Random Tankers 2

That more tankers and fuel barges arrive in the sixth boro in the colder months is just my hunch;  maybe someone reading this can supply numbers to prove or disprove this.  It would make sense, given that there’s the need for heating.  In any case, let’s look at some vessels in town in recent months.  By the way, here was the first post of this series.   One of these is arguably misclassified here;  see if you can determine which.

Afrodite was a frequent and controversial visitor here a few years back.

 

Note the person climbing the ladder from a Millers Launch launch.  Also, can you explain the T on the bow?

Overseas Mykonos, despite its name,

is a US-flagged vessel, assisted by Mary Turecamo. However, when launched in 2010, she was registered in Majuro.  I have to admit that I need a “big picture tutorial” on shifting ship registries, aka reflagging.

In the morning light as thousands of cars make their way (upper left) along the arteries called parkways and expressways, Grand Ace9, launched in 2008,  has been here before–never on this blog though, as Eagle Miri.  I’ve not seen Eagle tankers in the harbor in years . . . possibly some of the older ones have been scrapped.

 

Maya, like Afrodite, is a TEN tanker, “TEN” expands to Tsakos Energy Navigation. See the T on the stack? Maya is of a smaller class of TEN tankers, and has switched registry from Maltese to Marshall Islands.

Orange Ocean is a regular in the port, and the only Liberian tanker in this batch.

Seapike has been here before.  For full context of this vessel, check Michael Schmidt’s site here . . . for Seabass, Seacod, Seatrout, etc. . . you get this gist. Also, note a Millers  Launch launch, maybe Emily, along the port side.

The green stripes near the bow mark this as a BW Group vessel, one of many that call in the sixth boro.

One series has names like BW Panther, BW Puma, BW Bobcat . . . you get the idea.  The founder of the company was Sir Yue-Kong Pao, who started in the family shoe business.  Although you’ve likely never heard of him, he made Newsweek’s cover in 1976.  The company is currently run by the founder’s son-in-law Peter Woo, who was on Forbes cover a few years ago. 

Rounding this post out, shown in the breadth of the Upper Bay, it’s Aegean Star.

She’s the newest of vessels in this post, launched in 2019.

All photos and research, WVD.

And if you said that Orange Ocean was misplaced here, you’d be right, since the liquid she carries is edible . . . or potable.

Explorer

What’s this?

I’m just trying to figure this out.  My best guess is that suspended from a 20-ton capacity A-frame is a set of underwater hands, a sampling device, a seafloor-drill, all tallied 14 tons of instruments  and tools in a seafloor frame. 

I can’t tell you the division of labor between the equipment lowered/raised through an approximately 10′ x 10′ moon pool by the 90′ derrick and the seafloor drill.  My guess is the the seafloor drill can function at great depth.   Note the Panamanian registry.

All those portlights . . .   relate to the 50+ crew the vessel can accommodate. 

The helideck . . . 62′ diameter, can accommodate helicopters of the Bell 412 type, i.e., up to about 3.5 tons. 

If you didn’t click on the equipment and specifications link earlier, my source for all I pretend to know here, you can click here now.  Since she was anchored in Gravesend Bay yesterday, the tide pushing her stern toward shore, I managed to get my first photos of her stern.   I have seen the vessel, working to amass wind farm bottom terrain data, several times since January 2018.   With the green light to transform South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into a dedicated wind farm construction hub, I suspect some interesting and exotic vessels will be transiting the Narrows in the next few years.

All photos and attempted interpretation, WVD.

Maybe a reader out there can explain how this equipment really works and what super-detailed examples of bathymetric chart of the New York Bight look like.

People on the Boro 27

Essential workers spend the holidays at the job site.  They always have.

 

Here‘s a list of types of essential workers, note that this crewman needs to catch up on sleep.

I’ll let you read the faces and body language, but I’d say they’re catching up on news since they have a signal on their devices.

 

Seafarers might be thrilled to see non-crew when they come into a port.

See the workers on the bunker barge?

Well, they saw me and then wanted their photo taken.  I suspect they may be Fugro Explorer crew.

These are local workers high over the East River.  Their platform or their task?

They appear to be at the level of Civic Fame, the lady inspired by Audrey Munson atop the NYC Municipal Building.  NYC artists made Audrey Munson famous, but her life did not end well.

 

All photos and sentiments, WVD, who thanks you for reading this, especially today, the 14th anniversary of this blog, which began here over 4700 posts ago.  Since then, you all have made over 13, 400 comments.  Comments are always welcome.  Thank you.

And since it is Thanksgiving, here’s a Thanksgiving story from Thanksgiving Day 1952 and a photo with at least three people on the boro from 21 years later of the boat that almost burned, Dalzellera. 

“During 1952 and 1953, the Dalzell Towing Co. was completing the diesel conversion of their “new” Dalzellera, which was formerly the Central RR of NJ (CRRNJ) tug Bethlehem, a steam tug built around 1915. It was Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1952, and there weren’t many people at the Dalzell yard just west of the Bayonne Bridge on the Kills as my uncle, Bob Munoz, pulled into the yard on a tug, possibly the Dalzellaird. He pulled alongside the Dalzellera and tied up the boat. As he crossed over to the Dalzellera to go ashore he noticed that there appeared to be extreme heat coming from the galley at the after end of the house. The boat was all locked up for the long holiday weekend, but with some help Bob found some tools and broke the padlock off the hatch door. Upon entering the extremely hot galley, he realized that the galley stove was inadvertently left on and set for maximum heat. He immediately shut it down and ventilated the galley. It appeared that the stove was being used to keep the workers warm that were finishing up the tug and preparing her for service, but forgot to turn off the stove before leaving for the long holiday weekend.

However, when the yard staff returned back to work on Monday morning, he caught hell for breaking the lock on the hatch; that is until he told his story about preventing their “new” boat from catching fire before she even docked her first ship.

Shortly after this incident, Bob worked on this boat as mate and captain for about 12 years.

Photo by Steve Munoz, who sent along the story.

 

Sixth Boro Sampler 2

Some harbors are more varied than others.  I’m happy to call the sixth boro home for now. 

I’d never expect to see Emma Miller come in from “sea” or even in through the Narrows.

The weather is quite variable as well.  In a singularly unpleasant day, MSC Alicante, 

Ziyou ( a Tayana 37??), and

a Kadey-Krogen Evening Light (not the tugboat) all head out to sea.

A day or two later, warm morning light bathes Dorothy J

as she brings Weeks 536 into the boro.

It’s not winter yet, but there’s a lot of fishing going on with all manner of goals.

Shearwater is running a lot of line, but of course her quarry is

not the finny type.  Rather, she’s generating bathymetric images. I guess I’m not privvy to them, not being the client.  You can see her track lines on AIS. Sharp, another research vessel, is running the same lines from Sandy Hook south.  Has anyone gotten a photo of her?

This I’d wager is a fleet angling for bluefish or stripers or more.  Tanker Maya pushes the finny ones in their direction as she makes for sea.

 

Osprey herd the finny ones from just above the VZ.

Fugro Explorer comes in from sea for supplies, fuel, and who knows what more.

 

 

All photos and sentiments, WVD, who asserts that no one can ever be bored along the margins of the sixth boro.

A few of you have written to ask that I again upload photos of larger size so that when you double-click on a photo, they enlarge.  Here’s the problem:  Facebook won’t allow me to upload at that size if I want a photo on the preview.  Since a lot of folks just read on FB, my compromise has been to upload smaller photos.    

Exotics 5 Redux

This is not your typical sixth boro scene.

Back in January 2018, I posted photos of Fugro Explorer.  I recall it was cold cold, and my fingers hurt holding the camera.  Now you can sense the heat by the amount of moisture in the air already just before 0700.

She’s not a new vessel at all, launched in Singapore in 1999 and refitted just three years later.

 

She was in port for about 12 hours; I can relate to someone wanting to profit from this wifi.

I’m re-inserting the link from above, in case you didn’t look at it then, to show what all she has for equipment.

I did notice that since the January 2018 photos, she’s had more telecom external gear added.  My guess is that she’s working on the wind farms offshore, as is Royal, who was in the sixth boro briefly this week, and I missed her too.  Did anyone catch photos of her?

All photos, WVD, who is chasing the “spectacular warship” today, and of course alternating between 101.5 and 90.9 . . . and 93.9.

 

 

Exotics 5

Here are the previous posts in this series.  So what is this?

It’s an ultra deepwater geotechnical drilling vessel.  It’s not drilling in the Upper Bay .  .  .

although it has the gear to do so.

With that helo pad above the wheelhouse, it looks to be what is associated with ports like Rio and Fourchon.

“Fugro”?  The name goes back to 1962:  “On 2 May 1962, Kees Joustra launches his own firm, whose name translates as Engineering Company for Foundation technology and Soil Mechanics, in short ‘Fugro’. ”

Above Fugro Explorer takes on fuel from Emerald Coast.  I was fortunate to get these photos–she’s been in and out of the harbor several times in the past half year–before she made through the East River bound for New Bedford, where she has now arrived.  She would have been a sight to behold on the East River, but omnipresence is not easy to manage, even in our sci-fi 2018 world.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Here’s more on Fugro, “Ingenieursbureau voor Funderingstechniek en Grondmechanica.”  Fugro provided one of the vessels involved in the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.

And speaking of sci-fi, I’ve recently immersed myself in augmented reality experiences…