77 Days Between

 . . . signing onto the 6200-teu Maersk Detroit and stepping off at the end of a hitch, this post is inspired by a sixth boro mariner on a milk run.  Many thanks to Mike Weiss** for most of the photos.  It took him 77 days to get from Port Elizabeth back to Port Elizabeth.  Day 1 was back in early November. 

Yesterday I caught a few photos in the KVK of the vessel on the last few miles of a voyage mostly halfway around the world and back.

Mike, an AB, texted me their ETA into the KVK and  

in cold overcast morning I wore my conspicuous vest and waited

to see people on the aft mooring deck.

Welcome home, Mike. This is a timeless way to go so sea:  depart from your home and return to it. 

The following are some photos Mike took along the way, as in the Strait of Gibraltar just before calling at the port of Algeciras, 

Port Said at the aft mooring deck thousands of sea miles ago, 

entering the Suez Canal and heading under the Al-Salam Bridge (I think), and 

about to exit the Suez following . . . Ever Given [yes, really!!], 

getting an assist at Port Qasim, 

port of Salalah, 

and then homeward across the Atlantic to 

port of Houston, 

and port of Charleston, with many other sights that only Mike can tell about along the way. 

Many thanks to Mike Weiss for sharing these photos and his experiences.  If you didn’t click on the ** link in the first paragraph, you’ll be happy to do it here for some of Mike’s sea resume. 

Maersk Detroit is part of the US-flagged Maersk fleet. 

Ever Given has a big sister now here. 

 

 

Exotics 17

. . .I finally caught photos of Decisive, just a few hours ago, coming into the sixth boro.

Some of you may recognize the crewman with the orange hard hat.

Decisive is in the cable business . . . i.e., these are the cable guys.

Since I’m right against my post time, I’ll keep the text especially sparse.

As I understand it, Decisive is not laying on the project; rather, she’s retrieving old cable that was already laid and now obsolete.

It was worth waiting in the rain to see her arrive.

I’m hoping that anyone with more info can tell more about the ship and its current mission.

 

All photos, WVD.

 

Second Lives 22

Take a fishing trawler built in 1928 and converted to a minesweeper some 10 years later.  After the war, convert it into a North Sea freighter, which then crosses the Atlantic to Kingston NY, where the photo below was taken.  To digress, I recognize Matilda (click and scroll)  on the hard behind the freighter but have no information of the two tugs to the right.  The photo below comes thanks to Nobby Peers, who worked on the old freighter in the mid-1990s, and it changed the course of his life.

So you might wonder about the connection of the freighter to this barque in Vanuatu?   The next four photos come thanks to Mike Weiss.

Here’s the same barque at sea.

Ditto, the barque seen here of Mangareva in French Polynesia.

And the answer is . . . they are all the same hull!

And finally, here are three photos I took when Picton Castle was in the Hudson in May 2012.  Tomorrow morning she sails out of Lunenburg NS for a five-month voyage. 

She’s registered in the Cook Islands. 

 

Many thanks to Nobby and Mike for use of these photos.   Fair winds . . . Picton Castle.

And here, verbatim again, is my call for collaboration for November posts.  Thanks to those of you who have already responded.

“…I invite your help for November posts.  All month long I hope to feature different ports–harbors–waterways and their workboats, which means not only towing vessels, but also ferries, fish boats, maintenance vessels, even yachts with professional crews.  I’ve been traveling a lot the past few months and have a fairly large backlog of boats from ports–harbors–waterways mostly in New England.  But as a social medium, this blog thrives on collaboration, so no matter which waters are near you,  I’m inviting you to send along photos of workboats from ports I might not get to.  I’d need at least three interesting photos to warrant a focus on a port.  Here are examples I’ve already done that illustrate what I’m thinking to do.”

Wavertree to Caddell Dry Dock 2

This post shows the second leg of what felt like an epic journey, but first let’s back up about 10 minutes.  See the small blue vessel just off the bow of Wavertree?

It’s a King’s Point vessel, and leaning out of the house, it’s Capt. Jonathan Kabak, formerly master of Pioneer, Lettie G. Howard, and other vessels.

So let’s resume . . .  the tow travels west of Caddell and rounds up against the tide, ever so

gracefully–to my eyes–making its way to the dock.  Thomas J. Brown and later Rae working the port side.

it took a full quarter hour to spin Wavertree 180 degrees and inch it across the KVK, but then the heaving line flew, followed by the dock line.

Thomas J. and Rae worked this side in coordination with Pelham–invisible all this time from my perspective–on the starboard side.

almost all fast

Lots of money will be spent and sweat expended before the NEXT leg of the journey.

The 2001 (or earlier??) photo below comes from Mike Weiss, SSSM waterfront foreman.  It shows a more complete rig.

Also from Mike’s FB post, the photo below shows Wavertree in her Argentina barge days.  For the saga of Peter Stanford’s efforts to get this hull from Argentina to the sixth boro, read A Dream of Tall Ships starting from p. 221.  Actually, the whole book makes an excellent read.

All photos except the last two by Will Van Dorp, who is eager to see Wavertree‘s transformation in the year to come.

From gCaptain, here’s a good explanation of National Maritime Day, yesterday.