Small Craft 34

These small craft operate all year round in the sixth boro.  

I’ve seen at least two Clean Harbors boats in the harbor, 32 and maybe . . . 33. But the company is hardly local.  I once saw one of their trucks on the NY Thruway west of Syracuse.  Click here for the history of this Massachusetts headquartered business.  

 

Evidenced by the unique Donjon blue, Sea Explorer is one of the sixth boro company’s survey boats. Of course, Donjon certainly doesn’t operate only locally either.

Here the small boat was eastbound in the direction of the Sound. 

Miller’s Launch has a lot of boats, including a handful of launch boats like Nicholas Miller here. 

Axopar is a relatively new Finnish boat manufacturer.  These don’t appear to be work boats like all the others here, but they are certainly workboat design inspired.

Here are two 

separate boats I’ve seen in the boro of late. 

Maybe a reader can comment further about these boats. 

The first Axopar I saw half a decade ago on the Erie Canal . . . the last one here. 

NJ State Police has quite a fleet, but their website has not been updated to reflect the vessel below. 

Rounding out this post . . . this Billion Oyster project boat was round the Battery the other day. 

For more on the reefs restored in the sixth boro, click here. In. a few years, might the program be renamed the Trillion Oyster project?  Wasn’t it originally called the “million oyster” project?

All photos, WVD. 

 

Mixed Sixth Boro 2

Christy Anne is a small tug that I’ve not seen in 15 years!!  I posted it here, after seeing it in the Hackensack River, a place I see rarely.  Unrelated:  where are those buildings on the ridge in the distance?  Is there some Fata Morgana effect going on there?

With the placement of tire fendering fore and aft, I had the impression of an amphibious craft, the hull shaped around the tires almost like fenders on a flat-fender Jeep.  Here’s the late Fred “tug44“s post about the boat. 

When I saw this boat sailing in the other day, with its serious lines, I had to learn its story.  It’s Sparrow, an Open 50 racing sloop, preparing for the Global Solo Challenge. More on the boat here. 

 

Nicholas Miller, 33′ x 11′ crew boat, is picking up a pilot on the fly as

MSC Elodie, 980′ loa, comes into the harbor.  Nicholas matched the ship’s six-knot speed, sidled up, and stuck the rubber to the ship’s hull;  once the pilot was safely aboard, 

powered her way to overcome the physical forces and get away from the ship.

Ocean Venture is a purse seiner that comes through the boro periodically.. Some concern exists about the menhaden fishery.

She was possibly headed for her base on the Penobscot.

The seiner skiff helps deploy the purse  net.

What was curious, I thought, was that UConn’s 90′ loa Connecticut came in right behind Ocean Venture. 

 

As seems true a lot these days, I suspect there’s much more to the movements of these vessels

than I will ever know.  

All photos, WVD, who’s just being his customary curious.

Small Craft 31

Miller Boys . . .

Seatow’s Ralph, 

the 598,

with a work crew on and under the dock, 

Christina, 

Bobby G. Miller in the thick of it, 

 

Nicholas, 

Gaines, 

Jessica Ann, 

and Emily sidling up to Aitolos.  There are a lot of small work boats in the area, and a  lot of them are operated by Miller’s Launch.

All photos, WVD. 

 

Pilots 12

Stolt Tenacity came in the other cloudy day . . .

she appears on this blog for the first time, but what caught my attention was the small craft

that you can see more clearly here.

This is called “landing a pilot on the fly,”

a 30′ launch landing a pilot on a 600’+ vessel while under way…

All photos, WVD.

 

Small Craft 22

This will be a photo-rich post, starting with bridge workers currently at the Brooklyn side VZ tower, aka the former Fort Lafayette.

You might remember Michele Jean;  Christina is the replacement vessel.

Most small craft in the sixth boro work all year round, in either construction, hydrographic surveys,

boom handling, launch service,

law enforcement,

and more.  Some fishing takes place all year round although winter fishing employs different craft.

 

Fishing machines as below . . .  only from about April to October.

Annunziata is a fishing boat I see a lot on AIS, but this is my first time to confirm boat with name under way.

New York Media Boat has some of their vessels working all year round, but here’s a catch, a NY Media Boat RIB in front of the Hudson Yards endless staircase called the Vessel, parts of which appeared on this blog during construction.

Then, the red boat below with kayak on roof, that’s a summertime only boat for up here.

And let’s close with the boom handlers;  tankers and oil barges are boomed during some of their harbor operations, as a precaution in case of spillage.  All year round these small craft do their boom wrangling.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Combi Dock III & 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.