Replenished Rockaway

Aug 31.  A late summer day at the beach, where a new “towel drying rack” has been adopted and a bumper crop

of sand awaits the erosion of winter, perhaps?  All photos here taken by Barbara Barnard.

Sept 1.  A tug (Trevor?) moves a crane barge to where the “drying rack”/piping needs to be fished out for transport to the next job.

Sept 13.  The remaining pipe on the beach, no longer serving to dry swimmers’ towels, awaits dismantling and

allows for closer inspection.

This Rockaway series was of course motivated by Hurricane Sandy and the photos of Rockaway by my friend Barbara in the past 12 months.  Barbara, many thanks.   Here was my Nemo to Flag Day post, which started with a mystery house.

And now it looks like the Nola “make it right” rebuilding plan is coming to the Rockaways.  Click here for the design for “resilient house.”    Here’s an earlier article.

Click here for a project/business entirely created by the devastation of trees during the storm.  It’s not maritime, water,  or even specifically landthreshold related, but is quite interesting.

Whole Lotta Dredgin’ 11

Here and here are previous posts on a Rockaway Beach replenishment dredging operation that has now ended.   Sea Wolf is still local, but the vessel on the horizon (“atop” the red buoy) has now moved to southern NJ.  Remember, for most fotos, doubleclick enlarges.

Weeks’ Trevor was assisting in this project.

Also assisting was George W.

But here’s the powerhouse, the dredge.  Let’s take a tour.

In spite of about 16,000 total horsepower, C. R. McCaskill is not self-propelled.  To see what towed the dredge to the south, see the foto at the end of this post.    All that power moves the cutterhead on the submerged arm (called a “ladder”) that extends to the sand at the bottom of the Channel here.  At the top end of the ladder are two huge pumps (you could stand inside the pump housing) that suck the sand and whatever else off the bottom and send it as a slurry to a point on the beach some miles away.  Click here for a pdf that shows the beautiful (ok . . . roll your eyes) virgin red cutterhead with green teeth.    Each tooth weighs around 35 pounds!

Here inside the dredge are some interesting astounding facts about the machine.

See the sand colored building on the horizon off the stern of McCaskill?  That’s the area around 105th St. Rockaway Beach where the sand is headed through piping powered by this vessel.  The first few fotos in this post were taken at that beach.  There’ll be another Rockaway post soon.

Candace towed C. R. McCaskill south.  I missed her when she was in town, but John Skelson caught her here.  Click on the foto to see John’s complete shot.  Many thanks to John for use of that shot from his Flickr page.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, except for the one shared by John Skelson.  For more info on each of the Weeks tugs, click here.  More McCaskill tomorrow.

Whole Lotta Dredgin’ 9

Here’s a followup on the Rockaway sand pumping, and there’s gold in those sands, over $36 million worth.   Notice the dredging/pumping vessel upper right.

This was the fountain this morning.

Once the slurry exits the mouth, water flows back into the ocean and sand is pushed up the beach.

This repurposed container is project headquarters.

The top foto comes thanks to Barbara Barnard;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

Whole Lotta Dredgin’ 8

I’m back, with lots of gallivanting to catch up, but first . .  a whole lotta fotos from this morning in the sixth boro.  Any ideas what’s going on here?  What is that gray blur in the center of the foto and why are the gulls so frenzied?  Be forewarned . . . this post has so many twists/turns . . . it’s divided into parts, even though I took all these fotos in the span of less than an hour.

Part 1

Answer:  It’s how over three million cubic yards of sand is being added to Rockaway Beach . .  at least for a while.  Here’s what the NY Daily News says about it.  Here’s an article and video from Dredging Today.

And here . . . off in the Rockaway Inlet are the machines mining and pumping the sand, seen closer up in this recent  tugster post.

Part 2.  Notice  the piping coming from the stern of McCaskill.

I could not resist wondering about these birds whose name rhymes with “lovers.”

Part 3.  Follow this sweep of fotos as I turn to the left.

An Atlantic City billboard on Far Rockaway?  Is a mixed up sense of geography part of Sandy’s legacy?  I keep turning left.

A Potemkin village and that’s an A  Train station to the right?

See the silvery cars of the A train?  It’s a Boardwalk Empire set in the wasteland of eastern Rockaway Beach . . . . I was hoping to buy some of that food at those prices!

Of course, I had to look behind.

I half expected to find some Aral Sea boats back here too.

Part 4.  Once back on the boardwalk, I saw this fishing boat about a quarter mile from shore.  I’m guessing it’s unrelated to the sand piping and pumping, but   . . . who knows.

All fotos today by Will Van Dorp.

Groin Yanking 2

I happened to be down near the Rockaways aka Lenape “rack-a-wak-e” yesterday and stopped by for another look.  The orange loader to the right has a mouthful of yanked groins.  In the background, note the surfers.

I wouldn’t surf or swim or kayak here even without a sign.  Rockaway is expansive enough to go elsewhere.

But I found the answer to my lingering question . . . who is doing the yanking . . .

It’s Platinum Marine Services.

I still failed to notice the name of this workboat, but

I have more posts coming from NYC’s Copacabana and Ipanema rolled into one.  And notice how the grass is growing in between the old supports for the boardwalk?  Compare with the second and third fotos here.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Stormy Aftermath 7 Months 7 Days

Sandy pushed this 1941 vessel ashore on Staten Island late last October.  The registered owner was from another continent and possibly no longer alive due to unrelated circumstances.  The city took charge and the sheriff’s auction happened today.

Viewing and inspection happened from this vantage point.  Sheriffs offered binoculars, though none with x-ray capability.

Before the auction began, a tanker at least four times greater in length passed northbound in the Arthur Kill.

Auctioneer Dennis Alestra welcomed the crowd to the auction, indicating where the bidding would take place.

Members of the sheriff’s department outnumbered all other attendees combined. Carolina Salguero, director of PortSide NewYork, has a similar tanker, Mary A. Whalen, now possibly the last of this class of coastal tanker in the United States and certainly the only tanker serving as a center for cultural and educational events.

One bidder and one bid . . . and the tanker is SOLD for $25,000  to Donjon Marine.  Total elapsed time of the bidding:  about one minute.  Here shipshooter Jonathan Atkin witnesses the signing of papers.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing her.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Suspension 2

Almost three years ago, I used suspension as a title, using a foto from Bill Benson of a Donjon crane lifting a Donjon tugboat  . . . for maintenance.    It seemed appropriate for this post, given that this vessel below, below foto taken in August 2009, wandered onto dry land six weks back and yesterday was finally

brought back into its element

by possibly the same crane.

Of course, before she would float

along this rocky Staten Island shore, divers most likely needed to apply some patches before she would float to  . . .  possibly the scrapyard.

At the same moment, along the southwest corner of Manhattan, another DonJon effort is underway to transfer the WTC antenna segments from the water, which has borne their conveyance down here from Canada,

onto land and from thence into the sky. These last two fotos come with many thanks–again–to l’amica dalla torre .

Fotos 2, 3, and 4 above I use with many thanks to Carter Craft and Outside New York, LLC.  All fotos, not otherwise attributed, by Will Van Dorp.

Stormy Aftermath 6

(Doubleclick enlarges these again!! I’ll go back when I can and correct the “display setting” for the past few days.)

Thirty-six or so days after surging sixth boro waters tossed this “mothballed” tanker onto the shoreline at Clifton, Staten Island, efforts appear to be preparing to move it off. Crews have been assessing the condition of John B Caddell for some time, but as of nightfall today, tug Sarah Ann had barge Raritan Bay

in position.

I can’t say what this beach will look like tomorrow, so

I took advantage of the 65-degree foggy evening to get

what fotos I could.  It’s only an illusion caused by flood lighting that John B no longer has a bow, but come . . . a month from now,

who knows.  This press release about a unified approach to removing the wreck made the rounds in my email yesterday.  Thanks to all who passed it along.

All fotos fresh from the camera and the dark room of Will Van Dorp.

John B. Caddell Followup 1

John B.   three weeks after coming ashore.  Tethered . . . like an rogue beast.

Tagged . . . like a common railroad boxcar.

Examined by a scissor lift.

Quarantined and sequestered by yellow boom in her element and

orange pole and police tape ashore . . .

Her cavities and ducts probed, cathetered, and pumped out . . .

Prospects do indeed look grim for John B.  . . .  

her fate watched from the deep side.

All fotos today by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  Since Ft Wadsworth’s still closed to the public, I’ve no news about the ‘scapegoats there. Anyone have word?

Rockaway Sandy Before . . . After

A friend took these from her apartment on the dates specified.  This one was October 27, looking across Shorefront Parkway in Queens . . . yes this is NYC.  Notice the edge of an adjacent building along the left side of the foto, the walls of the handball courts “behind” the boardwalk, the “western” tip of Long Beach on the leftside horizon, and the street lights.

Dusk October 29.

Same location, midday October 30.  Since that time, heavy machinery has moved in to break up and cart away the sections of boardwalk.  I hope to followup with fotos.  And a discussion has begun about what to do with the hardwoods of the boardwalk:  Angelique, teak, pine, ipe, Cumaru,  greenheart  . . .  Click here and here for typical articles.   And as for sewage systems, the news is not good either.

Here’s a foto Elizabeth took today as I drove along Belt Parkway . . .   yacht still along the park.

Thanks to Barbara and Elizabeth for these fotos.  FWIW, Barbara . . . who went to work every day after November 5, managed to do so without heat, electricity, or running water.