Random Sixth Boro 11

I’m on the road again, so today I’ll share some recent photos on the boro.  Of course, winter is still fishing time in the harbor, as Viking is doing here.

Others are feeding in the boro, like

this guy below . . . closeup of the photo above.

I’m always looking for intriguing things, like this ladder that appears to extend over board from the Miller crewboat.  I couldn’t get a closer shot.

Details always attract me, like these color-coded connection on a tanker, or just

colorful deck machinery maybe for its own sake.

Conversely, this 2008 barge needs some rustbusting and fresh paint.

Now and then a boat I’ve not previously seen in the boro shows up . . . like the 125′ fishing party boat out of Brielle NJ.

How about a tanker with a local name  . . .

or a busy lineup scene?

Of course, the down side of observing is sometimes discovering that you are yourself being observed, folks wondering who would be sitting in the 20-degree weather on a dock of the bay wasting time . . . .  Thx for checking up on me, folks.

All photos, WVD, who comes here to relax.  And speaking of, my travel schedule the next few days may preclude posting.

 

Random Tugs 367

Tony A sent this along labeled as “m-o-a-t,” mother of all tugs, and Pacific Reliance is truly a large tugboat at 121′ x 42′

with 9280 hp turning two 12′ diameter propeller and pushing around a 560′ tank barge that carries 155k barrels of liquid product.  But there are larger tugboats.  Justine McAllister gets called in to assist the Crowley unit into the dock.

CMT Pike heads north about to be obscured by an incoming MSC ship.

 

Seeley pushes along a block of four scows.

 

JRT and Kirby prepare to sail a Minerva tanker.  Minerva, Roman goddess of war and other things, seems appropriate these days.

The indefatigable Ellen McAllister passes Barney Turecamo on her way to a job.

Catherine C. Miller moves Weeks crane 577 to a lift site.

Emily Ann returns from a job. 

Nicolas Vinik gallops off to a job,

following Liz Vinik, herself

follwing Gregg McAllister.

And the beat goes on . . . all photos, WVD, except of course the one from Tony A, to whom I am grateful.

Random Tugs 350

Here’s a sampling of boats working I saw in the sixth boro the past week; the variety of boats, though, is greater than these would suggest.

Frances . . . was launched on Long Island in 1957.  Scroll through here and see photos of Frances I took in 2010 when she still had the Turecamo wood-grain paint.

Emily Ann was built in Louisiana in 1964.  She’s been a DonJon boat for eight years;  to see her in K-Sea colors, scroll here. I’ve no photos of her in previous liveries.

Potomac, 2007 in Louisiana, and Fort McHenry, 2016 and Maryland.  They were built as Vane equipment.

Paula Lee is not a tugboat, nor is

Trojan, the anchor tender, but this equipment is currently in the sixth boro, but owned by a company based in California.  I don’t know the history of any of these pieces of Dutra equipment.

Ellen McAllister, Wisconsin in 1967.  Ellen may very well be the most frequently-appearing boat on this blog.  Here she is passing the southern tip of Manhattan just entering the East River.

Meagan Ann, Washington state in 1975.  See Birk’s encyclopedia-like site for photos of Meagan Ann as a Foss boat.  I have more photos of her wrestling in this DonJon crane.

And Joker, 1979, Louisiana.  Eight years ago, I caught these photos of the boat when she was called Taurus, a Kirby boat, and looking rough. Here, from 2007, is Taurus in K-Sea colors.

All photos, WVD.

Friday I hit the road going pretty far west, and maybe even finding a vessel called Far West.

Retro Sixth Boro NYC Tugboat Races 6

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve not been to the Great North River Tugboat Race since 2014, but in normal times, September 5 would see the next race.  But we’ve dispensed with the “normal times” concept for the time being.

In selecting the batch for this post, I wanted splash, froth, bubbles, and the effervescence the river can react with when tons of steel and thousands of horsepower push through the ever changing water.   The next two photos are from that 2014 race. 

It was overcast during the race, but an hour or so later, when pushing contests were happening and

the wakes flattened out and we sized up USAV MGen. Anthony Wayne, patches of blue appeared.  I should leave you in suspense about how this push went.  Let me put it this way;  they left town not long after the push-off.

2013 was an equally overcast day, and again, not to identify every tugboat in that lineup, it appears that W. O. Decker has either jumped the gun or activated its jet drive and will soon rise up out of the Hudson on her hydrofoil assists. I’d guess the latter.

See what I told you . . . Decker has gone so far ahead that it’s already over the horizon.

Second lap maybe for Decker?

It’s starting to appear that in 2012, as in ’13 and ’14, it was overcast.

It was great to see Buchanan 12, usually burdened with a half dozen stone barges, disencumbered and frothing up the river.  That’s the 1907 Pegasus back there too.

In 2011, I was able to get a photo of the racing craft along with sky spray by one of the fireboats present, likely 343.  What’s remarkable comparing the photo above with the one below is the color of the water;  hurricane Irene had dropped a lot of rain upstate and all the tributaries sent that into the Hudson with tribute in the form of silt.

Quantico Creek and Maurania III did an excellent job of stirring up the water.

But again, it was overcast and hazy over silty water.

However, in 2010, we had blue skies that really accentuated the DonJon boats like Cheyenne and

the harbor colossus, Atlantic Salvor.

In 2009, there were wispy clouds, allowing the “queen of the day” to be Ellen McAllister. But look who else showed up!!!!

Urger.   Urger would EASILY have won the race, but she was doing what she does best . . .  urging all the other boats and crews to be fleeter than she, holding herself back, allowed herself to be that day.

All photos and commentary, WVD. See you at the races in 2022.

 

 

Random Tugs 345

If you’ve never hung out at any of the public places on the KVK and you’re interested in tugboats or shipping in general, you are missing something.

The Upper Bay is a busy place also.

M

Faber Park is a great place when it’s open.

You get views of the Bayonne Bridge and the east side of city of Elizabeth from Faber Park.

Shooters Island, once a major shipbuilding site, shows up like a jungle now.   Pres. Theo Roosevelt went there to shake hands with a foreign monarch who had a yacht built on Shooters.

 

Beyond Shooters, major port facilities can be seen.

For the past 22 years, Schuykill has been a Vane Brothers boat.  When I saw the name on AIS, I assumed it was a new Vane boat.

 

 

Welcome to the sixth boro.

All photos in the past week, WVD.

Spring Morning Hour 4

FB won’t display a preview photo because I made them full size.  Oh well.

Picking up from yesterday, Kimberly released her line on the lower recessed bitt of MSC Bilbao and spun around to head back home.  Jonathan C goes to retrieve the docking pilot.

Victoria Highway comes in . . . .

Life saving steel cage?

 

Lines are prepped for the next job.

Brendan Turecamo is on the stern.

Meanwhile, over in Global, there’s a lot of shifting going on.

See the crane operator’s cabin beneath the rail just to the right of the red/white tip of the rail?  An operator sits there the whole shift shuttling backing and forth lifting and lowering containers more than a hundred feet below.

Frances leaves for her next job.

Emily Ann moves a brace scows  . . . likely to Claremont.

And Bruce A. comes over to  hang on the wall between jobs.

Here ends my spring morning series.  On a day like this, I couldn’t be happier.  I’ve posted only ten percent of the photos I took, of course, in the interest of creating some narrative.  Obviously each of these photos could develop into a narrative in itself.  And other photos creating differing narratives remain in my archives . . . for now.

All photos, WVD.

Random Tugs 324

At first light, Navigator passes a docked Saint Emilion. 

This 1981 build has called the sixth boro her home since 2015.  Saint Emilion (2007) has been here in two previous liveries and names.

Barney Turecamo was launched in 1995.  Note her cutaway forefoot.

Barney, married to Georgia, gets an assist from Doris Moran, 1982, as she departs the dock.

 

Meaghan Marie, 1968, follows a box ship into port but is not involved in the assist.

Meaghan Marie is a former fleetmate of Margaret Moran, 1979, doing the assist.

Emily Ann, 1964, moves a sanitation scow.

 

And finally, coming in from sea with a dump scow, it’s Captain Willie Landers, 2001.

When she first appeared on this blog in 2015, she had a prominent mast, not an upper wheelhouse.

All photos, WVD.

Random Tugs 320

A new tug in town . . .  Osprey?  Built in 1961, she’s a sibling of Kodi.  Photo thanks to Tony A.

B & B . . .  it’s Brendan Turecamo in the distance and Bruce A McAllister.  It turns out they are not clones:  Brendan is a year newer, and Bruce A. is few feet longer and packs a few more horses.

Curis Reinauer is the third tug to carry that name.  This Curtis dates from 2013.  The previous one was sold to Nigeria, and the one before that has been reefed.

Emily Ann dates from 1964;  she appeared on this blog just a few weeks ago but out of the water then.

Mister Jim, 1982,  has been in the sixth boro for about eight years. 

Doris Moran, also 1982, is a powerhouse.

Navigator, 1981, is the only boat currently operated by Balico Marine Services.

Gulf Coast, 1982, got her upper wheelhouse up at Feeney‘s on the Rondout.

Patrice, 1999, has so far spent half its life working on the Great Lakes.

Shannon McAllister is a rare one in the sixth boro, but she passes through here once in a while. like this week. She dates from 1991.

Thx to Tony for that first photo;  all others, WVD.

Random Tugs 318

Name that tug?  She’s 91.5′ x 26.8′ and used to be called Traveller.  Answer follows.

Part of a defacto ghost fleet around the sixth boro, it’s J. George Betz, and mostly invisible beyond, Rhea I. Bouchard. J. George is longer, stronger, and newer.

Also in the dry dock a week or so back, it’s Emily Ann.  My favorite story of this tug dates from a time she was called Cabo Rojo.

Lincoln Sea  was featured in my second ever tugster post, back in November 2006.   In the background, that looks to be Mount St. Elias. 

I usually see Captain D alongside a DUP barge, but behold, in good light, she’s light.   That’s my acronym, DUP.

Ditto . . .  Robert Burton.

Ruth M. Reinauer was just a year old when it appeared here in 2009.  Ruth is 112.9′ x 35′.

Ellen McAllister . . . what more can I add to what I’ve written already about this former USN YTB.   I know three of her dozen or so siblings, ex-USN YTBs, include Robert E.,  Timothy, and Stacy.

Miriam and Doris Moran follow along a ship, ready to put their force where needed when needed.

More fleetmates to Captain D and Robert Burton above, it’s Paula Atwell and Pathfinder . . . all unusually light.

And finally . . . that tug in the top photo . .  it’s Marie J. Turecamo.

All photos, WVD.

Retro Sixth Boro NYC Tugboat Races 3

Let’s do 2013 and 2014, or redo them, same conditions as I stated yesterday. But first let’s look at the 2013 crowd, packing in like you wouldn’t with covid.  Here was the crowd at 1010 and

by 1035 they had grown significantly.

The compulsory muster takes place, irrigated by fireboat John J. Harvey.

Once the race begins, a front-runner like Decker

might soon get left in the wake.

The fire boat slices up from behind and

propels itself between two Miller boats.

Pushoffs happen next, sometimes quite equally matched like here, with 3900 hp countering 4200.

Let’s jump ahead to 2014, with the arrivals on the watery carpet,

the processing to the starting line,

and get straight to racing without all the preening and posturing.

Someone seems a bit oversize in that gray livery.

This is a fairly mis-matched pair:  Wayne at 5100 hp, and Ellen at 4000.  Maybe a re-match is in order Wayne v. Ava.

Thanks to Jeff Anzevino for this shot, the Media Boat has military background in common with Wayne.

After Wayne has strutted its stuff in the push-offs, some of the boats lined up for the roping the bollard.

Let’s hold it up here.  All photos, WVD.