Exotics 18

If you’ve forgotten why I call these exotic, it comes from a bird book I have on the shelf.  Read about it here.

RV Ridley Scott Thomas came into the sixth boro yesterday, arriving here between Driftmaster, 1949–exotic in a different way–and the light, West Bank.

Here’s my question:  where and when was Ridley Thomas built?  Answer follows.  When I saw it, I wondered whether it had just left a shipyard for the first time.

Arriving yesterday after a nine-day trip from Curaçao, she had lots of folks on deck enjoying the beautiful Saturday morning.

Click here for more info on EGS, now a Hong Kong based company, and click here for info on her fleetmates. It turns out that one of her fleetmates is RV Bold Explorer, which some years ago you saw here as an EPA vessel named Bold. How her change of ownership came to be can be extrapolated here.

 

Sloop Puffin squeezes between Driftmaster and the research vessel.  Note the flag on the ridge?  It’s flag day today, and if you’re wondering how that started, click here.  I’m a fan of #6.  There are two US flags in this photo, one at the official site Fort Wadsworth, and another as courtesy flag flying from the mast of Thomas.

As of this writing, she’s still in over in Elizabethport.

 

All photos, WVD.   I’ve no idea why she’s in town, but for more on RV Ridley Thomas, click here.

And the answer to the questions . . . she was built in Singapore in 1981, first carrying the name Western Inlet.

People on the Boro 6

I’m keeping a lookout for Christopher Bell, the Erie Canal folk singer who travels from gig to gig by canoe, according to this NYTimes story earlier this week. There’s even a myspace link there where you can hear his music. Bell explains it as a reaction to fuel prices, but certainly an enhancement to his inspiration, too. Meanwhile, here’s who I’ve seen:

a solitary puffin . . . must transform when it made its way “upwest” to arrive here. Link shows puffins’ appearance as they congregate downeast…

and my foto-evidence of the tug44 command center, making its way up to greater Champlain. Notice the Rondout Light off Fred’s bow.

Summertime brings all sorts out; here sits a historian on the bow of a pilot boat with a legendary name.

Notice the pilot high on the bow of S/R Wilmington?

Now? He’s even got a sunshade rigged.

Now if Bell caught a ride to his next gig up here, how might that influence his sound? It’d also give new meaning to “ship’s bell.”

More people on the boro soon, maybe even Bell.

Photos,WVD.

Relief Crew

Tomorrow’s post will reveal the mystery vessel. Brian already identified it, and as his prize, offers this photo as the next contest.

<< 1) Identify the make and model of the vessel above.

2) Help him figure out how to get
it from Ithaca, NY, to Brooklyn. Ideally, He’d like to
take it through the canals, but the Erie doesn’t open
until May 1st, and he’d like to get it here before
then. Any leads on boat haulers would be greatly
appreciated…. >>

So my two cents in this . . . is this vessel cute or sweet? Reasons?

Next “contest” with “relief crew” prize goes to whomever correctly responds to Brian’s questions above. Meanwhile . . .

 

…a chance to inspect my Thruway tolls at work,

 

see restored sweetnesses of another time,

 

and study the strata of our continent would all compel me to wait til May to ride the Canal and not seek road transport of Brian’s vessel to New York City. DeWitt Clinton was right. Cayuga Lake, the canals, and the river await!

All photos by Will Van Dorp.