Old Years 2022

I’m back and just in time for the last day of the year, which –as explained in previous years— in my Dutch tradition is a reflection day, a time to if not assess then at least recall some of the sights of the past 12 months.  A photo-driven blog makes that simultaneously easy and hard;  easy because there’s a photographic record and not easy because there’s such an extensive photographic record to sift though.

A word about this set of photos:  these are some “seconds” that did not make the final cut for my 2023 tugster calendar.  The actual calendars are still available if you’ve not ordered one;  find the order info here. I’m ordering a bunch myself. 

One windy day last January I caught a Pilot No 1–the old New York–doing drills under the VZ Bridge.  Just recently I met one of the engineers on that boat, a person with epic stories about the sixth boro.

A warm day in February, I caught JRT Moran assisting QM2 into her Red Hook berth. 

March I spent a delightful day on Douglas B. Mackie observing the water side of a Jersey shore beach replenishment project, thanks to the hard-working folks at GLDD. 

April . . .  I caught Jane McAllister heading out;  correct if I’m wrong, but my sense is that soon afterward she made her way down to South America to join the expanding ranks of US-built tugs working on various projects on the south side of the Caribbean. 

As a member of the Canal Society of NYS, I had the opportunity to see Urger up close and sun-warmed on the bank of the Oswego in Lysander NY. 

A clutch of Centerline tugboats waited for their next assignment at the base just east of the Bayonne Bridge.   Note the fully foliated trees beyond them along the KVK.

From the humid heat of western Louisiana and onto the Gulf of Mexico, Legs III–shown 

here spudded up just east of SW Pass, afforded a memorable journey on its way up to the sixth boro.  Thx, Seth. 

Back in the boro, later in August, a Space X rocket recovery boat named Bob–for an astronaut– came through the sixth boro.  More on Bob–the astronaut–here. 

In September, I finally got to my first ever Gloucester schooner race, thanks to Rick Miles of Artemis, the sailboat and not the rocket. 

Icebreaker Polar Circle was in the boro a few days in September as well.  Now it’s up in Canada, one hopes doing what icebreakers are intended to do. US naval logistics vessel Cape Wrath is at the dock in Baltimore ready and waiting a logistics assignment. 

Ticonderoga certainly and Apache possibly are beyond their time working and waiting.  I believe Ticonderoga is at the scrappers in Brownsville. 

Passing the UN building on the East River, veteran Mulberry is currently out of the army and working in the private sector.  I’ve a request:  for some time I’ve seen a tug marked as Scholarie working the waters west of the Cape Cod Canal;  a photo suggested it might be called Schoharie. Anyone help out?

And finally, a photo taken just two days ago while passing through the sixth boro during what can hardly be called “cover of darkness” it’s Capt Joseph E. Pearce on its way to a shipyard on the mighty Rondout to pick up some custom fabrication for a Boston enterprise. Many thanks to the Stasinos brothers for the opportunity.

I’d be remiss in ending this post and this year without mentioning lost friends, preserving a memory of their importance to me personally . . .  Bonnie of frogma–first ever to comment of this blog so many years ago and a companion in many adventures– and Mageb, whose so frequent comments here I already miss. 

I plan to post tomorrow, although I may miss my high noon post time because I hope to post whatever best sunrise 2023 photos I can capture in the morning.  

Happy, safe, and prosperous new year to you all.  I’m posting early today because I want my readers who live much much farther east than the sixth boro to get these wishes before their new trip around the sun begins. Bonne annee!  Gelukkig nieuwjaar!

Road Fotos 40

I’m currently on the road, one of two Canada trips, so it’s seems appropriate to update the “road fotos” series.  Since I’ve not added to it in a while, have a look at number 39 in the series.   Here was the first from late 2010.

Can you figure out roughly where I am in the photo below, triangulating from info given?  There’s a big clue later in this post.

Once tractors were small.  This is the farm where I grew up, now owned by my youngest brother, so with a different history, this could have become part of my world.  For more (dated) info on the Case IH 250, click here.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the past year near this location:  I-90 near Randall NY, aka the Noses. That’s Little Nose to the left.   At this break in the ridge, the border of what was once glacial Lake Iroquois, the original Erie Canal ran to my left, the current canalized Mohawk river is just to my right, and the main CSX/Amtrak line is to the right of the Mohawk River.  For more views of the Noses, click here.

Painting barns by sticker nowadays?

I slowed down . . .before I got closer.

Is this a “souped up” Chrysler coupe?

I got registered on a 2020 census mobile.

Here’s a photo from February 2019.  There’s fresh chopped corn under that snow-covered plastic sock. Previous generations of farmers would use silos. And here’s the big clue:  this photo was taken about 20 miles from Rochester, as was the signboard photo at the top of this post.

The photo above and below I took in February.  Lock E-13 is not far from the Noses.

January in the Catskills I was crossing the Moodna Viaduct.

January in Two Harbors MN, with 1896 Cleveland-built tug Edna G.

December at Natural Bridge VA.  See the stranger ahead on the trail lower right?

November near Freeport NY on Long Island.  See the cliffs and needles of Manhattan in the distance?

August . . . . a mid-1940s Chevrolet (?) on Staten Island . . . and

July and Barbara S. Wiles and Judge Ben Wiles on Skaneateles Lake.  The 1924 Barbara S. has since retired from that lake and is undergoing restoration at the finger LakesBoating Museum;  renamed as Pat II,  she is expected to do excursions in Keuka Lake. Judge Ben still sails on Skaneateles.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who visited the actual Galivants Ferry here in early 2011.

And the sign board with distances is in Williamson NY.

Spring Giddiness 2

I think today is a holiday.  Somewhere.  If it weren’t, it just should be.

Actually it’s Children’s Day in Turkey.  And the Feast of St George at the Vatican and in England.  Slay-a-Dragon Day somewhere.  International Talk like Shakespeare Day . . . I could go on.  Feadship’s Casual Water is headed upriver, if not uptown.

Others are going in all directions . . .

mostly southbound.

Grande Mariner was westbound on the East River to get southbound to the River City. Know that place?

Some are Sound bound, and

others like Ma Belle are headed La Belle Province.

I can’t keep track of Elizabeth.

Flowers are blooming and

it’s great out.  Make time to enjoy the holiday.  Oh . . . River City starts here.

All photos in the past few days by Will Van Dorp, who did the first “spring giddiness” here.

Old Year 2016

This is my Janus post . . . which I’ll start with a photo I took in January 2007 of an intriguing set of sculptures, since licensed to Trinity Church in Manhattan.

Since I’ve tons to do today, comment will be minimal.  The photo below I took near the KVK salt pile on January 14, 2016.  Eagle Ford, to the right, has since been scrapped in Pakistan.

The history of Alnair, photo taken in Havana harbor on February 4, 2016, is still untraced.  It looks like an ex-USN tug.  Click here for more Cuban photos.

This photo of JRT Moran and Orange Sun I took on March 12.

This photo of Hudson was taken in Maassluis, very near where my father grew up,  on April 4. Many more Maassluis photos can be found here.

Sandmaster I photographed here on May 6.  since then, she’s moved to Roatan, I’m told, and I’d love to go there and see how she’s doing.  Maybe I can learn some Garifuna while I’m there.

June 1, I took this, with Robert E. McAllister and an invisible Ellen escorting Maersk Idaho out the door.

July 14, I saw GL tug Nebraska yank bulkier Isolda with 56,000 tons of corn through a narrow opening and out the Maumee.

August 23 I caught Atlantic Sail outbound past a nearly completed Wavertree.  And come to think of it, this is a perfect Janus photo.

September 9 at the old port in Montreal I caught Svitzer Montreal tied up and waiting for the next job.

October 18, I caught Atlanticborg and Algoma Enterprise down bound between Cape Vincent and Clayton NY.

November 4, while waiting for another tow, I caught Sarah Ann switching out scrap scows in the Gowanus.

And I’ll end this retrospective Janus post with a mystery shot, which I hope to tell you more about in 2017.  All I’ll say is that I took it yesterday and can identify only some of what is depicted. Anyone add something about this photo?

I feel blessed with another year of life, energy, gallivants, and challenges.  Thank you for reading and writing me.  Special thanks to you all who sent USPS cards !  I wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2017.   Here’s what Spock would say and where he got it.

Here was my “last hours” post from 2015.  And here from the year before with some vessels sailing away forever.   And here showing what I painted in the last hours of 2013.  And one more with origins “oud jaardag” stuff from the finale of 2011.