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I’d seen Ocean Tower on AIS earlier and watched it pass along with its tow, but I was focused on something else, so this was my best shot. I had caught its reddish color, the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock color.
Phil Little caught this photo from his Weehawken cliff. I believe the tow had gone up the North River to wait for a favorable time through Hell Gate on the other side of the island.
Later in the day I got a query from Lew. This was the closest he could get from his vantage point, and he wondered what that gargantuan crane was.
I concluded I should contact my friend Nelson Brace, whose photos of Cape Cod Canal transits I always found spectacular. Nelson told me he works with a group called ‘Photogs Я Us’ . They even have a FB page that’s a “must-see” if you do FB.
And here’s the close-up of the dredge from ‘Photogs Я Us’ … It’s the dredge New York. I’m not sure where she has more recently been working, but she’s currently heading for Boston, where the harbor channel deepening process is on.
Her bucket can dig down to 83′ down and take up to 25 cubic yds of material.
Many thanks to the fine photographers of ‘Photogs Я Us’ for these closeups.
Also to Phil and Lew for contacting me.
I recall when GLDD’s New York was operating in the sixth boro, deepening the channels here and here. Also, she was passively involved in an incident some of you may recall as well. Below are more photos I took of dredge New York working just NW of the Staten Island Ferry terminal in fall 2010.
Captain D is the assist boat. These photos show the role of the derrick over the Liebherr 996.
Here’s a crowded dredge zone.
Here’s the USACE on the project in Boston.
Many thanks to Phil Little, who took these from his socially-distanced perch high atop the Weehawken cliff . . . I had thought to go out, but I didn’t want to get swarmed by “social-approachers.” An alternative title here could be “Comfort Departs.” I like the blue/white sign on the building off the starboard side of the ship: “Thank you essential and health-care workers . . . .”
If I see accurately, it’s Ava, Capt. Brian, and Marjorie that see her out. As Phil writes, “Conditions: slack tide, wind 10-15 ESE, temp 53 deg.F. Looked like they had to nudge her around a bit into the wind, before she got underway!”
And so she got underway, exactly a month after arriving.
The closest I could find to an accounting is here from Mike Schuler at gCaptain: “While in New York, medical personnel treated 182 patients of which 70% were COVID-19 positive. More than 110 surgical procedures, 540 x-rays and CT-scans, and 1,300 intravenous and oral medications were performed, according the U.S. Navy. ”
Many thanks, Phil. Many thanks to crew of USNS Comfort.
And tomorrow, we begin our virtual canal tour of the western portion the NYS Canal system. And thanks to a friend who pointed this out on a NYS blog a short time ago, a fascinating and profusely illustrated article about the impact of the 1872 horse epidemic on the economy and the Erie Canal.
Social distancing . . . we hope it’s playing a role in defeating the spread of infection, so it’s not really true that we’re going stir crazy; instead, we do good by limiting travel and seeing this time as a godsend, an opportunity to face long-postponed tasks. So for the near future, we’ll be posting from the archives and soliciting –ster posts. Got any?
These and this text from Phil Little, who has a most ideal porch view, right across from the Manhattan Passenger Terminal. Phil’s sentiments are inside quotation marks.
“Cranester? I took a series of shots from the balcony here in June 2016 of a tower crane boom extension being installed at 899 Avenue in Port Imperial NJ. Not exactly 6th Boro, but if they dropped it, that’s where it would be! The pics are pretty much self explanatory. Those guys obviously don’t have acrophobia.” If you want to know all about a tower crane, getting to the cab and operating the crane, click here.
1. “Picking up the assembled section.” Notice the triangular Via 57, which some call a pyramid on the Hudson, others call a hyperbolic paraboloid. It’s 57 because it’s on 57th Street.
2. “Here she comes! Get ready!”
3. “Pin A goes in Tab B….I think!”
4. “Ok! Got her hung!”
5. “Everybody always gets together after the job for a beer or two!” Uh, Phil, I don’t think that’s beer.
Many thanks to Phil Little for these photos.
Hats off for the folks doing essential work. Stay healthy.
Related: tugster posts focusing on cranes can be found here. Also, if you’re not familiar with NYC and its ferries, NY Waterways, whose boats you see in some of these photos, IS an interesting story, a ferry company created by a trucking magnate… a 20th-century version of Vanderbilt, who was a ferry magnate who created a railroad network.
And here’s a virtual tour you can sign up for and take from anywhere in the world: Wartime Production in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I plan to take it. Here are more.
I could also call this “other peoples photos” but here is yesterday’s arrival of the hospital ship as seen from three friends’ perspectives.
Phil Little took this, and referred to it as his Normandy landing shot, an appropriate name given that this asset, arriving with a large support group, marks a surge, a counteroffensive against the invisible foe. Note that the top of WTC1 is obscured, as is most of the VZ Bridge, center right.
To reiterate, Comfort‘s 1000 beds and 12 operating rooms will take overflow from other hospitals, overflow of NON-covid-19 patients. Click here for much more info on the ship, medical facilities and operating life. Click here for video of the hospital ship arriving.
The flotilla is almost to her berth, here passing Hudson Yards.
Renee Lutz Stanley took this one from a pier south of Intrepid while trying very hard to practice social distancing.
Phil calls this the “turn-in.”
This last two come from David Silver, taken looking south.
Cruise ships and hospital ship are roughly the same color, but that color gives a profoundly different impression in each. Comfort with its relatively few “port holes” and glass is a place of intensive inward examination, a place apart, one hopes, for healing.
Many thanks to Phil, Renee, and David for use of these photos. Please do continue social distancing and hand-washing.
A top hat tip to my eagle eyed collaborators in and around the sixth boro . . .
Here are previous “big one” posts.
See those marking on the base portion of that vertical structure behind the RV?
this is a mighty high-reaching crane base painted like a giraffe’s neck. It’s actually a perfect paint job for these amazing lifts.
Painters in a second lift are applying the giraffe-camouflage. I wonder where this large faux giraffe will raise its neck? Anyone know?
Remember this surprising “cruise ship giraffe”?
And speaking of cruise ships–and more in that photo–behold from the cliffs of NJ . . . Norwegian Encore, a brand spanking new cruise ship. Christening will be later this month in Miami. She has about 6000 beds.
What else I see down there is Chandra B, USCGC Campbell, and a bunker barge accompanied by Fort McHenry.
Many thanks to Tony Acabono and Phil Little for these photos.
The first photos here comes from John Jedrlinic, who took the one immediately below in Norfolk in August. So far as I know, Julie Anne has not yet seen the sixth boro.
I’m also not sure A. J. McAllister has seen the sixth boro. Believe it or not, A. J. dates from 2003, built in Panama City, FL. Jed snapped this shot as she passed USS Bulkely. Unknowable from the Oct. 16, 2015 photo, the tight light on A. J. was attached to bulker New Spirit.
Can you guess this one?
It’s a nicely tidied up Quenames, New England bound.
Charles A has been in the harbor since at least this summer.
Coming in out of the rising sun, it’s Marie J. Turecamo and Kirby Moran.
And headed in that direction, it’s Elizabeth McAllister.
Now let’s size down . . . Robbins Reef is 42.4 ‘ loa,
Helen Paker is 39′,
and Ava Jude is 25′ . . .
This last photo I can’t identify, although I count at least four crew. Photo comes thanks to Phil Little.
Thanks to Jed and Phil for the first and last photos here; all the others are by Will Van Dorp.
Photo thanks to John Skelson . . . it’s not a bird . . . it’s not a plane . . . it’s NY Media Boat, one of the recent recipients of the Life Saving Award from the Marine Society of New York for a February 2014 rescue from a sinking tugboat.
So . . . what might you see on a customized adventure sightseeing tour of the sixth boro aboard NY Media Boat? Well . . . if you’re interested in fireboats or firehouses . . . they’re near their Pier 25 pick up site.
A bit farther north . . . you can see Chelsea Market or Pier 66 Maritime from the water, a perspective quite different from experiencing either of them by land.
You never know what private boats might be docked at the passenger terminal . . . this one obviously wanting proximity to
the car wash. Thanks to Phil Little for this unique perspective from the cliff at Weehawken.
You can see the newest NYC scalloper port. F/V Endurance was back there yesterday.
If Alice is in town, you can meet her up and personal. Alice Oldendorff, aggregate carrier, was the focus of the very first tugster post over seven years ago, as well as many since. Use the search window.
The East River offers unusual juxtapositions . .. like the UN and the WTC.
You might see remnants of industrial Brooklyn riverfront like Havermeyer’s sugar mill, or
demolition happening to IER 17.
You can see classic architectural icons of NYC like the 1929 Chrysler Building or
1976 tramway. But if you’re like me, you’ll be hoping for
unexpected sailing vessels like Halie & Matthew or all manner of work boats like
Long Island built Maryland.
How about the “interior” side of Red Hook Container Terminal?
Of course, then there’s nothing that beats close-ups of wherever you want on the sixth boro by open boat. Book a tour here. By the way, the boat offers warm, waterproof gear and PFDs.
Here’s an article on Bjoern Kils and the boat from a publication of Willard Marine, manufacturer of the boat, which formerly lived on a US destroyer. Also, here are some recent NY Media Boat clients.
All photos here by Will Van Dorp, except the delightful one of the private boat at the car wash by Phil Little and the lead photo by John Skelson. Thank, Phil.
Rumor has it that there’s an event in town this weekend . . . and this is temporary housing that’s been made available . . . . Pete Genovese of the Star-Ledger got an invite to a racy party, but somehow tugster’s invite got lost in the mail? Bravo, Pete.
Oh well . . . these fotos of the two 146,000 ton identical ships in the same place at the same time are special enough. Many thanks to Phil Little for these. And as of this writing, Breakaway
has already left nearly 24 hours ago.
Getaway leaves after the weekend. Click here for some views behind the scenes of this nearly-4000 passenger vessel.
Again . . thanks much Phil for these views. Maybe next time there’s a big water-borne bash in town we’ll get invites too.
Many thanks to Bjoern Kils of nymediaboat.com for use of this foto. Check out Bjoern’s website here.
And many thanks to Phil Little for the rest of these shots. I’m certain Phil won’t object to sharing the text that accompanied these fotos, as it too captures the moment:
“I went to the viewing site today at 8:30 am, and saw the tow pass under the VN Bridge at about 9:00. I checked in with the Thruway person, and had no trouble with acceptance of my Tugster credentials (my honest face!) The Lauren Foss stopped out in the middle of the bay to drop the wire, and two other tugs took it “on the hip”, arranged along its (boom facing aft) port side, the Weeks Elizabeth at the front and an iced-up unknown tug (Iver Foss?)at the after end position. Lauren Foss stood by like an anxious parent. It was awesome to see these tugs then guide the Lifter in toward the Cruise Ship dock, and turn it with precision into the near-shore channel, proceeding northwest toward the Weeks yard. It glided along in front of in front of us, not 100 feet away, aboard the royal barge, the mighty King of Cranes! They swung into the final turn toward Weeks, against the backdrop of the new Freedom Tower and the Statue of Liberty. In the yard, waiting, it looked for all the world like a huge flock of red and white-necked herons were about to welcome this strange new powerful creature who would lead them in plucking prizes out of the Hudson! What a show!”
As of this writing, I believe the two Foss tugs are refueling, resupplying, and possibly re-crewing . . . in preparation to return to sea for the next job.
Bjoern and Phil . . . thanks much.
tugster: a waterblog 
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