Meanwhile from a Great Lakes Bay

I used to see this as a kid from my first beach while learning to swim.  Those eroded cliffs defined the edge of my world, making me wonder whether they could be an eighth wonder beckoning me to become the discoverer.

I find myself looking at this landscape again, six decades later, and wondering instead what the research boat is probing,

following what appears an erratic path,

past my first lighthouse, which back then I never imagined could be seen from this angle.  Here’s the lighthouse in winter almost a decade back.

Here’s the research boat, RV Kaho, whose christening I attended here three years ago.

Might these be among the bottom features Kaho seeks?

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Port Weller ON to Phoenix NY

Port Weller is the north terminus of the Welland Canal, and as such, sees either a pilot boarding or debarking, which was the case here. Mrs C has an equally attractive fleet mate at Port Colbourne, the southern terminus. The vessel in the background left will appear in an upcoming post.

Some 80 miles to the east Kimberly Anne (1965) was docked in Rochester’s Charlotte port.

Walking along the beach there, I saw this historical sign of tug Oneida and schooner H. M. Ballou, at different times both owned by a George W. Ruggles.

Fifty or so miles to the NE we enter the Oswego River to find the busiest (IMHO) unit on the lakes:  in the past few years I’ve seen Wilf Seymour and Alouette Spirit at least 6 times between Lake Huron and Quebec City.   Here’s more info on Alouette’s aluminum operations, at one time and possibly now the largest aluminum producer in the Americas.

 

Click here for more info on Novelis, the client here in Oswego.

 

Anyone tell me the weight of one of these ingots?

Moving from contemporary to retrospective, the Phoenix dock was hosting schooner Lois McClure and tug Churchill as we passed.

For more close-ups, check out tug44’s take. 

Click here for a complete history of the replica schooner Lois McClure.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who hopes you all enjoy the last day of summer 2017 today.

 

Government Boats 42

Let me start with the oldest ones not yet published.  There’s something timely about Tracy, the vessel below.  I took the photo from mid river between Ogdensburg NY and Prescott ON.  Are you hankering for a project?  Details below.

The next day I got this photo as we entered Oswego.  RV Kaho was christened in this post I did a little over two years before.  Its mission is research on habitat and fish in Lake Ontario.  Here’s an article on that christening that mentions the meaning of the name in Ojibwe.

I shot this last week as it was tied up at the dry dock in Bayonne, and wish I could have gotten closer.  Ferdinand R. Hassler was christened in 2012.  Its namesake is this gentleman, distinguished in two countries.

Line has had light work this season in its role as a 65′ ice breaker.  Here’s an article I did on this 54-year-old vessel a few years back.

I’m not sure where 343 is these days;  Feehan seems to be covering the North River these days.  Click here for photos of Feehan as she transited from Lake Ontario to the sixth boro.

Fire Fighter II passes the hose rack–not water hoses–on the KVK.

And here’s a twofer… a Staten Island ferry and a small USACE survey boat, I believe.

 

So here’s why the top photo of Tracy is timely;  it’s for sale.    The minimum bid is $250,000 Canadian, which is a mere $189,880 US, given today’s exchange rate.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Off Gallivanting Again

By the time you read this, I should already be in Quebec, and once we get under way, we’ll reverse the trip I began six weeks ago in NYC’s sixth boro here. From Quebec City we travel up the Saint Lawrence, up as in upstream.  The waterway is truly beautiful, and although I have defined tasks on the ship, I get to spend a lot of time watching .

 

 

 

The photo below I took from the NE corner of Lake Ontario looking toward the port of Oswego.

From the Lake, we cut in at Oswego via the Canal, bypass all the fishing, and

make our way via the grand canal back to saltwater.

Here’s the 1899 Buffalo-built steam tug Geo E. Lattimer (loa 59′ x 16′ x 4.5′) exiting the low side of Lock 17.

Given the pain of finding enough of a signal to post, I can’t tell you when and what you’ll see next.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, including the photos of photos from Canal signage.

Springtime on an LCM 2

Here was the previous installment.  And here were the cargos and places of summer.  And if you missed it previously, here’s an article about Seaway Supplier I published in Professional Mariner last year.  The first six photos are used with permission from Seaway Marine Group.

Trucks like the ones with the white tanks transport stocks of fish from hatcheries to water bodies, in this case Lake Ontario.  Here’s the first time I noticed one of these trucks on the highway.

Off Oswego, it’s ready, aim,

swim!

Elsewhere at sites determined by the DEC . . . fish are brought in.

and the truck returns to shore for the next load.

The photos below all come thanks to Cathy Contant, who

works in the inlet and bay where I learned to swim almost 60 years ago. Back then, when a coal ship came in here, everyone had to get out of the water.  But I digress.

How could I not recognize the lighthouse AND Chimney Bluffs way in the distance.

 

Here’s what Seaway Marine writes on their FB page:  “We have transported 40 trucks, via 6 port locations stocking over 500,000 fish into Lake Ontario aboard our USCG certified landing craft, Seaway Supplier.”

Many thanks to Jake and Cathy for use of these photos.

 

Bittersweet 2

Three years ago it was my father;  now it was my mother:  she passed on last week at age 83, and I will miss her.  This foto was taken two days ago at Pultneyville, looking north toward Kingston, where her parents are buried.

Near these waters was her home–and mine–for 55 years.  And they shaped us.

Ma, you will be missed, and you’d tell us to push on.

All fotos taken this week by Will Van Dorp.

North Country Schooners

Now . . . that bridge in the background has not been moved to the North Country, has it?    And have the folks at Brooklyn Bridge Park –the section south of the Bridge–finally been persuaded to have freighters incorporated into the design?  And is this foreground schooner really named John A. Noble?    Will the captain and crew please identify themselves?

Answers to the above questions are (in order) no, no, YES, and maybe.  The foto below is the same vessel, now named Sara B, and now a denizen of Lake Ontario.  Sara B‘s very complete and illustrated log (2004–current . . . hours of pleasure await at this link)  can be found here, a story that bears some resemblance to one told by Farley Mowatt.  In the background are Lake Ontario’s Chimney Bluffs.

Sara B was built in the 1950s (can be more specific now) near Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.  She then traveled up the  St Lawrence and through Champlain Lake and Canal, ultimately to the sixth boro, which explains the lead foto.  The log begins with her purchase here and voyage up to Ontario.

Below is the pinky schooner La Revenante (Ghost) (ex-Amanda, Buccaneer)built in Massachusetts in 1969.  I spotted her twice:  once near Ogdensberg and then here near Alexandria Bay. “La Revenant” belong to charles Baudelaire.

Mentioned in the Sara B log is this vessel (foto from 2008) called Royaliste, technically a gaff-rigged topsail ketch.

I saw Sara B in a barn last week south of Oswego, where she’s undergoing a refit.  Check out refit log here.

Anyone tell New York stories about Sara B or John A. Noble . . .   I’d love to hear them.

Last two fotos here are mine;  the others are attributed in her log.

Sara B‘s log is kept by Susan Peterson Gateley, whose other writing can be found here.