Pairs in Springtime 9

I don’t care that it’s February, but the number of subsequent days with temperatures over 50 degrees in the sixth bor0 tells me it is spring–or has been.

Notice the difference between Severn and Fort Schuyler?  Here proximity highlights the difference in height of the upper wheelhouse,

but Severn is of the 4200 hp class and fort Schuyler, the 3000.

Ah, the line and boom boats.

Joan is one of the Moran “giraffe” boats and see HR Otter?

She reminds me of the long gone Odin.

 

Here’s a closer-up of the HR Otter, a name that immediately conjures up Kenneth Grahame.

 

Some different pairs are possible here, and they’d be the same.

See the pair there?

a pair of hands.  Is there a word for the painted design centered on the bow of some vessels, like figureheads but not?

Hope they clap for mardi gras!

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 171

Continuing with a record of random towing vessels encountered along the “go west” route, let’s pick up with HR Pike, another low air draft tug formerly associated with the GE cleanup.

I’m not sure what the cargo here is, but this vessel lacks any hint of sheer.

Here’s what I believe is a fleet mate of HR Otter . . . Helen Laraway.

See how much has changed about the operation in Coeymans, if my claim of 18 months ago here was correct then.

Otter and Laraway both operate out of the port of Coeymans, a former brickyard that has become a booming hub for staging shipment of construction materials. Pun intended.

I’m guessing that it won’t be long before Otter gets painted to match Pike, its older sibling by one year.

Just north of the port of Coeymans Coral Coast is standing by at the loading facility for the quarries at Ravenna.

 

And in this Hudson River shoreline setting that bears resemblance to a jungle, south of Albany, it’s a USACE spud barge and

pushboat Sentinel II.  Sorry I don’t know any more about its project.

The banks up north of Catskill are magical, as seen here with morning fog and Olana, the Persian palace of Frederic Church.

 

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who hopes to get back this way again later this summer.

Go West 2 and 3

Legs 2 and 3 are West Point to Kingston, and then Kingston to Troy to lower the boat for clear passage through the Erie Canal.

Starting below, leaving West Point,

passing Buchanan 12,

HR Otter,

looking back toward Catskill,

meeting

Craig Eric Reinauer,

in awe in Coeymans seeing Eli (which I first misread as ELF) and

Ocean Tower,

 

passing port of Albany and BBC Vela,

seeing Slater in the morning light, and finally

after tying up at Troy, reconfiguring the boat for the Erie Canal.

Leg 4 starts at noon today as we head for a night in Amsterdam.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Really Random Tugs 20

Here’s a range of photos from the present to the unknowable past.  Gage Paul Thornton . . . 1944 equipment working well in adverse 2014 conditions.   Photo by Bjoern Kils of New York Media Boat.

In 2007, McAllister Responder (1967) moved Peking (1911) across the sixth boro for hull inspection.  Photo by Elizabeth Wood.  That’s me standing on port side Peking adjacent to Responder house.

1953 Hobo races in Greenport Harbor in 2007.

A glazed over Gulf Dawn (1966)  inbound from sea passes BlueFin (2010).

Deborah Quinn (1957) awaits in Oyster Bay in 2010.

HP-Otter and HR-Beaver . . .  said to be in C-6 Lock in Fort Edward yesterday.  Photo by tug44 Fred.   New equipment chokes on ancient foe but no doubt will be dried off to run again.  Compare this photo with the fourth one here.

Unidentified tug on Newburgh land’s edge back in 2009.  I’ve been told it’s no longer there.

Unidentified wooden tug possibly succumbing to time in August  2011.

Ditto.  Wish there was a connection with a past here.

Thanks to Bjoern, Elizabeth, and Fred for their photos.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Other Peoples Fotos 28

Oops . . . I “published” this prematurely and unintentionally if you saw it in disarray.  And by the way, today I saw the woodchuck and his shadow;  he saw mine and dove for cover.  I wonder if that means six more weeks of cold weather.  Please, someone advise.

From the wandering eye of Maraki . . . it’s in Nassau and

called Big Crab.  No further info.   I’ve never been to Nassau, and googling leads to me Nassau tugs on the bottom as well as someimpressive ones one the surface.  Maybe I need to get myself to Nassau.

And from a secret salt via Ashley Hutto . . . four days I saw Orange Sun depart the sixth boro here, he caught it inbound Tampa.  Thanks . . . salt.

Finally . .  from the jaunt captain Fred  of tug44, it’s what hibernates at the bottom of Lock 6 of the Champlain Canal . . . front to rear . . . HR Hawk, HR Beaver, HR Otter.  You’d think there’d be a woodchuck there too!

September 2013 I took this photo of a sibling of the hibernating tugs .  . HR Bass, assisted by Herbert P. Brake.    Interestingly, HR Bass used to be Delta Tiger, HR Hawk . . .  Delta Parrot, HR Otter . . . Delta Ram, and HR Beaver ???

. ..  Mr Lane.  I’ll bet you thought I’d say . . . Delta Woodchuck.

Many thanks to Maraki crew, secret salt, Ashley, and Fred.