Where There’s Pigs . . .

ooops, new pigs, there must have been an incident.

A little background . . . .  A conductor of the The Timbuctoo, Khartoum & Western Railway Marching Band & Chowder Society emailed me yesterday about what they said was “strange small boat activity” just north of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument.   Since I was in the area, I thought I’d check it out, and what I saw would be

considered at very least unorthodox nets on small boats, now that we are in harbor “fishing” season.  Pannaway is dredging for critters, I believe, although I’m puzzled by her New Hampshire registration, if I’m not mistaken.

See the rig with “sock” skimming the surface?

These rigs are designed to soak up stuff that should not be in the water, as opposed to critters that find it acceptable habitat.

Ken’s Marine does a lot of types of work, and

responding to spills is one of them.

 

The news had nothing I could find, but I’m guessing

there was something under-reported here.  By the way, a flat oil absorbent product is often called a diaper.

Again, thanks to the good conductor for the tip.

All photos and speculation by Will Van Dorp, whose already taken but too few rides on the Timbuctoo, Khartoum & Western Railway.

An added plus of my trip here was to have another look at Soldiers and Sailors Monument, which I’ll feature in an upcoming post.

 

Salt 7a

It’s appropriate that this was Salt 6.  You’ll understand as you go through this post and the next one.

Just like it’s appropriate that this Cat is prowling.

Wonder what’s the relationship between this dark shape arriving and safe driving and even on safe walking on streets in the lit-up Manhattan in the distance?

Balder is in port with almost 50,000 tons of crystals from the deserts of Chile aka road . . .

. . .  salt.

She drifts in silently and crews make her fast.

Can you imagine doing this in a February or any other cold month sixth boro?

Well  . . . it happens

again and again, ship after ship, with utmost concern for safety.

Balder (2002) features a self-unloading system.

Once all lines are secured along with customs check and other paperwork,  partial crew change .  . .

While some of the city sleeps, Balder’s arm stretches forth and the Cats get to work.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who is very appreciative for Atlantic Salt terminal manager Brian DeForest’s permission to  be in the yard.

 

Canales di Sesto Borgo

Le vie navigabili  . . . is what you could call “sesto borgo” or “the sixth boro.”  And it’s navigated by creatures small as these canadagoslings,

greater,

numerous . . . unwanted or

scruffy but perennially utilitarian.

Say hello to 3/4 of the painting crew on Pegasus last Saturday.  Vote daily for Pegasus here–so that she might benefit from a huge grant of $250,000–and

starting from THIS weekend, come and visit Pegasus on board at Pier 25 in the boro called Manhattan.    The schedule now calls for Pegasus to leave this “canale” within the sixth boro tomorrow . . . Thursday, pick up Lehigh Valley 79, and move back over to Pier 25.    In reference to the canales di venezia, Pegasus would look good exploring there . . .  By the way, here’s a log of Pegasus’ last visit to the drydock for work.

Here you’re looking east  at Manhattan and its tallest building from the Morris Canal in New Jersey.  Il canale di morris è una delle vie navigabili del sesto boro.

See you some hours this weekend on Pegasus at Pier 25.   And please . . . vote daily, no mater which continent you are on.

Parting shot . .  a foto of Pegasus leaving the tour dock in Yonkers 11 months ago.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

By the way, the tugboat shown most completely in the 4th foto is the 1943 46.5′ Linda G.   I don’t know where she was built.  Pegasus is 96′ and 1907-built in Baltimore.  The goslings, hatch of 2012, were about 4″ long.

Handling Lines 2

Here was the first in this series.

Size matters.  I love watching the line handlers shift lines over to the bollards.   

As a vessel arrives at a dock, lines are at ready so that no time is wasted. 

Trust and communication are a must, even if no common language exists.  And as winter approaches,  this work becomes less and less comfortable or forgiving.

Kudos to the line handlers. 

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Whatzit 8

Any guesses?  Something new at Coney Island?

Here’s a slightly different angle.

Different vessel but this foto’s dedicated to Paul Strubeck, who may just decide he needs to go shopping, eh, Paul?

Those horns signal the approach of Remember When, yesterday docked in North Cove, Manhattan.  That’s the Winter Garden just beyond the bow.  Thanks to Harold Tartell, see her invisible parts here.

Here’s Remember When entering the harbor a few days back.

I’m intrigued about this vessel;  when it entered the harbor two weeks back, I couldn’t find a name or anything anywhere.  Anyone know?

Enter yacht Kiwi, from Boston.

This was my first time to see this stylish boat by Ken’s Marine.  Seriously, in this post, this is the first vessel I could truly envy.  Bravo, Ken.    Name?

And this orange vessel . . . it was too far away to identify when I spotted it and took this foto.  Anyone identify?  It was headed for the George Washington Bridge when I took this.

So back to the two first shots . . . they showed the spars of the dynarig aboard Maltese Falcon, built in Turkey.    Maltese Falcon sports 15 square-rigged sails stored in and automatically deployed from the three free-standing masts.

You might call Maltese Falcon today a “used yacht,” not that that would diminish the vessel:  it was completed for Tom Perkins in 2006, who in turn sold it to Elena Ambrosiadou in 2009.  I’d love to see it under sail.  If I put details together in those links, Perkins launched the vessel in 2006 after investing about $200 million and sold it three years later for about $100 million?  Depreciation?  Poor math on somebody’s part?  Has anyone read Mine’s Bigger. .  about the building of this vessel?

Maltese Falcon’s presence in town  brings to two of the three largest sailing yachts in the world bathing in the sixth boro in May 2011.  Word of the sixth boro must be getting out there.  Now you can call Maltese Falcon a yacht, or a second-hand houseboat . . .  but it does rank right up there with the most exotic houseboats in the world, those on Dal Lake in India.

Bottom foto here thanks to Saskia deRothschild;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated but tied to yesterday’s book tip post, gCaptain’s John Konrad has been doing some fantastic posts recently–as most of you probably know.  My favorites related to the anniversary of Deepwater Horizon tragedy and great fotos on the ice in the Arctic.

Arriving Bayonne

Two weeks ago I did a “leaving Bayonne” post.  Here’s the other shoe.  In the two-week interval, maybe a dozen vessels have come and gone.

Sparse text today:  8:50 am . . . two lineboats and crews race eastward from IMTT.

9:02 .  . . two McAllister tugs with a tanker round the bend near the entrance of the KVK, about a mile east of the “office” where I am.

9:09. . . .  and it looks like Evrotas is coming no farther west.

9:21   . . .  Amy C McAllister moves the bow towards the dock, as

Marjorie B McAllister nudges in the stern.

9:46 . . .  a lineboat moves in

9:49:38  .  . to receive dock lines.

9:49:50

9:50:22.  Line has been received, and is being made fast and the

9:50:46 . . . and gets moved toward to shoreside bollard.

9:50:46.  Ditto, sternlines.  Note the terminal service truck arrives.

9:51:27 Shore crew prepares to

9:52:03   . . .  receive and make fast the stern lines.

9:52:31 . . .  all fast and lineboats do a celebratory dance, then depart.

9:54:51 . . .  Marjorie B. is relieved, while

9:57:40  . . . up forward Amy C begins to move off as well.

10:02:47 . . .  the last line comes off, and

10:0308    . . .  as  Amy C slides astern as deckhand tidies up docking lines.

At least that’s how I interpret it, as the photographer, Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated from the NYTimes . . . “Suddenly a rise in piracy’s price,” and be sure to see the graphic.  Kennebec Captain and Hawsepiper have notable thoughts from mariners’ points of view.