gotten delayed;   both captains’ word was “Travel with the tide.  Cold Spring would be destination for day 1.”

We steamed past familiar landmarks and

under the Tappan Zee.

The young pup with chin on window sill found this first trip north agreeable enough.

By the time we approached the Bear Mountain Bridge, the only accommodation needed was to prepare

the towing lights.

<<I guess this stowaway took that as signal to come up for fresh air .>>

By nightfall, barge and tug were secured in Cold Spring, and despite

gale-force gusts funneling down past Storm King all night, all was well at dawn.

From here, Pegasus returned to the sixth boro, and Lehigh Valley 79 was passed like an enormous baton carried on the nose

of Cornell.

The bottom foto comes from Paul Strubeck.  All others by Will Van Dorp, who hopes to be at the Roundup soon.

Clearwater Rebuild

All fotos and information here comes from John Sperr, last referred to here in relation to ice yacht Galatea, as its pilot.

Today’s post comes from the same area of the Hudson where iceboating was happening a mere two months ago.  Ice has now given  way to the fine color heralding leaves.  Clearwater has wintered on a mobile shipyard, a barge.  The “whiskey plank”  aka the last part of the hull to be closed up post-repair was recently steamed, jacked into place, and fastened.

Libation followed and then

parade, as the shipyard itself danced upriver clutched tight by Cornell to be offloaded in anticipation of rigging, which

would happen at

Scarano Boat.  The barge was slid into the travel-lift dock, slings

moved like fingers under the hull, and

Clearwater, cradled in these sturdy arms, was

carried onto the high-and-dry.  Notice Onrust in the background?  And Adirondack directly beyond Clearwater‘s stern?

This left the barge Black Diamond to assume other duties, become other things.

All fotos by John Sperr.  Thanks, John.

By the way, start imagining the weekend of June 19 and 20.  Mermaids on Saturday (with Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed !@#@! as Queen Mermaid and King Neptune)  and music on Sunday (with Pete Seeger and Lucy Kaplansky and many more!@#@##@!!)  ?  How can one make a choice like that?

Also, a tall ship and volunteer opportunity in Brooklyn:  PortSide NewYork FreeSail Clipper City 4-12-2010