Splash!

That’s what I’m doing, preferably feeling the water but inside the ship today.  Below, W. O. Decker handles the whitewater created by boats in a recent race with at least 10 times Decker‘s horsepower.

As seen from the Bayonne Bridge walkway, Quenames displaces a fair amount of water, surrounding itself with froth.

Fireboat water in the sky and spray over the bow of these boats racing to the finish line. 

 

 

But today, I hope to be propelled by the wind, maybe with the rail not buried, but heeled over enough that water will be flowing into and then out of the scuppers.

 

Happy Labor Day.  All photos, WVD.

Random Tugs 252

Resolute rotates into the sixth boro now and again;  her truly best and bushiest fendering make her a welcome sight whenever.  I believe this is the last time I saw her here almost two years ago.

Janet D first appeared on this blog here, three years ago.  And here’s something I never realized (or if I did, I’ve forgotten) . . .  she comes out of the same yard the same approximate time as James E. Brown, a slight larger hull but with less horsepower.

Labrador Sea Brooklyn  is a Warren, RI-built tug that I’ve seen wearing four different liveries and initially had no upper wheelhouse. 

Mister T was built at the same yard at roughly the same time as Brooklyn above. Mister T is older by a year and less broad by a foot.  Both 2400hp, a difference is that Brooklyn has pins.

Quenames has worked here for over a decade…

and was more recently joined by Pinuccia.

Unlike Brooklyn above, Elizabeth appears to have carried Weeks ownership and livery for about 35 years now!!  Here’s what her bow looks like out of the water.

All photos and other observations by Will Van Dorp, who has to leave the never-ending story here today and attend to other duties on tugster tower.

 

Random Tugs 198

Random is  . . . well the word comes from French which comes from German which comes from some extinct language describing the galloping horses,  going just going without a pattern.  I might assemble in patterns, but they’re not really there.

So, first up it’s Helen Laraway, based in the burgeoning port of Coeymans.

Next, it’s the fairly new Crystal Cutler pushing Patricia E. Poling.

 

Color scheme give this away?

It’s Quenames . . .

 

And finally, as Quenames heads away from us, it’s Bering Sea (once known as Cougar and later Stacy Moran) on the approach

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wouldn’t remember any of this if not for Birk’s site.  Thx, Birk.

 

Random Tugs 160

Let’s start with Marie J. Turecamo (1968).  And then let’s look at others out around this springtime morning:

Like Joan Turecamo (1980), built near the confluence of the Hudson River and Erie Canal,

heading out here with James D. Moran (2015);

Caitlin Ann (1961) doing a recycling run;

Emerald Coast (1973) leaving the U-Haul;

North Sea (1982) heading for the Kirby yard;

Robert E. McAllister (1969) heading out for a ship;

Quenames (1982) moving a barge alongside;

Crystal Cutler (2010) getting some maintenance; and

that brings us back to Marie J. Turecamo and a photo taken only a minute of so before the lead-off photo in this post.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 157

Prayers for and condolences to families/friends of Specialist crew.  Here’s a photo I took of the boat back in 2007.

 

Here was Janet D pushing crane barge Jared Walter the other day.

 

Another crane barge, this one pushed by Quenames, which I never seen pushing anything but a petroleum barge.

 

Tugboat Sassafras moving Doubleskin 30 into IMTT, and then going over to Brooklyn light.

 

And finally, it’s Harry McNeal and Miss Julia  . .. again moving crane barges.

Last one for today . . . it’s JRT Moran, and those do not look like deckhands on the bow.  I’m just wondering.

The container ship being assisted is Northern Justice.

 

No matter what you do, be careful out there.  Here’s the latest USCG report I could find.

Random Tugs 151

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.

Random Tugs 108

All these fotos–except the ones identified as flashbacks–I took while resting yesterday.  The indomitable Helen Parker, intrepidly westbound among giants.  I believe she was last on this blog a year ago here.

I believe this is Coastline Bay Star.  If so, when did she get the reconfigured exhaust route?

Also squeezed between giants, James Turecamo, who has appeared on this blog possibly more than any other tugboat.   James was launched in greater Waterford, NY late in 1969.   Click here to see James tailing Caddell’s new drydock back in May.  More on this flashback later in this post.

Hunt Girls, which I haven’t seen in a while.

AT IMTT Bayonne Dean Reinauer and RTC 106, which appeared on this blog last week, configured differently.  Dean is so new that if you go back to that link with the foto of James tailing, you’ll see the upper house of a Dean which at that time had never yet floated!

Here are two flashbacks from Port of Albany last week . . .

as Dean spun around to head south.

Dorothy J eastbound yesterday morning

and as seen in mid-May 2013 . . . with her former name–Angela M–visible.

Arabian Sea‘s angular sides are mimicked  by the building in the distance.

Quenames heads out of the Kills pushing

Bunker Portland.

And check out the stack on St Andrews.  Maintenance or  . . . something more?

All fotos except for the flashbacks  . . .  Will Van Dorp took yesterday.

Perspective 2

Here was 1.

Recognize this vessel?

It’s the 1982 Quenames, as I’ve never seen her before.

Anyone know the origin of that name?

One of GLDD’s crew boats . ..  St. Johns River, I think,

from this angle looks

speedy.

Can you identify this boat?

It’s 1965 Harry McNeal, seen here from riverbank perspective.

Note how the tug attaches to the notchless barge, and

the wooden support for the tracked crane.  The “column” to lower left is a spud, which pins the barge to the bottom for stability while the crane is used.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Solstice Post 1

First . . . around the boro, the light is beauteous enough to suspend a sense of time and obligation and stress and disappointment.  This side of the boro, though on duty, works the milder solstice.

Lynx (1967, ex-Catherine Foss, Kainani) probably working with a dredging project, I’ve never seen here before.

Discovery Coast glows.

Nicole Leigh waits orders, as crew might ponder

a different season, as seen here.

In this heat and light, Kimberly looks positively artdeco:  her aqua would blend in on South Beach and way beyond.

Brandywine wrestles the season as she dances her partner DoubleSkin 141.

Quenames broods as she gazes into the stream.

Miriam Moran cruises past Sailors’ Snug Harbor, as purposefully as always.

Jane A. Bouchard races deep into right field, showing what waters can be divided by more than 6000 hp on the wheels, while her older sister

Barbara E. Bouchard dozes briefly in the shadows before moving upriver, where

the venerable Patty Nolan dons her midsummer’s bikini, freshens up her dancing paint . . . the mayor’s drum is soon to call to disorder the 2012 parade . . .  the sixth boro’s shoreline version of Mardi Gras.

OK . . . one final glance for now at Lynx off to the dredge site.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who is solely responsible for any erroneous interpretations of event, signs, and artless ceiling doodles.

Happy summer!!

Unrelated:  If you happen to “see things” when you pass the KVK salt pile on Saturday night, you’re not hallucinating.  Lumen will happen.

For an auspicious virtual gallivant as they sally forth through the Rideau Canal from Lake Ontario to Ottawa and beyond, follow Sally W . . .

Non-Random Tugs 4

NRT 3 ends with a shot and video of Grouper; given an important news bulletin, it’s fitting I start with Grouper in NRT 4.  The news . . . she’s got a NEW LEASE on survival.  As soon as she’s fit to travel west, she’s headed to a spot just north of Detroit.  Such news!  Updates will follow as her uncharted future allows.  I tinted the foto a bit yellow . . . as in sunny, a bright future taking her to her 100th!  Since 1912, identities she’s carried include the following:  Gary, Green Bay, Alaska, Oneida, Iroquois, all before Grouper.  Maybe a new name will follow too?  Thanks to Jon for 97 years of pedigree info in his comment a few days ago.

Thanks to Jed for this foto of Quenames, headed north here past Governor’s Island, bound for Boston, I suppose . . . with whatever that barge was designed to transport.  My last shot of Quenames was in late summer 2007!  Thanks much, Jed.

Nope . . . it’s not the Charles D.  It’s Responder, featured a dozen times here before, initially in 2007.  So what happened to the reel and boom that was her trademark?   I’ve no clue.

Taft Beach . . . and her crew worked through Thanksgiving, through the powerful gusts and ebbs of Saturday night’s storm, and will do so more on Christmas Day . . .  as the dredging must go forward . . . er downward!  Greetings and hats off to all who work through whatever holidays transpire.

While we’re on Norfolk tugs, here’s another, shot on the Delaware.  I’ve never seen Lucky D up in the sixth boro.

And while we’re on the Delaware, here’s a sibling of Heron, Falcon, and Sea Raven.  I’ve not noticed Petrel in New York harbor.

I mentioned Charles D earlier.

To round these out, a quite random choice although I love her lines, it’s Christine M.

All fotos in the past month by Will Van Dorp.