Retro Sixth Boro 59 A

Happy March . . . .  Exactly a decade ago I made my second trip to Puerto Rico, and both times I spent some time on the island of Vieques.  If you’ve never been to either PR or Vieques, you owe it to yourself to visit this corner of the US, so close to the east coast.

Of course, being myself, I spent some time watching the traffic in San Juan and visiting with the fine mariners working there.  Here the classic Honcho (former fleet mate of Atlantic Salvor and Atlantic Enterprise)

heads out to meet El Morro and together with 

Handy Three do their magic in the harbor.  

Don Raul also came into port with a barge on the wire.  Don Raul, working for the Borinken Towing and Salvage at the time, has been repositioned to the Great Lakes to work for the USACE.  Has anyone seen her on the Lakes yet, maybe Buffalo?  Has her livery been changed?

Beth M. McAllister, slightly newer sister of the sixth boro’s Ellen McAllister, was and still is working in San Juan.   Both Beth M. and Ellen are–as you can see–former YTB tugboats built for the USN in WI.

Service between the big island and Vieques is provided by small planes, where you get asked your weight (please answer honestly)and seated accordingly to balance out the seven-passenger load, and lots of ferries, like Isla Bonita below. 

For more context on this part of Puerto Rico, click here for the 2013 post.  See any resemblance to Blount built boat in the depicted nearer ferry below?

Clearly, back then I was still floundering with the camera on a flip phone and took the image below, with the negative setting.  To me, it adds magic to a magical place for me.  I can’t believe that a decade has passed since last I left the enchanted islands . . .

All photos, WVD, who encourages everyone to visit PR. 

Random Tugs 297

That big “300” is beckoning, so although I had other posts planned . . .  let’s increment closer to that 300.  I’m inviting your participation here so that i can make it the best “non-random” random post.  Random Tugs 001 was here. Random Tugs 100 was more than seven years later, and 200 was about four years after that.

What better way to start than with these two photos of W. O. Decker, taken yesterday by Glenn Raymo.  Yes, that’s the Walkway over the Hudson.  Decker is taking a freshwater cure.

Many previous posts featuring Decker can be seen here.

Kimberly Turecamo assisted an MSC box boat in recently.  A less dynamic photo of Kimberly appeared yesterday.  The founder of MSC, Gianluigi Aponte, is alive and well in Italy.

Sarah D was on this blog recently with a unique tow; usually she pushes vessels like this.   But hey . . . it pays the bills.

Andrea follows a box ship to the NJ portions of the sixth boro.

Reaching back into the archives a bit, here was Honcho in San Juan PR.  I took this photo in March 2013.  She’s been all around.  I’ve forgotten, though, whether she actually worked on the Great Lakes.   I need to find out also what she looks like now that she’s a Moran boat.

Back in April 2012, I caught Bruce A. McAllister bringing in Mars, marked as registered in San Francisco.  Mars went onto a heavy lift ship over to Nigeria.  The photo makes me curious about traveling to Mars.

See the tugboat here?  Name the bridge in the background?

Between Algoma Olympic and CSL Laurentian, it’s Leo A. McArthur, built in Penglai China in 2009. Believe it or not, Penglai was the birthplace and boyhood home of Henry Luce, the magazine guy!

Did you recognize the last two photos as the Detroit River, and the bend between Detroit and Windsor.  The reason I asked about the bridge . . . the Ambassador Bridge is that the owner died yesterday.    Manuel “Matty” Maroun was 93. The 1929-built bridge, as well as the duty-free stores in its vicinity, have been owned by Maroun since 1979.

Many thanks to Glenn for use of the Decker photos.  All others by WVD.

 

 

Looking for a Ship

OK . .  I stole am borrowing the title from what I’d call a “must-read” book by John McPhee . . .  from two decades back.  But this small boat, identified

here–double click–is

doing just that, no matter the stormy weather.

See the pilot boat here . . . approaching the incoming container ship, which is looking for a port.

The pilot boat descends into a trough starboard the vessel, SS El Morro. . . .      Sun Shipbuilding launched . . . 1974.   See hull # 666.   Here it approaches its namesake. . . .

where–standing off a sentry box–aka–una garita waits Honcho, a 1975 tug, also looking for a ship, along with

its newest fleetmate, Handy Three.   By the way, does anyone have a foto of Handy Three passing through New York City  . . . the sixth boro . . .  late last spring on its maiden voyage between Cleveland and San Juan?

If so, please get in touch . .  see email along upper left.

All fotos yesterday by Will Van Dorp, in the last half hour before catching a ride back to NYC . . .  aka the sixth boro.