Combi Dock III and the Peking Saga 5

or . . . the final installment from the west side of the Atlantic .  .  .  and I’ll use (what I imagine as) NASA times here, but I’ll modify it from “t-minus” to “U–as in underway” minus and plus.

So, at U minus 53 minutes, there’s a man-basket dangling off the portside.

U minus 48 . . .  a crew boat arrives with the pilot.

U minus 37 . . .

the pilot boards Combi-Dock III,

U minus 9, the crew boat, Nicholas Miller,  departs  . . ., likely off to deliver three technicians departing Combi-Dock III.

Judging from when I first detected “under way – making way” from my vantage point, 1616, the photo below is U plus 11 minutes.  Movement at first was barely perceptible, gauged by watching juxtaposition of Peking masts and background features.

U plus 13.

U plus 14.  The traffic in the background will welcome me when I leave my station . . .  A note on the flags here:   the red one (below) is Hamburg’s flag, and the one high in the mast of Peking (next photo below) is that of Stiftung Hamburg Maritim (SHM).

And finally–I shifted my station about a mile to Camp Gateway, Staten Island . . .U plus 21.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Small Craft 15

Hats off to the small boats that work all year round . . . crew boats,

patrol boats,

fishing boats,

line boats,

pilot boats,

dive boats,

more fishing boats,

more crew boats,

government boats,

more —soon to face major cuts--government boats

more line and boom boats,

and here’s a special . . . a historic life boat, long atop Binghamton, which is still intact as far as I know, and a bit longer ago had

guys in hazmat suits doing the last ever lifeboat drill aboard the 112-year-old condemned ferry.

And finally, of course there’s the New York Media Boat. 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who gives a hat tip to all the crews in small boats on the big waters.

 

Random Ships 48

Random, but mostly a celebration of orange.  Click here and you’ll see how obsessive i’ve been about these juice tankers.  More even than about wine tankers, which I’ve no knowledge of ever seeing.  Milk tankers, you ask?  Well, if you mean the ones that travel from farm to processing/bottling plant, I’m familiar with them but no pics.

Shanghai Trader came in the same day.

Orange Sun, operated by Atlanship SA, was involved in an incident near here back in 2008.

Stealth Berana, here with Scott Turecamo and New Hampshire lightering, seems to have undergone a name-change recently.

Back to the juice tanker, it seems that fewer than a dozen of these vessels carry one-fourth of the world supply!

Here’s another shot of Caroline Oldendorff with ABC-1 at stern starboard quarter and Nicholas Miller passing along port.  Go, Nicholas.

Aleuropa is another operator of juice tankers.  Carlos Fischer is one of their vessels.

Zim Tarragona is named for an ancient port.

A juice tanker called Southern Juice was renamed to the last three letters of its name  “ICE” for its trip to Bangladesh breakers beach.  See the story here on p. 19/20.

The salt bulker Aghia Skepi is named for a Greek Orthodox holy day.

Finally, Orange Sun  . . . you’d think it would have an orange hull, like the Staten Island ferry in the background, right?

 

All photos of the sixth boro activities by Will Van Dorp.

L’Hermione Arrives in the Sixth Boro

Back in March, I posted these photos taken by Xtian Herrou.  Xtian . ..  today I return the favor.  Tomorrow too.

Pilot arrives at L’Hermione

BZH-Association of Bretons in NY greet L’Hermione

Tricoleur is hosted at the stern.

Gunners prepare the guns for the salute.

Hands hook the anchor ring for further hoisting.

 

Hands on the wheel

L’Hermione enters the Narrows and passes Fort Wadsworth

James Turecamo delivers a docking pilot just off the French Statue.

 

And I’ll pick up the story here tomorrow.  Many thanks to Bjoern Kils and the NYMedia Boat for a fun ride.  After a night of thunderstorms and rain, daybreak brought blue skies and sunshine.  All photos by Will Van Dorp.   Also, merci Lafayette!

Zhen Hua 10 Again

As day broke, the fog descended.  Here was Zhen Hua 10 right outside the Narrows around 0700.

Marie J. Turecamo stood by.

Nicholas Miller ferried out . . . crew?   . . . materials?

Here’s how the bridge looked by 0720.  i had to do some work, and when I

returned at 1030 . . . the bridge looked like this and Zhen Hua 10 and  escorts looked like

this.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.   Here’s the Shanghai-based company site.