Where “Exotics” Ain’t Exotic 3

It’s a new year, and with today’s and tomorrow’s post, I’m retiring the label “exotic” as I’ve used it to describe vessels related to offshore wind development efforts.  Consider the photo below:  three such vessels appear, l to r:  Fugro Enterprise, Miss Emma McCall, and HOS Browning.  Since all three are offshore wind farm related and have become regulars in the sixth boro, it’s time to come up with a new descriptor for them.  “Wind power boats” or WPB comes to mind;  that would be different than “wind boats” or “power boats.”  Maybe you have a better term?   I suspect these vessels will continue to become more frequent.

The Fugro boat here had just departed the Reynolds dock after a short stop, and 

I suspect the TDI-Brooks boat is heading there next. 

I wish I could have gotten closer-up photos of the gear alongside Miss Emma McCall‘s port side.

My best guess is that it’s a side scan sonar probe. 

After leaving Reynolds, Fugro Enterprise turned outbound and 

I caught this view of a similar device suspended on wires off her port side. 

Some time prior, HOS Browning departed the sixth boro

with this gear on the stern and under the folded down A-frame

for a short stint off Atlantic City.  Browning is now back in the boro. 

All photos, WVD.

Here were parts one and two of this title. 

 

Winter Bird

It’s a quick post today, since I’m on a short gallivant.  When I took a hike this morning and saw two cardinals on a snowy branch, I knew exactly it was time to post a photo I took earlier this week of Fugro Enterprise,

a vessel that reminds me of a cardinal with some traces of snow I’ll bet they never see in Patterson LA, a town I drove through last month and where the temperature today is 78!

Both photos, WVD, who’s posted photos of Fugro Enterprise before here. Strange, in “autocorrect logic,” Fugro wants to be “furor.”

If you’re a new reader on this blog or just wonder why such a vessel exists, here are full specs from the Fugro website.

 

 

2020 Calendar July and August

Yes, I missed doing this in July, so today I play catch-up.

Three vessels were on the July page.  First, it’s Louis C, a small tanker reborn as a small crane ship.  I was last aboard her on a very cold morning in January 2020.  The enclosed workshop forward of the wheelhouse features a wood burning stove that has no appeal in August but was very welcome in January.

Fugro Enterprise, now as then, is working off Atlantic City, making bathymetric charts of the area where the 99 turbines of Ocean Wind will soon sprout above the surface of the waves.

The third and more prominent boat on the July calendar page is Nathan G, and rather than use a photo from July 2019, let me put up this one from July 2020, where Nathan G is one of the tugs escorting USS Slater to the dry dock.  That dry docking will soon be finished, and Nathan G will possibly accompany the destroyer escort back to Albany.  For more info on Slater and memberships, click here.

For August, on 17 August 2019 at 0615 and we were at the western end of Lake Ontario approaching Port Weller.  You’re looking over the after deck of Grande Caribe.  In case you’ve not heard, Blount Small Ships Adventures made a shocking announcement this Monday that their BSSA vessels are for sale. 

Welland Canal pilot vessel Mrs C approached ready to deliver a pilot, having just

retrieved one from the down bound Federal Yukina.

A few days later in August at 0722 and at the northern end of Crystal Island in the Detroit River, about 50 miles north of Toledo OH and 25 south of Detroit MI, we passed

Edgar B. Speer as she was about to enter the down bound lane between Crystal Island and Stony Island.

Speer is one of the 1000-footer, aka “footers” who ply the Upper Lakes unable to get beyond Lake Erie because they greatly exceed the dimensions of the Welland Canal.  Speer‘s cargo  capacity is 73,700 tons.   That would be a lot of trucks.

All photos, WVD.

Specialized 25

[Specialized] vessels don’t push or tow or transport cargo per se.  They are tools with a variety of applications, as diverse as the tools in a professional mechanic’s chest, in an entire full service garage, in fact.

Ocean Researcher has appeared here before, but not escorted by a tug, as James D. Moran is doing here.  I’m not sure why it was escorted in the other day.

 

She came in after some time crisscrossing the all-but-trackless sea off Atlantic City.

Fugro Enterprise has appeared here before as well.

In this case, she was headed back out to sea,

 

Below is a sample of Fugro Enterprise’ track earlier this week.

And for comparison, Ocean Researcher left the indicated track SE of Atlantic city during the same time period.

Kings Pointer also has appeared here before . . . and she’s a tool with its own purpose . .  training.

Before coming to the USMMA in 2014, this vessel was known as MV Liberty Star, and had a different use . ..  locating and retrieving jettisoned Shuttle external fuel tanks.

Here–above and below– she transits Hell Gate, first westbound and then east.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who never marked Highland Eagle–still in Lake Huron–as a specialized vessel.  Another Great Lakes-dedicated research vessel, with a notable environmental name, was recently put up for sale, as here.  I saw it in Sturgeon Bay over two years ago here.

 

Exotics 14

The first photo here comes thanks to Tony A.  Shelia Bordelon has been on this blog before;  I believe she has now left the area, mission accomplished.

Fugro Enterprise has been here before also, that time on a day that the red did not photograph well.  This morning she headed out to sea, mission ongoing, i believe.

Neptune (1977) is a first timer on this blog;  the past few days she’s been docked in Bayonne.  Since 1977, she’s had more names than  . . .   Steve Earle has had spouses!!  If you don’t know Earle, sample this.  I enjoy his music and don’t mean to disparage him, but he’s just been married a lot.

And finally, another from Tony A, Conti (2005) is a platform supply vessel that’s been in the New York Bight for some time now.

Thanks to Tony for sending along these photos.

For more specialized vessels like these featured on this blog, click here.  The exotics category overlaps somewhat here; click here for the exotics appearing on this blog.

 

Exotics 8

Fugro . . .  is not a local name.  In fact, it goes back to 1962, when Kees Joustra started a company called “funderingstechniek en grondmechanica,” shortened to the first few letters of each big word . . .  yields FUGRO.   I first thought it was a Fugro vessel I’d seen a few times a year ago here.

The morning light was almost overwhelming . . .

but you get the idea from these photos.

Fugro Enterprise dates from 2007 and appears to be a US build.  She would certainly look more at home in Louisiana than in the KVK, but

with changes happening offshore, we may see more vessels like this.  I’ve not yet gotten a closeup of Ocean Researcher, which has been spending lots of time in the New York Bight, likely mapping the bottom in advance of wind farms. 

And with green lighting of efforts to seek oil and gas reserves using very loud “air guns” off the East coast, who knows what other exotics may be arriving.  Here’s what National Geographic thinks.  As of this posting, Fugro Enterprise is SE of Atlantic City and stopped.   Her profile is similar to Seis Surveyor captured here almost a decade ago, and now sailing under a Peruvian flag.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp, who is looking for someone with photos of Ocean Researcher to share.