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June 2012 was pivotal for me. A photo sent along by a friend alerted me to Canal commerce–Canadian corn– entering the US at Oswego, a place I knew something of from my youth.
If that was a spark, then the breeze that fanned it was an invitation to do my trial article for Professional Mariner magazine, which led me to Kingston NY, the mouth of the Rondout, and a project involving use of a half century old tug Cornell to do TOAR signoffs. My most recent article in the magazine came out today and can be seen here.
On that assignment, I was privileged to have a mentor, Brian Gauvin, do the photography.
Other big events for June 2012 included the movement of shuttle Enterprise from JFK airport ,
ultimately to the Intrepid Museum to be
hoisted onto the flight deck as part of the display, now covered.
My daughter went off to Brasil (again) and the Amazon, leading me to go there myself a year later, fearing she’d never return because she loved it so much there.
I’d given her a camera before she went, and was rewarded with some quite interesting photos, like these small motor boats that looked almost like slippers …
with straight shafts coming straight out of air-cooled engines.
During my trip up to the Rondout, I stopped in Newburgh, where replicas of La Niña and Pinta, crafted using traditional techniques on the Una River in Bahia, Brasil, attracted crowds, one of many stops along the great loop route.
Other festivities on the Hudson that summer . . .
included the sails and music associated with the Clearwater Festival, and of course the small boats moving in some of the venues.
Patty Nolan and Augie were the small tugs, and of course the sailboats including Mystic Whaler, Woody Guthrie,
and of course the sloop Clearwater. The Clearwater organization will not be doing a music festival in June 2022. Mystic Whaler is now working in Oxnard CA at the Channel Islands Museum.
Summer time and the living is easy well, at least it feels that way some days . . . .
All photos, except the first one, WVD. That first photo was taken by Allan H. Seymour.
This is the last Roundup I’ve attended. Here’s another shot from the swim platform, where I’m flat on my belly. That’s Mike Byrnes, last year’s “old man of the sea” at the portside of the wheelhouse.
Downbound in the Federal lock, it’s Waterford, Governor Cleveland, and Tender #3.
On the northbound trip, the two smaller tugs fell in alongside Grand Erie. Grand Erie is a 1951 build that first worked for the USACE in the Mississippi system.
Tug Buffalo heads for its berth beyond Pennsy 399 and Lehigh Valley #79, where
David Sharps bugle greets each vessel as it passes.
Lisa Ann was a newcomer that year, I believe. She was built at Marine Inland Fabricators, where the “new” canal tugs like Port Jackson have also been built.
Another newbie in 2015 was Solar Sal, a solar powered newbuild that actually transported cargo later in the season. Like Ceres the year before, these are prototypes, and like Ceres, Solar Sal transported this cargo.
Ever so salty, it’s Ben Grudinskas, captain and builder of Atlantic Hunter.
Here Atlantic Hunter faces off against the mighty Tender #3. By the way, Tender #3 is 43′ x 10′ and came off the ways in 1926!! 1926 . . . . 94 years ago.
It’s currently powered by a 220 hp Detroit Diesel.
In closing, the land activities include line toss, open to all comers, but won by the pros. I failed at the 15′ mark.
And I’ve not attended the Roundup since 2015, but unless I’m employed and on duty, I hope to make the 2021.
2014 was the year I was working on Urger. Here she’s tied up above lock E-2 while Bejamin Elliot steams by, downbound.
Some time later we’d all steamed down to Albany, here (l to r), it’s a Lord Nelson Victory tug yacht, a tender, and C. L. Churchill, a 1964 boat built in Cohasset MA. Chuchill is the tug that serves to move the 1862 replica canal schooner Lois McClure.
The parade here is moving northbound along the Troy wall…
and here above the Federal lock bound for the left turn at Waterford . . . into the canal. The photo below is credited to Jeff Anzevino, and you’ll see your narrator standing along the portside of the wheelhouse.
In 2014, the documentary by Gary Kane and myself was screened in the Pennsy 399 barge to enthusiastic roundup attendees.
Ceres, the cargo schooner was making one of its trips from Lake Champlain to the sixth boro. Unfortunately, that endeavor has folded. As of July 2020, the plan was to convert Ceres into a tiny home. Details can be found at FB under The Vermont Sail Freight Project.
The official Sunday culmination of the Round involves prizes. Churchill and McClure were the official vessels of 2014, and the
old man of the sea award went to my former crewmate, Mike Byrnes, here being awarded by Roundup director, Tom Beardsley.
All photos, WVD.
…aka backwards to Montreal, reprising the trip in reverse order before I return there, which I’ll do in a little over a week.
We departed the Rondout in late afternoon, bound for the sixth boro. It’s always interesting to see what floats near the mouth of the Creek . . . as an example the former Floating Hospital! I don’t know the current owner of this vessel.
Not floating, but splashing and gamboling about . . . these critters of God’s pastures seemed thrilled by the weather and fresh water.
Spooky is still there . . . weathered a tad.
Another deer arrived.
Gowanus Bay still floats there.
Deer checked their 12 and their 6.
EliseAnn Conners (built in 1881!!!) and the Pennsy … 399 Barge still waited.
So was the repurposed 1963 Belgian cargo motor barge now called Sojourn. . . in in the town of Sojourner!
So it all was under the watchful eye of a somewhat camouflaged guardian.
All photos upriver by Will Van Dorp, who did this first post on the Creek back now over a decade ago.
For reasons you’ll find at the end of this post, I’ve held these fotos in reserve since last June. Any ideas what’s going on with . . . an apparently empty 70-year-old covered barge floating in the river with a bridge in the distance and some fibers in lower left corner.
Well, some crew are aboard, Joe and Paul on radio, as the transition to alongside towing is initiated. That’s Rhinecliff, NY in the background here.
It’s a demonstration of skills day for certification purposes. That’s my friend Brian taking fotos, and Matt Perricone, owner of tugboat Cornell making up the tow once that free-floating barge is alongside. Here’s the official Cornell site.
To document the day, we shoot from a variety of locations and
angles. This angle I call “elbows in water.”
And this is how to “make up on the nose.”
Designted examiner Sam Zapadinsky of Diamond Marine Services looks on as light boat is maneuvered to a dock in confined river space.
With the barge on the nose of Cornell, it’s time to head back inot the Creek.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp last June. Here’s the rest of the story . . . and note the byline.
Unrelated: Here’s a foto of a scene I missed: Allie B towing dredge Columbia southbound on the Hudson recently. The link tells some interesting previous lives of the dredger.
The event is called Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival, so indeed, it’s a water festival, a river fest started by a folksinger, now 93, who cares deeply about
the river that flowed past his birthplace. A river festival means boats.
Of course, Clearwater in the distance is the flagship of this festival, and the big sloop spawned the smaller sloop Woodie Guthrie closer in.
The festival takes place on a peninsula where you see the tents in the middle of the foto.
It’s called Croton Point Park, about 30 miles north of Manhattan’s north tip.
But this location is surrounded by shallow water, so temporary docks are needed, which means small shallow draft tugboats like Augie (1943 and on the first job of her new life) and
Patty Nolan (1931 and available for charter). . . And the red barge is Pennsy 399 (1942!!) .
Also taking passengers during the festival is Mystic Whaler, here with Hook Mountain in the distance.
Here’s the northside of Croton Point last evening looking toward Haverstraw.
Exactly five years ago I took this foto from a small boat just off Pioneer‘s bowsprit. Here are more fotos from that day.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who might go back for some music tomorrow.
Jeff Anzevino posted these shots of fotorazzi extraordinaire atop tug44 on his picasa page about the Waterford Tug RoundUp. Jeff is giving a slide show in White Plains on Sept 15 (That’s THIS Monday) at the “Color Camera Club.” For directions and program, click here. According to Jeff, his show will feature aerials of the Hudson River (Yonkers north to Columbia County), tugspotting photos he’s made over the past decade, and brand new NYC and Waterford fest photos.
I’m glad Jeff’s didn’t capture my expression just after Fred sounded his airhorns and I almost thought to dive for safety into the Hudson.
Below, inside a Hudson River barge below, Jack Casey debuted rousing songs from his play called “The Trial of Bat Shea,” to be performed in Troy, NY, on Sept 19, 20. For more info, scroll through the Renssalaer County Historical Society site. Deft musicianship, rousing then haunting lyrics, unflinching emotional presence . . . that’s how I’d describe the pieces Jack played in the barge. “… Bat Shea” tells a true story of a rigged election, unjust murder conviction, and callous execution of a man known to be innocent. And Jack . . . hope you make a CD soon.
Also, coming up soon, it’s Riverkeeper’s NY Waterfest . . . a celebration of the sixth boro as a place to play and work. Sept 28: 3rd annual Waterfest in New York City’s Battery Park City. A day dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of the Hudson River to New York’s history, commerce, arts, and culture, as well as the sources of and threats to NYC’s drinking water supply. Speakers, water sports, hands on activities for all ages, a green village and more!
tugster: a waterblog 
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