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Sometimes you need a spell out of the routine to spawn new ideas. My long sweltering time in the GOM this summer communing with alligators and sugar cane may have had that effect. In this case, the “new” idea–as it often is–is to go back to an old idea, but twist it in a new way. I started “non-random” tugs way back in 2009 here. I’d done a variation on this actually two years earlier with the “bronze” fleet and here and here. There have been others too, but I think you catch my drift.
So let’s go. Between my two stints in the torrid GOM, I was hoping to catch a photo of one of the sixth boro’s “newest” names, Brinn Courtney. Below is closest I got, and it was certainly a photo I’d not run without context.
After returning, I caught John Joseph–when i first saw it in the distance I thought it was the elusive Brinn Courtney.
A short time later, I saw it in formation with USCGC Willow, although I wasn’t sure if John Joseph was escorting Willow, or vice versa.
A few days later, I caught John Joseph on the move again.
Imagine my joy then to catch Brinn Courtney twice yesterday, once pushing a barge and then
light.
All photos, WVD. More fleet sets to come.
My most recent Professional Mariner published article can be read here.
Today’s post presents some outtakes and more from the article process. When you look at the tug below, or its earlier iteration,
you might not expect it has this elevating ability. You’ve seen it here in a winter solstice post from nine years ago.
By elevating, the view from the helm can be raised by 15′ . . . fifteen feet!!
External egress when the wheelhouse is down doesn’t work, and looks like this. When you elevate, don’t forget to “release the velcro flap…”.
When it’s up, this is the view down the passage.
Of course, I wanted to see the ram that moved the wheelhouse up and down, and here pointing out function is John Joseph Captain C. J. Steen.
Here’s a crew photo, with (l to r), Jonathan Stasinos, Graham Lebica, Tim Ivory, Glenn Anderson, C. J. Steen, TBS consultant Birk Thomas, and James Stasinos.
Home base, the resting place, these days for another Stasinos tug Meaghan Marie is a pier in Red Hook Brooklyn terminal, but
the goal of course is to stay engaged.
All photos, info . . . WVD, who’s looking for more green and buff.
This title goes back more than 10 years. But I got some congested photos recently, so I dredge up an old title. Count the boats of all sizes here. Of course, foreshortening makes them seem much closer to each other than they really are. I count at least 12 vessels on the photo below, including some I had not noticed when I took it.
There are five here, and maybe two miles of separation between the two container ships.
Three operations were happening simultaneously in this stretch of the channel, and all were either stemming or moving very slowly.
Again, there’s lots of foreshortening here.
It may be exhilarating to get this close to a large ship, but if your engine stalls . . . stuff’ll happen really fast.
Here’s a different sort of “traffic” photo from august 31, 2008 . . . exactly 12 years ago. And it gives me an idea for a post. By the way, left to right, can you name at least half of the 12 boats at least partly visible here?
All photos, WVD.
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We’re past the big 300 and on our way to the 400, maybe. Nine tugboats appear in this post. Can you arrange them greatest to least in horsepower? Longest to shortest? To make it easier, you can rank them in top group of three to bottom group.
Ruby M eastbound one early morning,
Sarah D entering,
Sarah Ann with a flotilla of crane barges,
James E Brown going to work,
Larry J Hebert and the the dredging operation near MOTBY,
Mister Jim departing the Kills by the Back Channel,
John Joseph entering the Kills,
William Brewster heading for the fuel dock,
and finally, East Coast entering the Kills.
She’s generally moving the sugar barge. Has anyone seen Sea Robin recently?
Ranked in three groups by horsepower, it’s Larry J Hebert (3600), John Joseph (3400), and Sarah Ann (2700). Next group are Mr Jim, East Coast, and Sarah D. Third group is Ruby M, William Brewster, and James E. Brown (1000).
Ranked in length . . . East Coast (120′), John Joseph, Ruby M. Sarah D, Larry J Hebert, Sarah Ann. Mister Jim, James E. , William Brewster (65′)
Info comes from Birk Thomas’s fantastic database.
All photos, WVD.
I’m always excited to see something new, even if I almost miss it . . . like Wachapreague. I chased it here, but interminable stop lights, slow drivers . . . grr. But enough of me. Wachapreague was in the sixth boro the other day, of the newest class of Vane ATBs. She’s 110′ x 38′ and powered by two QSK-60M generating 4400hp.
Follow up on John Joseph . . . photo by Ben Moll, she’s almost completely made over.
These two photos of Paul Andrew and scow . . . demonstrate directionality of dawn light. This one was west of me at 0538, and this
east . . at 0541. Being out in the morning is not just about comfortable temperatures.
Harry McNeal is a sixth boro fixture in marine construction, but at 53′ x 18′,
she’s easy to miss, as demonstrated here alongside Linda Moran (116′ x 36′) and Houston.
Cape Canaveral, with its evocative name for anyone who came of age in the brief US space era, is another fairly new vessel in the sixth boro.
She comes in at 105′ x 36′ and 5000′.
Two Bouchard units waited in Grabesend the other day . . .
Denali bunkered intriguingly-named Eco California.
Another shot of Wachapreague eluding me . . . is a good place to end.
Many thanks to Ben for the John Joseph photo. All others by WVD.
Launched in 1973 as Amy Moran, she has spent 47 years by that name . . . .
her 3400hp responding to that name,
right up until now.
New paint jobs
and new locations . . .
meet John Joseph.
I suspect she’ll be heading out of town soon, and receiving more paint. AIS already shows her as John Joseph.
John Joseph photos thanks to an anonymous mariner. Photos of Amy Moran by WVD.
For the previous 27 boats featured in this series, click here.
tugster: a waterblog 
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