Pilot Boat No. 1 May 2020 Update

See the exciting announcement at the end of this post.

Sunday I got word thanks to Shipshooter–Jonathan Atkin–that the pilot boat-to-be would be moving from Caddell’s back to the Sandy Hook Pilots (SHP) base on Monday morning right around sunrise.  Pilot boat-to-be?  There’s still much work to do before she enters service.  And at 0626, I saw the shift begin, as Dorothy J pulled her away from the floating drydock that has been her home the past few months. I visited her here back in December 2019 after she’d appeared at the SHP base about a year ago.  The current SHP No. 1 New York is at sea at the sea buoy end of the Ambrose Channel.

Once clear of the dry docks, the several-mile tow got underway.

Dorothy J kept the bow pointed while Robert IV had the stern.

Just east of the salt pile, the tow was reconfigured so that Robert IV got the Pilot No. 1 on the nose.

Robert IV continued the push toward the Narrows, after Dorothy J had gone ahead.

Just off the pilot station, Dorothy J came back alongside . . .

and Pilot No. 1 slides in opposite side of the dock from Pilot No. 2 New Jersey.

 

All photos, WVD, who will update the continuing transformation as available.

Here‘s a NY Media Boat report on a day at sea on the current Pilot Boat No. 1.

The big announcement, click on the image below.  A week from today you can join me for a different type of virtual canal tour.

Pilots 8

It’s the summer station boat and a training platform for pilot apprentices.  Recognize the location?

The station boat is on the East River just east of Hell Gate.   From near to far, the bridges are the Hell Gate and then the RFK.

Here she passes the Astoria Generating Station on its way to the channel

between the Brothers.

Frequent contributor Ashley Hutto caught the No. 2 westbound later in the day, here passing the bridge I’d be happy to sell you.

Click here for a story of a visit to the No. 2 station boat by Kristina Fiore.

Thanks to Ashley for the bottom photo.   All others by Will Van Dorp, who took photos of Peacock–an unusual pilot boat here not quite a year ago.