Winter Solstice 2021

Winter solstice is one date I pay attention to, and yesterday demanded an undivided portion of it.  I was out on the sixth and primordial boro at sunrise, although when it rose, a gauzy film of stratus filtered the light.  I tinkered with the image a bit to enhance the cosmic eeriness.

Along the Brooklyn shore a classic barque and one of the latest of a classic line awaited.

Notice two tugboats and a lighthouse below?  One tug is shifting a fuel barge, and the other is shifting refuse boxes.

Start of winter or start of summer, the sixth boro is always a busy place.  Notice the fishing boat in this image, along with all the rest?

For some reason, these E-2C aircraft flew the North River up and then down and out over the Lower Bay.

Dutch Girl, a winter regular along with Eastern Welder, was hard at work.

Ava M. crossed the Bay from one job to the next.  Things are always happening on the water.

And all that’s glorious, but less than a quarter mile from the North River, not all seems to be happening well, and that needs to be acknowledged.

All photos, WVD.

 

Random Tugs 346

I’m on a short gallivant, but I have no shortage of sixth boro photos, mostly of tugboats engaged in commerce.  Sometimes I look for meetings, and interesting (how ever that’s defined)  ones are best.   Like here…. Kristin and Kimberly,

B. Franklin and Dylan Cooper,

Mary H and Joyce,

Reinauer Twins and Pokomoke,

R/V Ocean Researcher (a multirole survey vessel [aka an exotic] for the offshore energy sector) and Emery Zidell,

 

and Fort McHenry and Philadelphia.

 Then sometimes there are more than two at a time that can be framed in a shot, like here, Elk River, Paula Atwell, Chem Bulldog, Kirby, and B. Franklin . . .

More Bulldog soon.  All photos yesterday, WVD.

Random Tugs 318

Name that tug?  She’s 91.5′ x 26.8′ and used to be called Traveller.  Answer follows.

Part of a defacto ghost fleet around the sixth boro, it’s J. George Betz, and mostly invisible beyond, Rhea I. Bouchard. J. George is longer, stronger, and newer.

Also in the dry dock a week or so back, it’s Emily Ann.  My favorite story of this tug dates from a time she was called Cabo Rojo.

Lincoln Sea  was featured in my second ever tugster post, back in November 2006.   In the background, that looks to be Mount St. Elias. 

I usually see Captain D alongside a DUP barge, but behold, in good light, she’s light.   That’s my acronym, DUP.

Ditto . . .  Robert Burton.

Ruth M. Reinauer was just a year old when it appeared here in 2009.  Ruth is 112.9′ x 35′.

Ellen McAllister . . . what more can I add to what I’ve written already about this former USN YTB.   I know three of her dozen or so siblings, ex-USN YTBs, include Robert E.,  Timothy, and Stacy.

Miriam and Doris Moran follow along a ship, ready to put their force where needed when needed.

More fleetmates to Captain D and Robert Burton above, it’s Paula Atwell and Pathfinder . . . all unusually light.

And finally . . . that tug in the top photo . .  it’s Marie J. Turecamo.

All photos, WVD.

Names 42

Today’s post will have low verbal density, but I could not pass up noting the arrival of a vessel named Captain Haddock, especially since it’s a bulk carrier with a salt cargo, not a fishing boat.

This is just a hint; it is a container vessel but with many refrigerated plug ins, it might just be transporting some citrus.

 

No comment.

Put rail on water and you’ll see graffiti.

 

Let’s end this post with more context on Captain Haddock.

All photos, WVD.  Stay healthy.

From the Line Locker 26

It’s been a while since I used this miscellaneous title; in fact, it appeared not at all in 2019.

Montreal awards the gold-headed cane, and the Welland Canal’s Port Colborne offers a beaver fur top hat, each a recognition of a maritime first at the start of the calendar year, but the sixth boro has no such ritual that I know of.

So here’s mine . . . I was not here for the first few days of 2020, but at daybreak on January 4 I was at the Narrows for daybreak, and this was the first vessel passing under the VZ Bridge that I recorded.  So Bravo to Paula Atwell,

NTC 1503, and crew.  You perform an invaluable role in the city.

Should there be some harbor recognition of the new year?  Besides Montreal and Port Colborne, are there others?

Also, when I had a good look at Barry Silverton the other day, it occurred to me that it used to look different.  As recently as January 2018, it looked different and seemed to have more flash.

Here’s a photo from over two years ago.  See the difference?  When did it change, and how did I miss it . . .

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wonders now what else I’ve missed.

 

Random Tugs 276

I took this photo after dawn, technically, and what detail of tug James D Moran is lost because of low light is somewhat compensated for by the lights of the boats and on the Brooklyn background.

Ditto . . . a few minutes later, the lights are dramatic as James D passes the illuminated IMTT facility.

Evelyn Cutler passed a bit later;  light was still low from an overcast sky.

JRT Moran heads back to base, the sky is still overcast, wind brisk, and standing around taking photos was cold.

Paula Atwell is quite common here, but usually the boat is obscured by the containerized garbage she pushes.

Navigator passed with her barge . . .  and the sun I’d wished for was still not forthcoming.

Barry Silverton . . . pushing a deeply-loaded Fight ALS toward the Sound.  Here’s a document I’d never seen in its entirety explaining the Harley “naming” project.  It turns out that Mr. Silverton was a victim of ALS.  What I thought was a one-off vessel naming is actually a fleet-wide enterprise.  For example, Dr. Milton Waner is named for a pioneer in the treating of hemangiomas.

Franklin Reinauer, passing Nave Ariadne, has operated with that name–I believe–since she first came off the ways.

Marjorie B McAllister waits alongside New Ability to assist an incoming container vessel.

which Capt Brian A. McAllister is already assisting.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who at this point had the luxury of having some indoor work to attend to while warming up.

Random Tugs 251

Here’s a different perspective on the sixth boro, different from my more usual ones.  And in this morning light, Sarah Ann looks like a beauty as she heads somewhere past Robbins Reef Light and

well . . . along that island.

Let’s continue trying to get some different POVs.  Patricia has some fine lines here accentuated by the low light of dawn.

Elk River and Hunting Creek pass, with missions in opposite directions.

Evelyn Cutler moves product for somewhere up the North River.

Paula Atwell moves garbage containers past an incoming green new shipment, and

Julie Anne, a new one for me in the sixth boro although I have posted a “down south” photo of her here, moves a scow up toward the Passaic River.  Notice that until I got to the Norfolk tugs, there were no tugs with even a drip of red paint on them in this post?

And finally, Brian Nicholas is neither a huge nor a small tug, 72′ loa, but as she passes the stern of CMA CGM Nabucco, she

looks almost like a toy.  My first reaction was excitement  . ..  erroneously thinking I’d see either the elusive  Susan E. or Elizabeth Anna.  But don’t get me wrong, greetings to Brian Nicholas!

All photos and sentiments here the product of and/or the opinion of Will Van Dorp.

 

 

Random Tugs 233

It’s been a few months to do a sixth-boro look around here.  Of course it’s never the same.  Never. Not even from one day to the next.  Let’s start with Weeks tug Elizabeth.  If I’m not mistaken, this machine’s carried that name ever since it was launched in 1984.

James William has been a regular in the sixth boro the past five years or so, but she started  as a Moran tug in 2007.   Note the eerie fog around the base of the Staten Island-side bridge tower.

Choptank [which the pesky auto-correct insists should be spelled Shoptalk] passes in the foreground;  Mary H in the distance. Choptank is back from several years in the Caribbean.

Paula Atwell is almost 20 years old, having started out as Crosby Express.

Northstar Integrity . . . quite the mouthful of syllables . . . seemed an unknown to me, until I realized I knew her as Petrel . . .

Not long ago I caught Marjorie at work on the Hudson down bound.

Mary Gellatly emerges from the fog.

Evening Star rests B. No. 250 at anchor with Brooklyn in the background.

Mister T heads for the mooring . . .

All sixth boro photos by Will Van Dorp, who has a backlog of so many collaboration photos that I might be alternating much-appreciated “other peoples photos” posts for a while.