Turning Bow Chain

Kimberly headed out on a mission, as 

did Mary.

They converged alongside Bow Chain, 

where crew mustered. 

As daylight opened between Bow Chain and the dock, 

Kimberly moved to the opposite side

and with guidance

Bow Chain moved slightly forward and toward port and 

 

rotated counterclockwise

with Kimberly helping the bow around while

Mary pushed the stern. 

Pilot and crew directed from the bridge wing

and once sailed, Bow Chain began a voyage to the Gulf of Mexico. 

All photos, WVD. 

 

Assists 14

Tugboats, large and powerful as they are, seem to shrink when beside a global container giant, like Ava here beside Adrian Maersk.  What comes to mind, and if a paraphrase of Archimedes is acceptable, give me a tug and position alongside, I’ll move that world-traveling behemoth and make it look easy.

Capt. Brian here and Ellen get OOCL Singapore for the always preferred routine entry, shift of boxes, and then nudge back out to sea.

Ditto Laura K, CSCL Bohai Sea, and Kirby.

Ava stands by here with Mustafa Dayi, in an anchorage usually filled with tankers. 

Jonathan C sees Ever Legion in the door.

Mary Turecamo stands by with Endo Breeze.

Ellen escorts a loaded tanker into the Kills.  Notice here that the antenna deck is flush with the deck of the tanker, quite unlike the case with the largest container ships into the boro, as in the last image farther below in this post.

MSC Azov gets Kimberly and Laura K as assist boats.

James D  has already terminated her business with Cosco Harmony and is now traveling to the next job.

And let’s conclude this post here, as mentioned earlier, the 6000 hp Kirby (?) looks insignificant beside 15000+ teu container ships.   The key word here is “looks.”

All photos, WVD.

Random Tugs 370

Bet you can guess where that line leads from the bow of Kirby Moran?

Here you go.

Jordan Rose has been tied up in Bayonne for a while, but

Gregg McAllister passes her on the way to an assist.

Michael Miller is one of the venerable tugs of the sixth boro,

having worked here since the mid-1960s.

Cape Fear has been here for a few years, although I’ve not yet seen

her two sisters, Cape May and Cape Henry. 

Ava M. is one of the workhorses, certainly. 

Does anyone know when and if Capt. Brian A. will return to service here?

Kimberly Turecamo has worked the harbor consistently for going-on 30 years.

Here she heads into an orange sherbet dawn.

All photos in the past week, WVD., who has more Canal Society archival photos coming but some contemporary posts demonstrate my temporary anchor.  Also coming up, a photographer high above Hell Gate has shared a new trove of photos from a perspective I’ve missed.  Many thanks for your continued interest.

Random Tugs 369

Happy spring.  All photos in this post were taken in winter two days ago and over a six-hour period.  Before noon, the five boros and the next state were obscured out of existence. I really think they didn’t exist during those hours, just like the imaginary sun crossed (??) the imaginary equator at 11:33 NYC time.  Crossed .  . by boat or chariot or blimp or goat cart . . .  I don’t know.

Kimberly  passed by and Robbins Reef was barely there.  Mariner brought boxes in, and Kirby passed by, and they might as well have been at sea.

Neptune shuttled by, and hints of Bayonne showed themselves.

Justine came by and the sunshine was making progress burning off the moisture.

When Cape Canaveral crossed in front of me, Manhattan was there, albeit like a matte painting;  right, that’s just a movie set, right?

The large gray ship . . . Soderman, that too was a different painted background, this time for Captain D.

Before Mary Turecamo appeared over on the starboard side of New York‘s trans-harbor load  of containers, I had no idea what I was seeing.

It wasn’t until well into the afternoon and–in the near distance–Bert Reinauer passed overtaking the Vane unit that I saw a boat pass by without a hint of fog.  That, however, was mostly due to the proximity

All photos, Friday, WVD.

Meeting Monaco Bridge

Miriam Moran looks to be alone, with a half dozen other units in the distance, but

she’s converging with a pack.

Minutes later, Kirby takes the stern of the ULCV, and

James D. emerges from the far side, where she landed a docking pilot.

Then, Miriam and Kimberly

like choreography

assume their positions and paths

 

 

and assist Monaco Bridge into the terminal.

All photos, WVD, who can’t get enough of this.

Random Ships 97

Back to historical Barge Canal photos tomorrow, but today I’m back in the boros, where the birds are singing in the sunny low   

60s!  Because I’ve been inland, all photos come from very recent archives, like Balsa 85, a small general cargo carrying a bulk cargo of sugar in the holds of her petite 348′ x 62′ hull.

Navig8 Perseverance could not be more different:  a crude oil tanker 817′ x 144′, carrying oil from somewhere on one planet earther.

STI Brooklyn is a Panamax oil/chemical tanker, 600′ x105′.  Want more STI (Scorpion Tankers Inc.) names?  Click here.

Stena Impulse has exactly the same dimensions as STI Brooklyn, but a very different superstructure. 

Here and here are other Stena Imp…. tankers.

Steam Atlantic, nice name, is smaller:  482′ x 79′.  Her sister vessel Stream Pacific can be found here.

Suddenly ships and containers marked Wan Hai are appearing.

Wan Hai 301, 984′ x 105′, follow the nomenclature pattern this blog does.  Numbers in lists may not be elegant, but they are effective.

And among the largest container ships in the boro, it’s

CMA CGM Argentina, measuring in at 1200′ x 167′ and some change. 

All photos, WVD, from my oceanic archives and on the first real day of winterspring.

 

Random Tugs 362

Two separate parties sent me this article from the LA Times.  With a title including the phrase “humble tugboat,”  I was interested but not prepared for the fantastic photos.  Thx John and George.  Enjoy.  Meanwhile, here are some more of my recent photos.

James D. Moran assisting on a towline above and Robert Weeks leaving the fuel dock below,

 

Andrea walled off from her barge above and Sarah Ann light below, 

 

Gregg McAllister returning to base and Pegasus heading to work,

 

A light William Brewster and an equally light Daisy Mae,

 

Mackenzie Rose and Philadelphia, and

to close out this installment . . . Kimberly Turecamo assisting a ULCV.

All photos, WVD, who never associated the adjective “humble” with tugboats or their operators, and that’s not a bad thing.

If you’re new to this blog (or even if you are not), I’m always looking for photos from other people and places, especially, tugboats seen in South America, Asia, Oceania, and Australia.

Christmas Eve 2021

Deck the hulls . . .

the bell sound signal device and railings too.

And I’ll leave that song right there. 

 

Kimberly Turecamo has a wreath around the bell also, but

consistent with the Kimberly crew, there’s more.

Merry Christmas all . . .

All photos, WVD.

Here was last year’s M is for Merry.

Dense Traffic 6

I’m surprised I’ve not used this title in almost a year, since the thought often comes my way that some very busy waterways exist in the sixth boro.  Like below with the four Moran tugs and one tanker.  Since three are headed to the left, you might be wondering why.  Easy . . .  those three–JRT, Kimberly, Margaret— are assisting an incoming ship, the single tug, Jonathan C,  in the foreground heading to the right will soon assist another ship coming in.  Polar Cod–a great name–is transferring petroleum product.

Here’s that incoming ship, exciting the birds as the ship and maybe stirring up the menhaden and their predators below.  We’ll get back to this.

Here’s a closer up of that fish/bird stirring ship, a torrent called Torrente.   Portside the ship is Mary Turecamo, and starboard, it’s the Belford-based Osprey. 

And here’s the most dense photo, eight tugboats from four different companies, two loaded container ships, and one tanker, all in less than two miles of waterway.

Getting back to all those birds and fish in the Con Hook Range . . .  a lot of people in small boats are putting their baited hooks in the water there.

Unrelated:  An unconfirmed report with this photo below says the 1912 Argo sank in Long Island Sound off Wading River NY on November 1.  Can anyone confirm that this happened?  I looked for a report but couldn’t find one anywhere.  To see a photo I took of it underway in the sixth boro just over 10 years ago, click here. And here, taken in June 2011.

The photo below was posted by Steve Adkins and said to be taken by USCG responding to the distress.

All photos except the last one, WVD.

Random Tugs 356

I hope you’re enjoying the morning light as much as I am.  The first four shots here were all from roughly the same location.  I took this one of Seeley first with the sun mostly behind me, and

then the next three with the sun on my right side. 

The lower 40s temperatures make sea smoke on the warmer water.

 

Then I headed down to Conference House in Tottenville in time to catch

Atlantic Salvor connect with a dredge spoils scow to take to the HARS for dumping.

That’s Great Beds Light, named for the oysters that once thrived there.

While waiting for something that never appeared or happened–I seem to do that a lot, said I to my “wise person”–I had an unexpected treat.  I told my wise person that too, that a plus of waiting for nought is that often what you really need but didn’t know you needed often comes by.  But I digress.

This is the first appearance of 1977 West Coast Kodiak on this blog;  there’s also a 1981 Alabama-built tug by that name.  This Kodiak was built in Long Beach CA.

Heading out to assist Atlantic Salvor with that scow, she passed in front of this surprising terrain over along the south shore of Raritan Bay.

All photos, WVD, who needs a wise person now and then.