Sound Ferries 1

New London with bow ramp open here . . . has to be the fastest and one of the cleanest boat for Cross Sound Ferry (CSF).  I mean cleanest burning,  with its recently added Tier 3 Cummins power.  She was CSF’s first new build, coming off the ways in New London in 1979.

What I like about New London is the design allows a passenger to see over the vehicles at the wake, vehicles oriented toward the stern

or the bow.

John H, the largest CSF  vessel, was built for the company in 1989.

She has the capacity of 100 vehicles and 1000 passengers.

Mary Ellen was in 1983 by Offshore Shipbuilding in Palatka Florida as Grand Republic for the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry (BPPF).  That fleet will be next when I post more on ferries on Long Island Sound.

Once loaded at Orient Point NY, she backs out of the rack while lowering the bow ramp.  In that she reminds me of Badger, although there, it’s the stern ramp that lowers upon departure.

I did several trips on BPPJ ferries back in 2000 as I shifted domicile from MA to NY, so I’m guessing I rode or saw this vessel ass Grand Republic at that time.

Caribbean Ferry is called that because she originally worked in the Caribbean after coming off the ways at Blount in the 1970s.

And until I get photos of the remaining CSF boats, we’ll end here with the most distinguished, Cape Henlopen, launched in 1943 as USS Buncombe County (LST-510) from Jeffersonville Boat and Machine Company.  In early 1944 as an LST, she departed NYC for a convoy crossing over to Europe, where she took part in the D-Day landings.  Subsequent to the end of WW2, she worked as a ferry crossing the Chesapeake Bay, then Delaware Bay, before coming to CSF in 1983.  She also operates with Tier 3 engines at this point.  That’s the light on Little Gull Island in the distance.

One goal I’ve set for the nearer future is to ride or at least see all the other CSF boats.

All photos, WVD.

Mary Ellen

Any guesses?  It’s a view I’d never seen until a last-minute arrival on the ferry set me up to be the very last car to debark.  The afternoon light wafting into the cargo space was a treat.

Here she is in profile departing New London.

built 1983, major renovation in 2003

 

In the right light, she’s a beauty.  Notice the low profile of the North Fork of Long Island along the horizon to the right below.

Just to the left of the stack, that’s Cape Henlopen, ex-LST 510.

 

Finally, another shot of the empty cargo deck.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Three Hours on the Sound

This follows the post where I got to spend four times as long on Long Island Sound, a truly remarkable place.  The trip last week brought sights and surprises enough to warrant a repeat trip soon.  Here, a bait boat (?) passes a renowned Plum Island facility.  Back to this later in the post.

We’re headed to New London, the name of this RORO/WOWO.

Here Marjorie McAllister tows RTC 60 past Little Gull Light.

The only house on Hobbs Island in Groton needed to have a story, and I found one when I learned it was built by the Hays family, who wrote this book a friend gave me for my 45th birthday.

Here Mary Ellen departs New London for Orient Point, passing New London Light.

Amistad awaits, for sale at the dock.

Sea Jet  . . . takes on passengers for Block Island, a place I need to visit soon.

Since our destination was Blount for the wind farm vessel ribbon cutting, I wanted to get a photo of the newly launched replacement for Capt. Log.   Click here to see the plans and specs.

Chandra B, coming to the sixth boro soon.

At the dock just south of the I-95 bridge, it’s 100′ scalloper Chief, also for sale.

Electric Boat 2 does patrols around the pens,

which enclose a submarine.  Now look closely at the tail vertical stabilizer.  Now look at the one in this “news” story about a submarine getting stuck in Shinnecock Canal.  If not the same sub, then it’s at least the same type.

But if you start thinking about it, Dan’s is having way too much fun.  This story and this one are clearly boaxes, spoofs about boats.  When I heard the story about Shinecock, I thought maybe the Hamptons PD had gotten ahold of this one, which I spotted on the North fork just a few summer months ago.

Heading back across to Orient Point, you can line up New London Ledge Light with Race Rock Light, in the distance.   Tours for Ledge are available in the summer, when the ghost is around.

On a leg between Newport and Oyster Bay, it’s Knickerbocker, Wisconsin-built by a shipyard that started out doing fish tugs!  If you’re not familiar with fish tugs–of which Urger was one–go to Harvey Hadland‘s site.

Now here, back near Plum Island, is a surprise.  I figured it was a fishing party boat, but Justin suggested otherwise, and indeed he was right.  M. S. Shahan II IS a government boat, owned by Department of Homeland Security!!

And a final shot of Plum Island just before we return to the Orient Point dock, of course, it’s Cape Henlopen, former USS LST 510. 

 

By the way, I am still looking for folks with connection to this vessel as LST-510.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp.