Polar Adventure

They say we never had a winter in 2011 into 2012, but on this first full day of summer, a hot season has begun.  What better day to look at Cook Inlet.  I’m using these fotos with expressed permission from Seth Tane, who took them four years and a month ago;  see his painting here.

Seth’s platform here is Polar Adventure.  Click here and scroll to see her shuttle route between Alaska and the West Coast during the past 30 days alone.

And the “tailgating” tug is Tan’erliq, a Crowley ship assist and tanker escort, training.

Click here for a commendation Tan’erliq shared with an even more powerful Crowley tug for rapid response to a tanker power loss.

Line is made and pullback begins.  This process makes me think of calf roping or kayak hunting.

Just as I can imagine the sound of the tug’s engine pulling back with 105 tons of force, I can

look at this water and cool off,

I hope.  Click here and here for Crowley vessels previously on this blog.

Many thanks to Seth Tane for these cool fotos.

Unrelated:  Bravo to community Board 1 for passing a resolution supporting wood carver Sal Polisi’s right to stay put.  Shame on EDC for their broad-broom sweeping all that impedes their planning.

Swan’s Weight

Note the Crowley props and the orange-clad crew.  Doubleclick enlarges image.

Note the huge design difference between Socrates (1966, 3200 hp) and

Heron (1968, 3200 hp).  

My question is this:  what is the actual weight added to Swan by these five tugs, one barge, and one crewboat?  Does the load change the draft of Swan at all, given that she like any vessel is ballasted as needed?  And I do not know the answer.

For outatowners, these shots from Bay Ridge show the “west” end of the Verrazano Bridge.  Yesterday’s fotos were taken from the bluff more or less just above the white dome of the lighthouse.

And for this foto, I pivoted slightly toward the south, capturing both towers of the Bridge.  Entering the Narrows is a ferry and dredger

Terrapin Island, which as recently as two and a half months ago was sucking up silt from Jed’s coast in southern Georgia.

All fotos this morning by Will Van Dorp, who probably has one more installment on Swan.  For the title, my apologies to Marcel Proust.

Swan is Down

(Note:  Doubleclick enlarges.) The title . . . those were the exact words John Watson emailed me last night.  If the message had been “hawk is down”  . . . or “condor …”  it would have alarmed me, but instead I charged my camera so that right after work I could zoom over to Fort Wadsworth for these shots.  By one, I found Alert loaded onto barge BFT No. 38, which

was already on Swan.  Gabby Miller was present, of course.  Lined up on the Brooklyn side was a cast of characters identified as

Cavalier, Pioneer, and Mars . . . in custody of Charles D. McAllister.

The three Crowley tugs glided onto Swan‘s back, extending beyond the hull on

both sides.

For outatowners, that’s Manhattan in the distance looking across most of what’s called the Upper Bay.  The Lower Bay is behind me, as is the Verrazano Bridge.    On the right is the boro of Brooklyn.  The red tugs are Charles D. McAllister and McAllister Sisters Girls.

If you wonder about my shifting POV, the tide turned from ebb to flood during loading, and with it a bank of fog crept in and out, several times.

Next on board . . . Socrates, who in spite of the fog, found

a place midships, starboard.

This left space for

Heron!  It’s not quite Noah’s ark, but I’m hoping Bowsprite will find a spare moment to drawing this vessel with its cargo almost as diverse as that of Pi Patel.

Loading completed, Susan Miller glides by.  No doubt Swan has already begun to deballast to rise back up, and tomorrow the menagerie onboard Swan will be high and dry.  After that, next stop, Nigeria.

I include this foto for outatowners.  The vessel farthest left and most distant is Swan;  I took it on the ferry about halfway back to Manhattan.   Land to the right of King Emerald is Staten Island.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Some related posts include Mighty Servant loaded last December, Blue Marlin loaded a year ago, and Socrates last summer . .  seventh foto down.

Pioneers in the Sixth Boro 2 and More

Here was the first one, two years ago.  Actually . . . this post should be called “waiting for Pioneer, ”  one 1885 steel and iron schooner, said to be transiting through the Kills back to South Street Seaport.

But in the unpredictable ways of the sixth boro, this is the first Pioneer that showed up, stern first and

made securely to a McAllister–Michael J.–one I’ve never seen before.

Anyone know from whence?  Actually Crowley Mars also arrived that way midday today . . . stern by bow of Bruce A. McAllister.   More fotos of the Crowley visitors tomorrow.  Anyone know what the plans are?

About an hour after Mars and Pioneer transited to the west, I saw the unmistakeable lines of a schooner . . .

the Pioneer I was expecting.

In the next month, volunteers will sweat and tie spars and sails onto the poles and

this vessel–so absent all throughout 2011–will again gallop or wallow across the Upper Bay.

This Pioneer had an Anacostia-escort for a few minutes before the schooner took the tug’s stern and

made for Manhattan.   Meanwhile . . .

this vessel, Katherine G, a liftboat–not a tug–whose foto I took about a year ago here–had

a mishap over on the north side of Liberty Island and ended up like this.  This foto was taken at 10:16 this morning.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.   Thanks much to eastriver for the heads up . . .  .

For more on Katherine G, see what Newyorkology has to report.

And this Halifax-centric tugboat blog to check out . . .

Other Peoples’ Fotos 11

Here was 10.

And here, from John Van Staalduinen,  are fotos of Legend, a sibling of the virgin tug Liberty I posted about a month ago.  Doubleclick enlarges. The size of this behemoth can

measured using the load line (draft markings) on the stern.  Eyeballing it, I’d say that from the top of the stern bulwarks to the top of the brownish bottom paint is almost 20′.  I.e., if (post-launch obviously) I dove from the bulwarks into the water, it would be a long way just to the water!  ??  Stern anchor is already in place.

Also at the shipyard in Anacortes, John got this foto of a dry-docked Nanuq, a 301′ loa oil recovery/platform supply vessel build by Edison Chouest.  Nanuq was delivered in May 2007; here’s a youtube of its launch.   Click here for a foto/info on the newest vessel Edison Chouest is undertaking for Shell’s Arctic drilling.

And from Isaac of the tugboathunter blog, this foto taken in Toledo. OH, (it reminds me of those shots taken by “future car spies”) of the former tugboat Cleveland, possibly headed for the sixth boro as the new (and third) Patrice McAllister.  Another shot of the future Patrice can be seen in the last foto here on this post from Isaac’s blog.  For archival shots of the vessel, check out Birk and Harold’s site, of course.

Thanks again John and Isaac.

Related:  If you haven’t seen Jed’s blog, Cumberland Soundings, check it out here.

Also related:  I’m suddenly thinking seriously about visiting the Panama Canal.  A site like this one gives me the impression that there is an Canal/shipping enthusiast-friendly tourist infrastructure in Panama.  Can anyone who’s been there comment?  Would it be better to use Panama City or Colon as a homebase for a four-day trip?  The “screen capture” below is interactive but time sensitive.  When I studied traffic just now, I quickly recognized a half dozen vessels I think I know from their transit through the sixth boro.   One is NYK Meteor, which I got fotos of eight days ago exiting the KVK.  Is this possible?

Virgin Tugboat 2

Many thanks to Fran Van Staalduinen for snapping these fotos, in a snow storm.  Given the foreground, any guesses on the diameter of the props?  identity of the tugboat?

Would you believe more than  12′ each?  They will be spun by 16,320 hp.  Any guesses on their identity?

Not yet launched, it’s Crowley’s Liberty, second in a series of three tugs.  Fran took these fotos through the fence in Anacortes, WA, at  Dakota Creek Industries.

Click here for a series of construction fotos from tugboatinformation.com.

Many thanks to John and Fran Van Staalduinen, whom I’ve known almost all my life.

Harold Tartell asked that I add the following:  “Sister Tug LEGACY Is Out And In Service. The Second Tug In This Series Of Three LEGEND, Is Over 90 Percent Complete, And Is Due Out Very Soon.”  Click here, here, here, and here for more info on the Legacy-class Crowley tugs.”

Thanks, Harold.

Pilot and La Princesa

Note:  Doubleclick enlarges.

Thankgiving, and snowfall on the Delaware, and what it brings–with 9000 hp and San Francisco on its stern–

Pilot!  It’s a Crowley’s tug on

La Princesa, the triple-deck 580′ loa barge that runs between Pennsauken, NJ and San Juan, PR.

Just over a year ago, I saw fotos of La Princesa push ashore by the storm named Ida near Virginia Beach, VA, and I read it was big, but here Grace Moran and

Valentine Moran show just how

huge the barge is.  See it in the St. John’s River, FL here.

3 pm Thursday they headed upriver under the Ben Franklin Bridge, and

as of noon today, they were still docked at Pennsauken, and I had to move on.  More La Princesa fotos here.    More Delaware River first snow fotos soon.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Salish Sea 4

I leave Seattle today, reluctantly.  But days to come will feature more fotos I took here.  From this angle, can you guess this one?

If you couldn’t read the name or recognize the clipper-bow profile, it’s Garth Foss with all her 8000 hp moving through her VSP.

And Pacific Star, between ship shifting jobs.

Shifting from green to orange, it’s Chief and

Valor, lying in wait for

Vancouver Express.

Ocean Titan, second foto in a few days, is a thing of beauty here shrunk by the snowcapped Olympics.

And along the Ship Canal, here are Western Ranger and

(left to right) Flyer, Hornet, Wasp, and Fearless.  For more info, see the Western Towboat site here.

Closing shot for now:  Arthur Foss (ex-Wallowa, 1889), movie star and much much more.  I don’t know the small vessel beside her.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Salish Sea 1

Salish Sea is an inclusive term like the sixth boro, where on day 1, I’ve walked nearly a dozen miles.  Special thanks to Meryll and Tom, and their newly launched Coot, sporting colors inspired by W. O. Decker.  New Yorkers . . . we have much to learn on waterfront coexistence from Seattle.

Just a listing for now:  Andrew Foss (1982, 4000 hp) over by the stern of Katie Ann and Pier 90.  Thea Foss, founder of this company,   . . .   now there’s a story of a determined mail-order bride, the original Tugboat Annie.

Alaska Titan moors in the Ship Canal in Ballard.

Pacific Star, wearing Foss colors, docks right across the Canal from Titan.

K-Sea’s footprint is just to the west is marked by  Pacific Pride and Sirius.

Out on Lake Washington, it’s Sea Prince pushing a spud barge.

And Lake Union, just in from the Ship Canal, has lots of houseboats and tugboats converted into yachts, like Owl.

Or maybe in the process of being converted, like Pathfinder.

Lake Union is home to Lake Union Drydock Company, where  Cape Flattery waits and Crowley’s Wisconsin-built Coastal Reliance (2003, 9280 hp) is high and dry.

More boats along the Lake include Triton and

Newt.  I’m curious about this name for a tug:  nature or Shakespeare?

Final shots for now . . . air harbor?

Check out these flying boats at Kenmore on the north end of Lake Washington.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, now too eager to see more of the Salish Sea to further research any of these fotos.  Research . . .  that’s for rainy, cold, stormy weather . . . not today.

Special thanks again to Meryll and Tom.

Unrelated . . .  check out GMG Joey’s homie float and Moveable Bridge Brian’s report on the 234th 7/4 in Gloucester!