Out of the Bayou 8

This post covers a day and a half of travel, shown in pink and green.  You’ll understand why by the end of this post.

We departed Chandeleur Islands and headed for Mississippi’s Gulf Islands, part of a National Seashore.

In the distance off Pascagoula, we saw Crowley tug Achievement and her barge.

 

No Worries . . . that’s the small open fishing boat anchored near the rig.

 

F/V Apache Rose was at anchor showing off its “wing trawling” innovation.

Lois Ann L. Moran, with its very familiar livery, anchored off Mobile Bay, to the west of a dozen or so anchored vessels.

Sand Island Light marks the southernmost tip of the state of Alabama.

I’ll just point out here that we saw countless rigs off Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  That fact contrasts with what will follow in an upcoming post.

Lots of placards indicated presence of Cox and Telos, but I saw none marked Hilcorp or other energy companies. 

We ended that day off Perdido Key Resort in Floribama, where some skullduggery appeared to warrant keeping our distance. 

The next morning we entered Pensacola

for some crew change and grub shopping. 

Fort Pickens, one of only four southern US forts to remain in Union hands during the Civil War, lay on a barrier beach.   Updates were made to the fort up through WW2.

USCGC Walnut (WLB-205) is homeported in Pensacola, but nearby were two other CGCs,

Reliance and

Diligence.  A WLB and a WMEC made up part of the fleet in the sixth boro back in May 2022.

And here is the reason I extended this installment all the way to Pensacola.  As we made for our landing, we passed Gulf Dawn, which itself was passing that large blue/white vessel in the background . . . .

It’s Jacklyn, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket landing ship-to-be.  Well, now it will never be, since Julie F towed it out of Pensacola just two days ago, destination ISL Brownsville TX.  The story in detail can be read/heard here.

All photos, any errors, WVD, who will reprise this trip on the blog soon with more vessels.

 

 

Random Tugs 344

There’s lots of lifting capacity here, but no towing or pushing capacity.

Philadelphia passes the Manhattan skyline solo.

From the west, Justine and Jonathan head for a job.

 

Magothy passes Helen Laraway, Cape Lookout, and Lois Ann L. Moran. 

There’s a progression here . . .  more tugboats in this photo than in the previous . . .

See the three guys . . .

here?  I wonder who they are.

Yesterday a hearing had been scheduled in US Bankruptcy Court, and I suppose some report on that is forthcoming . . .

All photos, WVD.

 

 

 

KVK Dawn 7

Here were previous iterations of this title, as well as here, an AK Sunrise.  If this effort were for a work published when complete, inconsistencies like dawn v. sunrise would be aligned, but this has always been a work in progress, a wandering that could end at any time.

So yesterday morning I was at my office before the 0550 sunrise, and I saw nothing until this.  In fact, at 0554, I was wondering where the sunrise was, since there was not the sky show that often heralds the dawn.  Anyhow, you might prefer a sun rise over a calm body of water or a forested valley or a garden, pasture, ravine, building . . . but I offer you our local star, source of terrestrial energy, over a tank farm, and below that Brooklyn crane . .  as of 0555.

If you imagine an equilateral triangle, the sun as one point, myself another, then Cape Lookout was the third, and that shows how dim that sunrise was.   When the sun rises through a clear atmosphere, you’re expect more golden color on this tugboat.

Pivoting back, the striations are not on the solar surface.  Rather . . . they indicate a film in our atmosphere. 

The 2018 5000 hp Cape Lookout glides in toward the fuel dock.  Lois Ann L. Moran is tending her barge as some petroleum product gets transferred.   An easy question for some of you;  for her Caterpillar engines, Cape Lookout at full tanks carries 86,114 gallons of fuel, and 9550 gallons of urea.  You can do the math for the fuel if you assume different prices per gallon.  I don’t know how much fuel goes per gallon.  Question:  What’s the almost 10,000 gallons of urea for?

At 0558, clouds passed the sun, almost giving the impression of sunspots.  By the way, I didn’t look directly at the sun; rather, I shot in that direction and saw what I got later, after the photos were “developed” . . . well downloaded.

Nearby at that dock, Haggerty Girls lies alongside her barge, RTC 107.

By now, the sun has risen NOT straight up from its appearance point, but at an angle, and is now partially obscured by the LaFarge–now Holcim–cement silos.

 

I’m at a fixed point, although I’ve varied the camera angles and settings.

 

For her power, the 2013 4000 hp Haggerty Girls has two MTU/DDC engines, and her fuel tanks add up to 114,202 gallon, and no urea.  What does that tell you?

The 2009 5100 hp Lois Ann L. Moran has EMD engines, and carries 105,000 gallons of fuel and no urea. Time now is 0622, and Lois Ann L. lies beside her barge, Philadelphia.

By the way, all my numbers come from this site:  tugboatinformation.com    ….

All photos, yesterday, WVD.

And the urea?  It’s ONE of the ways diesel engines are designed to meet clean air standards.  I’m just learning about this, and smart people have been working on this for a long time.

 

Moving Fuel 8

It’s winter, and that’s when I did all the previous posts by this name.  It makes sense, since this is the northern hemisphere.   Saint Louis registered Saint Emilion pushes a light A87 for refilling. Poor air quality days have the benefit that backgrounds beyond a half mile are obscured.

On the same foggy morning, Lois Ann L. Moran takes it slow, waiting for its berth.  Brendan Turecamo assists alongside barge Philadelphia.

Normandy assists in keeping the barge off the dock

as  Genesis Vigilant moves astern.

 

They cross, and the Moran unit goes into the same dock.

 

Once they’re in, Charleston-registered Sea Eagle sails past with Philadelphia-registered TMI-17. In the distance, Normandy assists the genesis unit into a new dock.

 

All photos, WVD.

Random Tugs 316

Bobbie Ann departs the sixth boro with some GLDD equipment. 

Little did I know at the time that Bobbie Ann had left the sixth boro a decade ago, then as Vera K.

Ernest Campbell wrestles along a double hull bunker barge. I wonder why the Centerline Logistics lion has not yet been added to her stack.

When tugs like Mary Turecamo assist a deeply laden tanker, the perspective from the upper wheelhouse is so much different than when assisting a ULCV, with their much higher freeboard.

Sometimes the 46′ x 15′ Rae is just the right size.  Recall Rae‘s role in getting Wavertree back into her berth after the big renovation?

One of the newest tugboats in the boro, Cape Canaveral, 105′ x 36′ and generating 5000 hp, has the most evocative name.

She has two siblings, Cape Henry and Cape Lookout.

Again, is it me?  I don’t believe I’ve seen Justine in a long while. She’s also 105′ x 35′ and 4000 hp.  She has an elevating wheelhouse, which you can see here, scroll.

This is crowded:  (l to r) Diane B, Saint Emilion, Meredith C. Reinauer, Lois Ann L.  Moran, and Pathfinder.

 

Escorting from a distance astern, it’s Kimberly.

And finally, a photo from some time back, Vane’s New York, now working on the Great Lakes, Vane’s only freshwater unit . . .  that I know of.

All photos, WVD.

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.

 

Leaving Shipside

Last post I titled this way was almost 10 years ago here.

These photos from a few days ago show no sense of the unprecedentedly different harbor.

Since Margaret assisted fleet mate Lois Ann L with barge Philadelphia off crude tanker Ionic Artemis, they’ve separated, each headed out in different directions.

x

 

All photos, WVD, who wishes everyone health.

 

Other Peoples Photos 77

With momentum gaining for more offshore wind farms, a raft of seldom-seen type vessels make port calls in the sixth boro.  This photo from Tony Acabono is an excellent example:  Geosea is not new, but she’s surely exotic.

Another from Tony, Berto L. Miller is new in town, joining two other Miller OSVs sometimes here, Rana and Josephine K.

And yet another set from Tony . . .  recognize this vessel?

Look at the design on the stack . .. .

It’s the return of Bear, as I first knew her, although she’s also been Catherine M. Brown and Elizabeth Anna.

And finally . . . here’s a photo of a vessel--Lois Ann L. Moran and barge Philadelphia–as seen from the “vessel,” the whatever-it-is in Hudson Yards. Those are LIRR trains in the foreground.  Thanks to my sister for this photo.

Thanks to Tony and my sister for these photos.  No photos here by Will Van Dorp, who is again off across the border.

Delaware Traffic 3

River traffic travels in all weather and times of day.   So at first I was dismayed to be without my camera, but fortunately Elizabeth had hers when Timothy McAllister came past and got

really close.  Thanks to the crew, whose demonstration probably inspired some young’uns to want to grow up and be mariners.

Earlier Madeline had moseyed past, checking out Gazela and all else along the PA side while

Captain Harry did the same on the NJ side.

While the rain fell, Caspian Sea headed out as

Teresa McAllister headed upriver.

as did Reid McAllister.

Art and reality mimic each other.  At the Independence Seaport Museum, you have just over a month left to see the exhibit of friend and marine artist Dave Boone’s work and wit.

You’ll be thrilled by the paintings and the biographical materials.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, except the first two by Elizabeth Wood, who had a charged phone.

Stormy

Sandy?  Of course, if you live inland from a beach, you may be scoured by the stuff.

These signs appeared along the NJ Turnpike today.

I had to return to the sixth boro from a little time spent in Philly.  I saw Lois Ann L. Moran (2009, Washburn & Doughty) pass quite close to Penn’s Landing, but she was way up by Fishtown by the time I could grab my camera.

High Roller (1969, Jakobson) passed also, but the light hardly allowed Roller‘s brilliance to show.  Scroll through for a foto of High Roller and her siblings with unique names in a post I did here over two years ago.  The dome is the Camden aquarium, where some float-through-and-over-anything hippos live.

Two weeks ago, these small craft bobbed resplendent in summery sunny, but now a storm that should be called stormy or squally or even super-tempestuous dulls their colors.

For now, get to high ground;  otherwise, batten ’em down.  Dog’em.  Double’em up.

All fotos today by Will Van Dorp.

Here’s some sixth boro area tempests of past years.  As I post this (1700 hrs), Queen Mary 2, Maersk Kentucky, and Yasa Golden Dardanel are among the last large vessels leaving boro6 for the safety of sea.

gCaptain comments on vessel heading counter-to-trend with paramount urgency . . .  here.