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I’m back and just in time for the last day of the year, which –as explained in previous years— in my Dutch tradition is a reflection day, a time to if not assess then at least recall some of the sights of the past 12 months. A photo-driven blog makes that simultaneously easy and hard; easy because there’s a photographic record and not easy because there’s such an extensive photographic record to sift though.
A word about this set of photos: these are some “seconds” that did not make the final cut for my 2023 tugster calendar. The actual calendars are still available if you’ve not ordered one; find the order info here. I’m ordering a bunch myself.
One windy day last January I caught a Pilot No 1–the old New York–doing drills under the VZ Bridge. Just recently I met one of the engineers on that boat, a person with epic stories about the sixth boro.
A warm day in February, I caught JRT Moran assisting QM2 into her Red Hook berth.
March I spent a delightful day on Douglas B. Mackie observing the water side of a Jersey shore beach replenishment project, thanks to the hard-working folks at GLDD.
April . . . I caught Jane McAllister heading out; correct if I’m wrong, but my sense is that soon afterward she made her way down to South America to join the expanding ranks of US-built tugs working on various projects on the south side of the Caribbean.
As a member of the Canal Society of NYS, I had the opportunity to see Urger up close and sun-warmed on the bank of the Oswego in Lysander NY.
A clutch of Centerline tugboats waited for their next assignment at the base just east of the Bayonne Bridge. Note the fully foliated trees beyond them along the KVK.
From the humid heat of western Louisiana and onto the Gulf of Mexico, Legs III–shown
here spudded up just east of SW Pass, afforded a memorable journey on its way up to the sixth boro. Thx, Seth.
Back in the boro, later in August, a Space X rocket recovery boat named Bob–for an astronaut– came through the sixth boro. More on Bob–the astronaut–here.
In September, I finally got to my first ever Gloucester schooner race, thanks to Rick Miles of Artemis, the sailboat and not the rocket.
Icebreaker Polar Circle was in the boro a few days in September as well. Now it’s up in Canada, one hopes doing what icebreakers are intended to do. US naval logistics vessel Cape Wrath is at the dock in Baltimore ready and waiting a logistics assignment.
Ticonderoga certainly and Apache possibly are beyond their time working and waiting. I believe Ticonderoga is at the scrappers in Brownsville.
Passing the UN building on the East River, veteran Mulberry is currently out of the army and working in the private sector. I’ve a request: for some time I’ve seen a tug marked as Scholarie working the waters west of the Cape Cod Canal; a photo suggested it might be called Schoharie. Anyone help out?
And finally, a photo taken just two days ago while passing through the sixth boro during what can hardly be called “cover of darkness” it’s Capt Joseph E. Pearce on its way to a shipyard on the mighty Rondout to pick up some custom fabrication for a Boston enterprise. Many thanks to the Stasinos brothers for the opportunity.
I’d be remiss in ending this post and this year without mentioning lost friends, preserving a memory of their importance to me personally . . . Bonnie of frogma–first ever to comment of this blog so many years ago and a companion in many adventures– and Mageb, whose so frequent comments here I already miss.
I plan to post tomorrow, although I may miss my high noon post time because I hope to post whatever best sunrise 2023 photos I can capture in the morning.
Happy, safe, and prosperous new year to you all. I’m posting early today because I want my readers who live much much farther east than the sixth boro to get these wishes before their new trip around the sun begins. Bonne annee! Gelukkig nieuwjaar!
It’s back, and with reconstruction complete, training can begin. To see how the new pilot boat got to this point, see updates here from May and August 2020. For a glimpse of the 1972 vessel this one replaces, click here. The 1972 pilot boat measures 155′ x 28′; this rebuilt 1993 OSRV measures 210′ x 46,’ so this is a massively larger boat.
For today’s post, enjoy these spectacular shots Bjoern of New York Media Boat got as she transited a rainy sixth boro yesterday evening.
Many thanks to Bjoern for permission to share these photos.
Meanwhile, keep your eyes turned toward the harbor and you may catch the new No. 1 with the old.
Sandy Hook Pilots vessels are the first glimpse of the sixth boro traffic for incoming vessels, but many folks on the sixth boro periphery might rarely see any trace of them or their vessels. The other windy day, however, they appeared to be training near the VZ Bridge, whose shadow you see as a dark band across the water in the photo below.
Click here for the fleet, made up of station boats (mother ships) and launches, 16 m boats shown below.
I believe that’s Phantom.
For more history of the Sandy Hook Pilots, albeit from an outdated NYTimes article, click here.
All photos, WVD.
I’ve thought about using this title quite often, and I surely have a lot of candidates, my personal ones, to include here.
Know the tug(s) from the photo below? Really the most seldom seen is the nearer one, the one with escape ropes mounted on either side of the wheelhouse egresses.
Pacific Dawn I last saw over six years ago here. She tends to follow dredging projects, which might possibly have brought her in the other day.
I’ve seen Delta a lot on AIS, but I believe I should consider her a “never seen” by me. So voila!
Here she passes the seldom seen Ypapanti and the some to be no longer seen Pilot No. 1 New York. I could be wrong about the last part of that statement.
Delta also tends to follow dredging projects, it seems to me.
Have your own “seldom seen”? Let me know. All photos here in the past week, WVD.
I’d planned something else for today, but then I saw the tree! See it on the bow of Pilot No 2 New Jersey? And that reminded me it was Three Kings day, Epiphany.
The colors are always best when wind chills are biting. Pilot No 2 and the smaller boat, America, went out as it were in a procession.
America stayed out over the horizon, but New Jersey returned, tree intact.
This reminded me also of photos I’d taken from New York Media Boat and had intended to use for my Christmas post. From its station out at the sea end of Ambrose Channel, the VZ Bridge is clearly seen.
Coming from sea, this is first glimpse of the port, two states and all six boros.
Safe year to all.
All photos, WVD. Thanks to New York Media Boat.
Six years ago, I posted this for Three Kings. And the tree makes this a great complementary bookend for this season.
The NY Media Boat has a pick up point in Manhattan, but I chose to board the boat at Liberty Landing in Jersey City, where this view of lower Manhattan awaits. From here, our goal was almost 20 nm away, even though we’d not take the shortest route. Some tasks call for efficient and direct routes, and other tasks crave scenic, gunk-hole exploration routes.
This was the goal, the station boat, in this case Pilot No. 1 New York. Of course, “on station” may not be at anchor, rather it might be steaming slow circles or figure eights in the vicinity of the entrance to Ambrose Channel, with an America class boat ready to deliver pilots between ships and the station boat. This is entirely stating the obvious, but standing on shore, you may not be able to see the station boat; however, from the station boat, you can clearly see a large city spread out before you. Obviously, you can’t see the tidal zone of the beach . . and more . . . because of the curvature of the earth. At one point, an Ambrose lightship was in this vicinity.
Our actual goal was the “A” buoy, aka the “sea buoy,” which marks the “sea” end of Ambrose Channel. Note the green patina “whistle” in the lower half of the buoy; it makes a sighing tone as water motion pressures air through it. Click here to hear a variety of buoy noises. Here‘s another view of the type. By the way, in the image below, that’s the station boat in the distance, the white speck to the right of the buoy.
But all that is not the story. See the bird “swimming” to the right of the A buoy? Well, it was trapped, tangled in discarded fishing line.
This turned into the adventure. Click on the image . . . and you’ll see the rescue and hear the sounds, including the buoy whistle and VHF crackle. That’s Bjoern at the helm and then carrying the bird after I cut the main line. I’m the guy with the white hat and knife.
The gull’s body and right leg had been entangled in the line. What this photo doesn’t show is the blood on Bjoern’s foot and my hand. Gulls have a reputation for biting the hands that disentangle it . . . as reward for saving them from certain death by starvation. Oh well, you’ve seen blood before, and salt water heals everything.
Here’s closeup of some of that line.
Click on the clip below for the context of the video. By the way, the footage comes from the in-cabin CCTV camera.
Many thanks to Bjoern at the Media Boat for the views from “sea” and the adventure.
Photos, unless otherwise credited, WVD.
PS: If you’re looking for food ideas for tomorrow, that gull was plump as a small turkey, given all the bunker out there. And if you are spending T’day on a vessel and feel like it, send me a photo of your table, give me some info, and I’ll do a post about that. I know this book is out of date, so classics live on and maybe it needs to be updated.
I’m thankful we have so much to be thankful for every day.
Angelina Autumn . . . that’s not a common sixth boro boat . . .
so of course I needed to go check her out as she entered the Narrows yesterday with a deck barge headed for Coeymans NY.
Arriving with Angelina Autumn was Shannon Dann,
towing a huge Weeks crane. I did not get an ID on the crane. Neptune was in the procession also, but it was miles back and I had other places I needed to be.
Genesis Eagle had GM 11103 alongside a tanker.
Josephine came in from sea with
RTC 83.
Lois Ann L. Moran departed the Narrows
bound for Philly with the barge Philadelphia.
Anacostia headed out as well with
with Double Skin 510A.
I should know but am just guessing . . . Nicole Leigh Reinauer alongside Energy Centaur over by the Sandy Hook Pilots’ station.
All photos, WVD.
Polling has not yet ended, the clock goes on for two more days now, since I got a bunch of votes last night. With all certainty, though, polls will close on December 21 . . . earlier if two days elapse without a single new vote. Your votes and suggestions –in comments and in emails–have already influenced the design of the calendar.
Many thanks to David Silver for this photo . . . can you guess where it was taken?
You might want to see where previous photos shared by David Silver were taken here. You can find the answer at the end of this post.
While you’re trying to figure out the answer using the title and the night pics, have a look at the project of converting a Responder class OSRV into a new Sandy Hook Pilots “mothership”.
For a complete Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) equipment list, click here.
As I understand it, Maine Responder was sold out of MSRC because it was considered excess. Maybe someone can confirm that.
Here’s the wheels.
Have you guessed where David took the top picture? The answer is . . . Elizabethport, NJ. In the darkness are three exquisite exotics: Regulus, Kelly Ann Candies, and Highland Eagle. Kelly Ann came into the sixth boro yesterday just before dark, but it was so foggy in the Narrows that in the 500′ or so visibility she was as invisible to someone there as she’d be 500 miles at sea. And then, she left before good light this morning. I caught Kelly Ann entering Guanabara Bay almost six years ago. Regulus I caught in Bayonne earlier this fall, and Highland Eagle I caught in northern Lake Huron this summer, where she was doing some sounding work.
Many thanks to David for this photo. The others by Will Van Dorp, who is eager to see how the ex-Maine Responder evolves.
The Narrows is a prime location for me to get photos of vessels coming in from sea if they have AIS because I have several hours notice of arrival for any traffic going anywhere into or through the Upper Bay, eg., on their way to Brooklyn berths, the North River, or the East River. I can walk around or–in case of rain or cold–sit in my car.
The downside is that it’s a wide spot, so even the zoom can draw in only limited detail.
Having said all that, here’s a shot from Bay Ridge over to the Sandy Hook Pilots station, showing (from far to near) the current black hull-yellow trimmed pilot boat mother ship New York No. 1, its eventual replacement currently with a blue hull, and the smaller boats. Lop off the thin upper wheelhouse and paint the hull/trim, and make a thousand more modifications . . . and you’ll have the new mother ship.
My goal was to get photos of Commander Iona, which I did and posted here. Unexpected was the arrival of Dina Polaris, which I’d first seen only a month and a half or so ago.
Mister Jim has been a regular on this blog and in the sixth boro surrounding waters since she first arrived a few years ago.
The Severn Sailing Association came through the rain with a whole host of sloops . . . from closest to farthest: Commitment, Intrepid, Valiant, Courage, Invincible, Renaissance, Daring, Brave, Warrior.
Rhea I. Bouchard headed in with her barge, but by this time the rain was falling so hard I couldn’t confirm the name/number on the barge.
Magdalen headed out, passing a sloop and
R/V Heidi Lynn Scuthorpe, a first sighting for me.
Click here for more info on Heidi Lynn and Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute. Click here for a more technical article from Workboat on this vessel.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who feels compensated for staying out in the rain.
I saw Nauvoo (Heidi Lynn‘s previous name) years back and I posted a pic here. I also saw Beglane.
Too bad this intriguingly named RORO was so far away when I saw it. Actually Drive Green is the project; the actual vessel name is Drive Green Highway. The project seeks to reduce NOx and CO2; it’s more streamlined, uses slippery hull coating, incorporates solar-powered LED lighting throughout the ship, and more. Click here for RORO history. I don’t know why the orange is not some version of chartreuse.
Breezy Victoria really should be parts of a “names” post, but I took it this same foggy visit to this part of the port.
Note the upper 400′ of the Staten Island side bridge tower is missing as
Pilot No 1 aka New York heads back out to her station. Here from winter 2014 is the same boat at the same bridge in different weather.
If you use your peripheral vision, you can just make out West Bank Light off the starboard stern of pilot boat New York.
Orange Ocean follows the fog bank into the Narrows.
And here’s the vessel I came out to see: Grande Mariner on her return from Honduras!! Here you can see the West Bank Light a little more clearly.
I board Grande Mariner again in July, for some more tours of the Great Lakes. Next winter’s plan for Grande Mariner is a trip to Panama!
Having no pressing demands on Thursday morning, I went back down to the Narrows, and once again it was
socked in!
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
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