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You saw Lauren Foss in yesterday’s post here. Here’s a followup, from sixth boro interiors I don’t get to much. Richie Ryden writes: “Look who showed up on the Hackensack River in Kearny NJ: Lauren Foss with the barge American Trader in tow with the new deck for the Wittpenn Bridge. The bridge deck was built in Vancouver, Washington shipped through the Panama Canal to NJ.”
If I read the AIS info correctly when I first saw Lauren off Sandy Hook, that voyage took about a month and a week.
And thanks to Joseph Chomicz, here’s more of that area, photo taken just upstream of the others. Joseph writes: “Lauren Foss was destined for the Hackensack River. She brought in the lift span of the new Route 7 lift bridge they are building. Also Donjon is [nearby] in the process of moving coal out of the power plant on the Hackensack River as well. [I could count] four Donjon tugs in the photo below: Meagan Anne, Thomas D, Emily Ann, and Sarah Ann.”
From a decade ago, here’s a post I did about the Hackensack River, including a photo of a barge delivering that coal to the plant. The deliveries used to be made by ExpressMarine equipment.
Thanks to Richie and Joe for these photos.
For you not familiar with the area, the green line below represents rough approximation of the track Lauren Foss followed in and
the red circle, the location of the Wittpenn Bridge.
For more of the story–on four more bridge section deliveries–click here.
As I went to one of my locations Thursday, I saw this tow headed up the Upper Bay toward Bayonne, and lamented being too late. I knew it was one of the new DSNY garbage cranes recently being deployed to new marine transfer stations in Manhattan & SW Brooklyn…
Panning slightly to the right, a group on Miller’s Launch boats were attending Afrodite . . .
Panning more than 90 degrees over past the VZ Bridge, I noticed a crane and some tugs over in the direction of Coney Island . . .
Shortly thereafter, I realized the sanitation cranes were returning . . . outbound, moved by Catherine C. Miller.
The next day, from the same vantage point, I noticed two large tugs in Gravesend Bay, one less familiar than the Moran tug.
The unusual stacks identified it immediately . . . Lauren Foss, which I had not seen since 2014, three and a half years ago here…. By the way, notice the ferris wheel and roller coaster on the skyline of Coney Island?
If you’re new to reading this blog, the high point of summer in the sixth boro shoreside for me is the first day, because it brings the mermaids ashore, a whole series of posts about which you can find here . . .
But back to Lauren Foss, a large oceangoing tug used for large barges. RORO barge American Trader , 400′ x 105′ qualifies as a large barge, although some of the Crowley container barges are larger as seen here and here.
Click here for the specs on the 8200 hp Lauren Foss.
CCA . . . here’s info on this busy but mostly invisible corporation that dates back to the Reagan era.
Here’s the scoop on McLaren Engineering.
The sixth boro is truly the part of NYC that never sleeps.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Here was 17.
All the photos in this post come from south of latitude 26 N. You might recall the Foss tugs Lauren and Iver delivering the crane to the sixth boro at the end of last month? Then Lauren Foss traveled to Philly to pick up back haul? Well about two days ago, Lauren delivered that payload–Forrestal–to the scrapyard in Brownsville, TX. The ship in the distance to the left is SS Mount Washington, also a recent arrival here, and subject of a several recent pictures on tugster. The photo below shows the stern of Lauren Foss with assist tug Signet Ranger on port bow of the old carrier. The next three photos all come from Justin Earl, on paper . .. chief mate of Lauren.
Another shot of Signet Ranger and at stern, Signet Magic. For specs of Signet tugs, click here.
On starboard bow here is Signet Courageous.
The next photos, again south of latitude 26 come from my gallivanting sister. Guess the port? Butterfly has been spotted in the sixth boro here and here.
I’ve no identification of the two vessels in the foreground.
Anyone help?
Oh . .. the port is Clifton Point in the Bahamas.
The blue and white tug to the left is Tiki, but again I have no further info.
And finally . . . Sea Trader. Click here for a closer up photo.
Many thanks to Justin and Maraki for use of these photos.
Field test for a new digital camouflage pattern?
Actually it’s this, CVA-59 . . . decommissioned for over 20 years and now moving
south and then west. Justin Earl gave permission to use the photo below. For more pics of the move out of Philly, click here.
Dave Boone took the rest of these. Here, the tow approaches the Chester waterfront.
Assisting here–as they approach Fox Point–a great place to see river traffic–are (I believe) Alex McAllister, Timothy, and Bridget.
Check out this 12-minute video on her construction. It makes an appropriate start to an epitaph for this vessel.
Fair weather, Lauren.
Many thanks to Justin Earl and Dave Boone for use of these photos. Justin’s chief mate on Lauren and has been on board since Panama. I took the top two photos back in June 2010. It’s hard to believe that Lauren, Iver and the crane coming through the Narrows was less than a week ago!
Slight digressions: here are my latest photos of Timothy from more than six months ago. And here’s a post I did over a year ago with shots from Fox Point.
Many thanks to Bjoern Kils of nymediaboat.com for use of this foto. Check out Bjoern’s website here.
And many thanks to Phil Little for the rest of these shots. I’m certain Phil won’t object to sharing the text that accompanied these fotos, as it too captures the moment:
“I went to the viewing site today at 8:30 am, and saw the tow pass under the VN Bridge at about 9:00. I checked in with the Thruway person, and had no trouble with acceptance of my Tugster credentials (my honest face!) The Lauren Foss stopped out in the middle of the bay to drop the wire, and two other tugs took it “on the hip”, arranged along its (boom facing aft) port side, the Weeks Elizabeth at the front and an iced-up unknown tug (Iver Foss?)at the after end position. Lauren Foss stood by like an anxious parent. It was awesome to see these tugs then guide the Lifter in toward the Cruise Ship dock, and turn it with precision into the near-shore channel, proceeding northwest toward the Weeks yard. It glided along in front of in front of us, not 100 feet away, aboard the royal barge, the mighty King of Cranes! They swung into the final turn toward Weeks, against the backdrop of the new Freedom Tower and the Statue of Liberty. In the yard, waiting, it looked for all the world like a huge flock of red and white-necked herons were about to welcome this strange new powerful creature who would lead them in plucking prizes out of the Hudson! What a show!”
As of this writing, I believe the two Foss tugs are refueling, resupplying, and possibly re-crewing . . . in preparation to return to sea for the next job.
Bjoern and Phil . . . thanks much.
It’s referred to now as Left Coast Lifter, I Lift NY, Ichabod Crane, and others. But I call it arrived and on a glorious if frigid morning.
Touchdown!!
And Lauren Foss is the clear MVP.
Bravo to all the crews and people behind the crews!
All fotos by Will Van Dorp. More soon.
Here and here she was at the southernmost arc of the voyage.
The tow–Lauren Foss and the crane–is captured in Gatun Lake by MS Europa‘s webcam.
A few hours later, she arrives at the Gatun Locks, which will lower her to Atlantic/Caribbean levels. Vessel nearer is ARC Endurance. Click here to see ARC Endurance in the sixth boro a bit over a year ago.
Vessel in the distance is MSC Carmen.
For truly remarkable photos of the tow traversing the Canal, click here to see gCaptain’s fine work.
With friendly seas, the tow should be arriving at the Narrows at end January/beginning February.
I don’t know how many folks were glued to this webcam yesterday, but I was not the only one. Let me walk us around the foto, different in subtle ways than the other five in this post. First, note the time stamp upper left: it’s 11:16 a.m. This was happening yesterday midmorning at the Miraflores Lock, the first of three set of lifts out of the Pacific on a transit toward the Atlantic/Caribbean. In the distance on the right side, the large white object is Norwegian Star, negotiating the next set of locks . . . Pedro Miguel Locks.
The ship almost fully shown in this foto is Tai Success, bound for Altamira, Mexico. Tai Success is 656′ loa (length overall) by 104′ , the maximum width for the current set of locks. Extending from lower left is the ex-Left Coast Lifter, towed by Lauren Foss. Note the relative size of Tai Success and the crane barge. Lauren Foss at 141′ loa is larger than almost all tugs currently on the Hudson.
11:20 a. m. The entire crane is in the lock chamber. On the stern of the crane barge is Cerro Majagual, a 2013 Panama Canal tug built in Spain. For the transit from the San Francisco Bay area to Panama, this role was played by another Foss tug, Iver Foss. Iver is currently waiting for the tow on the Atlantic side.
11:24. The water in the lock has started to rise.
11:30
11:40. The doors on the high side of the Miraflores Locks have opened and the tow heads for Pedro Miguel. By the way, on the horizon beyond the Pedro Miguel you can see the Centennial Bridge, about 10 years old. As of this writing this morning, the tow was docked just north of this bridge. I suspect it will complete the transit and be on the Atlantic side by the end of today.
I see from the Journal News story that Fluor has already changed the crane name from Left Coast Lifter to I Lift New York, presuming they’ve “purged the old from Poseidon’s ledger.” If you look at the fourth foto above, you’ll notice “Left Coast Lifter” is still painted there. I wonder when that will be painted over; maybe the name purging will happen in Gatun Lake today?
Meanwhile, I’d like to propose some alternatives . . . Hudson River Hoister and Tappan Zee Titan are more local and maintain the same LCL pattern.
As to size, currently the largest crane in the Hudson Valley is DonJon’s Chesapeake 1000, the number being its tonnage lifting capacity. Last summer in Rio, I saw a crane called Pelicano 1 with a lifting capacity said to exceed 2000 tons. The ex-LCL is said to hav a capacity around 1900 tons.
Click here for one of the posts I did from the Panama Canal–a place well worth a visit and a second visit– about two years ago.
Keep in mind that once the tow clears the Atlantic side locks, it’s still more than 2000 nautical miles from the Narrows. Assuming an average speed of seven knots and no delays for weather or other causes, that’s still almost two weeks. So, I’ll wager ETA at the Narrows around February 1.
Notice a few cranes near the TZ Bridge, as seen from MetroNorth train. Click here for the project website including cameras.
A passenger in my car took the next two.
The one above and the next three were taken from a southbound boat.
Here’s a link to info mostly on the existing TZ Bridge. Here’s a link to the old borough of Tappan.
And here’s the news in this post . . . December 22 Left Coast Lifter (LCL) finally departed San Francisco Bay bound for the Hudson River. Here‘s video of the towed LCL departing SFB.
Will it be renamed TZ Lifter? . Towing it were Lauren and Iver Foss. And before it reaches the Panama Canal, no doubt Miss Lis (scroll thru) will arrive in the sixth boro with its TZ barge.
Click here for an article in the Journal News about the crane. And from May 2013 San Jose Mercury News, more info . . . including a line that says New yorkers are free to rename the crane/barge.
Many thanks to my friend David Hindin for coordinating the SF views. Join me in wishing David a prosperous 2014.
tugster: a waterblog 
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