Dawn 2023

I made my way through all the weird car wrecks on the Belt Parkway this morning to get to my cliff just before sunrise.  A small bulk carrier headed to Gravesend Anchorage while a tanker was anchored farther out. About those wrecks . . .  three multiple-car collisions in same-direction lanes between Woodhaven and the VZ . . .  what is it about impairment and driving that people don’t yet know!!?

Motorboat Yankee headed out to the mothership. 

Miss Emma McCall was just off the USCG quarantine station. 

 

From a different perspective, this is bulk carrier/general cargo vessel Meloi anchored.

When the sun rose, it painted ABC-1 and pilot boat New Jersey in light. 

Philadelphia and 

Josephine waited to rejoin their barges. 

Sunlight began to hit the tops of the cranes on Castlegate, a bulker with Chilean salt. 

All photos, WVD.

Winter Solstice 2021

Winter solstice is one date I pay attention to, and yesterday demanded an undivided portion of it.  I was out on the sixth and primordial boro at sunrise, although when it rose, a gauzy film of stratus filtered the light.  I tinkered with the image a bit to enhance the cosmic eeriness.

Along the Brooklyn shore a classic barque and one of the latest of a classic line awaited.

Notice two tugboats and a lighthouse below?  One tug is shifting a fuel barge, and the other is shifting refuse boxes.

Start of winter or start of summer, the sixth boro is always a busy place.  Notice the fishing boat in this image, along with all the rest?

For some reason, these E-2C aircraft flew the North River up and then down and out over the Lower Bay.

Dutch Girl, a winter regular along with Eastern Welder, was hard at work.

Ava M. crossed the Bay from one job to the next.  Things are always happening on the water.

And all that’s glorious, but less than a quarter mile from the North River, not all seems to be happening well, and that needs to be acknowledged.

All photos, WVD.

 

Bronze 9

To start, let me reiterate what I said over a half year ago here:  “Way back in 2007 I started this series, and I now think I should never have called it “bronze” since it’s more like a golden brown.”

I recently saw Josephine pushing a fuel barge, and

then light, pirouetting in the current, training perhaps.   Josephine dates from 2018, brings 4560 hp of Tier IV power to the job.

She’s 110′ x 33′.

I missed a shot of Dylan Cooper from the sunny side, so here’s a “dark side of the moon” shot.  She’s a 2015 boat, 112′ x 35′, and brings 4720 hp to the job.

The 2013 Curtis looks a lot like Josephine, in fact the two of them have the same dimensions and maybe mostly the same design.  Differences in the two boats built five years apart may relate to the power plant and invisible upgrades.

What I said about Curtis and Josephine might be the case with Dylan Cooper and Reinauer Twins;  the boats are four years apart and have the same dimensions and power rating.  Of course, details matter, and that’s where the upgrades are to be found.

Dace was out and about today;  she’s been around since 1968, 109′ x 30′ and rated at 3400 hp.

Franklin dates from 1984, 2600 hp and 81′ x 28′, and is very much a traditional looking diesel tugboat.

 

Closing out this post, Meredith C.  dates from 2003.  She’s both the largest and the most powerful of the Reinauer tugboats here:  7200 hp and 119′ x 40′

Note in the photo above two very different tugboats, Meredith and James E. Brown.

All photos this month, WVD.

 

Random Tankers 6

Here’s what the Upper Bay looks like on an overcast but calm dawn . . . with panamax  Torm Elizabeth being lightened by Josephine and her barge.  The tanker is not quite a year old.  There’s a lot going on in that expanse of protected water:  ferries passing, lots of tug/barge units anchored, Nautical Janine anchored, and who knows how much movement sits beneath those buildings in the distance.

Seamagic is slightly larger and dates from 2006.  She’s taking on bunkers from Kings Point and her barge.

Hafnia Lise has half Seamagic‘s carrying capacity, dates from 2016.  Here she heads out for sea.

I just love some of these names, especially the next ones,  although my all-time favorite is still Surfer Rosa.  Maybe that’s because when I saw it I knew a Rosa who surfed.  Meet Solar Katherine at dawn. She’s also from 2020, like Torm Elizabeth.

Pacific Sarah dates from 2017.

Nautical Janine is two years old.

I wonder if these names– Janine, Sarah, Katherine, etc–have namesakes who know they’ve inspired a vessel name?  I know that can be true of tugboats . . . . because I’ve met actual namesakes.

One more before I hit the road . .   Silver Joan, taking on some fuel.

All photos, WVD.

Random Tugs 331

Mary Turecamo, 4300 hp and waiting for a ship at the Narrows, could not look better.  She’s an almost 40-year-old product of Matton Shipyard.  In fact, she was their last product.

Christiana heads out as

Virginia, 1440 hp and launched in 1979,  comes in

from sea, out of the haze.

Christiana was launched in Marinette WI in 2007, a year after Brandywine and a few years after the Molinari class of Staten Island ferries.  She’s married to Double Skin 143, another Marinette vessel.

Barney Turecamo (1995 and 5100)  and  barge Georgia gets rotated by Marie J Turecamo (1968 and 2250). Yesterday I started a re-read of the 1956 book Tug Boat:  The Moran Story, and am finding it very satisfying.

Here’s a dense pack over at the east end of IMTT:  Josephine, Evelyn Cutler, and Cape Lookout:  (2018 and 4560), (1973 and 3900), and (2018 and 5000).

Crystal Cutler arrived here from the shipyard in 2010 and works with 1500 hp.

She’s pushing Patricia Poling. 

And finally, a light Hunting Creek, 2011 and 3000 hp.

All photos and any errors, WVD.

Random Tugs 327

I recall my first time seeing the KVK, astonished by the density of commercial traffic.  Of course, I’d just come from northern New England’s freshwater meandering rivers, surfable sandy coastlines, and marsh creeks. 

Patrice steamed westbound, light,

Kimberly eastbound,

Josephine,

Daisy Mae, moving a half acre of scows…

Helen Laraway,

Daisy Mae again a few seconds later.

But to put it all together, here are Pegasus, Josephine, and Cape Henry. 

Pegasus and Patrice,

Josephine, Kings Point, and Cape Henry….

It was a busy morning.  All photos, WVD.

 

Small Craft 27

I caught this small open boat eastbound on the KVK.

She passed Ernest Campbell.  Clearly by her markings, she’s a survey vessel. 

Between traffic, they seemed to focus their work near the transition between the KVK and the ConHook Range . . .

returning to their area of interest, as I said, between traffic.

Work completed, they headed back west

from where they’d first come. 

That might be a cold job with minimal protection for employees of Aqua Survey Inc.  in

a crowded waterway . . .!

All photos, WVD.

It appears that Aqua-Survey Inc. (ASI) has another boat called RV Tesla, which I’d love to see.  I caught R. E. Hayes here over 10 years ago, also an ASI boat.

Random Tugs 308

Angelina Autumn . . . that’s not a common sixth boro boat . . .

so of course I needed to go check her out as she entered the Narrows yesterday with a deck barge headed for Coeymans NY.

Arriving with Angelina Autumn was Shannon Dann,

towing a huge Weeks crane.  I did not get an ID on the crane.  Neptune was in the procession also, but it was miles back and I had other places I needed to be.

Genesis Eagle had GM 11103 alongside a tanker.

Josephine came in from sea with

RTC 83.

Lois Ann L. Moran departed the Narrows

bound for Philly with the barge Philadelphia.

Anacostia headed out as well with

with Double Skin 510A.

I should know but am just guessing . . . Nicole Leigh Reinauer alongside Energy Centaur over by the Sandy Hook Pilots’ station.

All photos, WVD.

 

Random Tugs 293

Mary Turecamo has the distinction of having been built at Matton Shipyard near Waterford.  She’s a big boat:  106′ loa and 4300hp.

James William was originally Lisa Moran.  She’s 77′ and generates 2800hp propelled by three screws.

Barney Turecamo, built in 1995, was intended to push cement barges.  She’s 116′ and rated at 5100hp.

Brendan Turecamo was launched in 1975.  She’s 106′ and her twin EMDs generate 3900hp.

James D. Moran is one of the four 6000hp tugboats that have worked in the sixth boro for the past five years.  She’s 88′ loa.

Notice that all the above boats had some connection with Moran?  Anyhow. Ava M. is the newest escort tug in the boro.  She arrived here about a year ago, 100′ and 6770hp.

Alex McAllister has been in the harbor–I believe–about five years now.  Built in 1985, she is 87′ and 4300hp.

When I first saw Genesis Vigilant, he was a Hornbeck Offshore boat called Michigan Service.  Built in 1981, she’s 99′ and rated at 3000hp.

Josephine might be the newest T of an ATB in the boro.  She was launched in 2018, is 110′, and moves with 4560hp.

Here she was pushing the 347′ loa RTC 83 into a berth at the east end of IMTT, with assistance from Franklin Reinauer.  Franklin was launched in 1984, is 81′ and generates 2600hp.

All photos, WVD.  Again, sorry I posted prematurely sans any text. Sometimes I’m looking right at something, seeing a word or a number, and just calling it something else.  I believe my brain is becoming like my mother’s.

 

 

 

Just Josephine

She’s been around about half a year, but this was my first time to see her closeup.  And I was fortunate to catch her in most of a rotation . . . below pointing one o’clock,

near twelve,

eleven,

nine,

[with a digression]

back to ten,

and here I missed a headon clearly six view, but skip directly to a three and

tending toward a two.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who has no judgement but finds the design unique, as is true of the buildings of Hudson Yards in the background..