Two Hours on the Narrows 4

The Narrows is a prime location for me to get photos of vessels coming in from sea if they have AIS because I have several hours notice of arrival for any traffic going anywhere into or through the Upper Bay, eg., on their way to Brooklyn berths, the North River, or the East River.  I can walk around or–in case of rain or cold–sit in my car.

The downside is that it’s a wide spot, so even the zoom can draw in only limited detail.

Having said all that, here’s a shot from Bay Ridge over to the Sandy Hook Pilots station, showing (from far to near) the current black hull-yellow trimmed pilot boat mother ship New York No. 1, its eventual replacement currently with a blue hull, and the smaller boats.  Lop off the thin upper wheelhouse and paint the hull/trim, and make a thousand more modifications . . .  and you’ll have the new mother ship.

My goal was to get photos of Commander Iona, which I did and posted here. Unexpected was the arrival of Dina Polaris, which I’d first seen only a month and a half or so ago.

 

Mister Jim has been a regular on this blog and in the sixth boro surrounding waters since she first arrived a few years ago.

 

The Severn Sailing Association came through the rain with a whole host of sloops . . . from closest to farthest:  Commitment, Intrepid, Valiant, Courage, Invincible, Renaissance, Daring, Brave, Warrior.

Rhea I. Bouchard headed in with her barge, but by this time the rain was falling so hard I couldn’t confirm the name/number on the barge.

Magdalen headed out, passing a sloop and

R/V Heidi Lynn Scuthorpe, a first sighting for me.

Click here for more info on Heidi Lynn and Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute. Click here for a more technical article from Workboat on this vessel.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who feels compensated for staying out in the rain.

I saw Nauvoo (Heidi Lynn‘s previous name) years back and I posted a pic here.  I also saw Beglane.

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   The orange vessel doing surveys in 2007 has been replaced by the one below, which I’d not seen until very recently.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 . . .

 

 

Exotics 10

What a treat to catch Dina Polaris on an daylight inbound run, and just before the April monsoons happen

She’s been working in the New York Bight for some time, and

I was hoping to see her.    Any guesses on maximum crew size? So her mission?

I’ll let you speculate until the end of this post.

By the way, my usage of exotic here comes from my birder’s guide, which defines an exotic bird as one well outside its usual range.  Imagine seeing a penguin in the sixth boro, or encountering a Chinese junk in our harbor;  when that does happen, it’s noteworthy.  Previous exotic posts can be found here.

These two crew rode atop the bridge all the way in . . . see the bright red jacket even on the top photo.

Bergen . . . in 1985 I visited there and it’s calling me back.

Above . . . no, it’s not a mini-container vessel.  I’m guessing she was core sampling for offshore wind.  See the full specs here.

Here’s more on the company, this vessel, and their other vessels.  Here’s an article about her from the Times, the Marthas Vineyard Times, that is. She is Turkish-built, 2017, from the Europe side of the Bosphorus.  She has berths for 97 crew!!

All photos taken by Will Van Dorp, who was happy to sit on my John Travolta bench again .