Random Ships 82

What’s visible for now is Pegasus and Maersk Seletar, but behind the container ship and soon to emerge

is Mukaddes Kalkavan.  A few hours later, I saw Seletar doing 22 kts heading south along the Jersey coast.  Seletar is an area in Singapore.

Ava escorts Mukaddes Kalkavan into the port from the starboard bow.

Scot Munchen is a relatively small tanker ( 383′ x 59′) with an unusual superstructure design. Here‘s the fleet of this Istanbul-based company, all incorporating the same stack design.

 

Here’s a photo from about 0500, Ava is assisting Hyundai Smart into Bayonne.  The name Hyundai Smart connotes automotive to me.

 

Ever Liberal heads out to sea.

with Jonathan Moran assisting past the Bouchard flock.

And finally, this is the Laura Maersk that back already a month ago was towed into the sixth boro as a fully loaded dead ship due to an engine explosion.

Light in the water, this container ship shows a different profile.

All photos, WVD.

Exotics 16

Here the previous posts on exotics, vessels not typically seen in the sixth boro.  I take the label from birders, as they use it to classify birds.

Regulus is a 2014 product of Thoma-Sea in conjunction with TAI.

She left to go offshore yesterday, but she’d been at the Bayonne dry dock at least a few weeks.  I believe that red derrick was not mounted on the afterdeck when she arrived, but I’m not certain of that.  Anyone help?

Click here for more specs.  Most likely that derrick is mounted over a moon pool, as would be the case with a DP2 OSV.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who could classify this as a specialized vessel as well.

 

Government Boats 43

It’s been a few months since I last used this title here . . .

USNS Gilliland has been alongside the Bayonne dry dock for a few weeks now, and the other day

I had the chance to see her alongside a bit closer.

This Danish hull has been in the water most of the time since 1972.

MLB 47279, based in Montauk, is a whole different type of government boat.

This source says 117 of these were built, introduced between 1997 and 2003, and

all remain in service.  To see these boats in action, click here.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Ocean Tower, Land Towers

From l to r here, it’s barge OPGEN-01, Ocean Tower, and Stephan Dann.

Here, against a backdrop of USNS Charlton, it’s a profile of Ocean Tower and

one of Stephan Dann.

And towers, there are plenty, bigger and

smaller.

 

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Robbins Reef 3

Here are previous posts in this series.

And today, April 1, I’m not fooling;  Noble Maritime Collection is a “must see” in NYC.  You can actually see their buildings from the KVK, just west of the salt pile.  Their latest exhibition is called “Robbins Reef Lighthouse:  A Home in the Harbor,” a collection of works by contemporary artists asked specifically to depict the light.  The painting below “The Barbican of the Kill van Kull” is by Pamela Talese.

What follows below are just a few of the pieces from that one exhibit.

 

The photo above is by Michael Falco.

 

William Behnken and

 

L. F. Tantillo 

 

and others also have pieces.  If you’ve never been to the museum and you devote two hours to all the fine maritime treasures there, you’ll still feel rushed.

Here and here and here are some previous posts I’ve done about the museum.

 

 

Robbins Reef 2

Many thanks to Erin Urban, executive director of Noble Maritime for those photos and information.

What’s this?

The interior view is unique;  the exterior  . . . of course has been seen so often that your eyes might see right past it.  This beacon in the harbor has appeared in countless tugster posts, and will continue to do so.  Here’s just one. What you may not know is that in the lighthouse there is a “construction cam” focused on work at the New York Wheel.  Be sure to try “live stream cam 2” and its time lapse.  

Below is a view of CMA CGM La Scala from a week ago, the same day the Noble Maritime crew was at the light.

Here’s the abridged written report:

“Weather:  Cloudy, not windy, mid-60s°      Access:  The Emily Miller out; the Nicholas Miller back.  Left at 9:20; back at 12:30.

Tasks accomplished:  We brought out materials with which to clean up, including contractor’s bags, brooms, cardboard boxes, and another dustpan.  We also brought out a 60 lb. bag of mortar and water.  We added a new light in the cellar and brought out two more Mag lights and a long extension cord so we can light the cellar and any other places that need it.  We also brought out another 5-gallon can of gasoline.

André cemented the area in the cellar below the new cellar door.

Pete and Kevin got the light set up in the basement and then began the clear out.  Then, with Erin, they began removing accumulated trash and unneeded equipment.  We cleaned and cleared all the rooms, especially the second floor supply room and the stairwell, and organized a tool cabinet on the first floor.  We found a box of stuff having to do with the web camera and stored it on the fourth floor in the room where the web camera batteries are set up.

The New York Wheel worker charged up the batteries for the web camera and got it working again; it had been down since last fall.

Next steps: We will go out to do more work on the interior.   We have to shovel out the cellar, for example, and finish painting the small rooms on the fourth level.

We will at the same time do a video explaining all the aspects of the work we have to do at the lighthouse.  Our spring projects will include getting more ventilation and painting the exterior so we can set up the canopy and the solar power to light the interior and exterior of the site.”

Click here for a USCG history of aids to navigation.  Here are some 360 degrees views from Robbins Reef.

Many thanks to Erin and her crew for their work and for permission to use these photos and this report.

At the same moment, I was getting these photos of CMA CGM La Scala, with JRT Moran tailing and

Kirby Moran made up to the lower set of recessed shell bits.

 

Last two photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Bayonne Tower 2

I’m not entirely sure where the land story here starts and stops, but three and a half years ago, I posted this when the tower went up because it intruded into a lot of photos I took.  I took these next two photos in January 2012, right after erection but six months before it went on line.

from the Upper Bay

from Lower Newark Bay

And here are two I took last month.

from right across the KVK

from the Con Hook range

Here’s the news:  the turbine is fritzed and needs repair or replacement after just three years in spite of an expected life span of 20 years!  Here’s a full range of speculation. Of the hundreds of thousands of wind turbines operating in the world, why does this one fritz out?

All photos by Will Van Dorp, with thanks to WS for passing this story along.

 

 

 

 

 

Really Random Tugs 28

This is the series with tugs from all over.  So let’s start in Miami last month with photos by John “Jed” Jedrlinic.  Miss Niz was in the sixth boro some time back.

Also from Jed . . .it’s Akashi Maru in Yokohama, 2008. He has more photos of Japanese tugboats.

Darrin Rice sent along this photo of the classic Hercules, built at the John H. Dialogue yard in Camden NJ but having worked its entire career on the West Coast, which it arrived at by circumnavigating the southern tip of South America.   The Camden yard of John H. Dialogue also built these classics.

Previously, Darrin sent along some photos of decaying classics here.

From Jan Oosterboer via Fred Trooster . . . what appears to be a just delivered (March 2015 just!) German-flagged tug FairPlay IX operating in the Netherlands.

Brake is also an almost new boat.

And  . .  yes, I do get out and take photos myself . . . here is Robert E. McAllister passing RORO Grey Shark . . . which it towed in from sea half a month ago after the RORO experienced mechanical difficulties. Beyond the dry dock buildings is Quantum of the Seas.

Here Freddie K. Miller passes Robbins Light.  This vessel first appeared on this blog going on nine years ago here!

And last for today but certainly not least, from Rich Taylor, it’s Chale, a classic tug at the half-century mark.

Rich also sends along Istria, Italian-built . . . almost the same vintage.  Istria has been featured on this blog about two years ago here.

Thanks to Rich, Jan, Fred, Darrin, and Jed for this look at a diverse set of vessels all referred to as tugboats.

 

Random Tugs 137

McAllister Sisters is back there somewhere, on the windy side,

not the sunny side where crew keep watch on

Atlantic Trader.  If you’ve forgotten what Sisters looks like, click here on a post from over a year ago.

Much more conspicuous is Bruce A.

James Turecamo assists in Vega.

And finishing this post out, it’s Pelham.

Of course, the rooted talent in this post is of course Robbins Reef Light.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Exotics 3

Again . . . in my field guide to birds, an exotic is a species neither indigenous to nor common in a region.  Transferring this definition to machines that float, I guess that makes almost all large vessels in the harbor exotics.  Here were installments 1 and 2 for smaller boats.

This is not a vessel type commonly seen in the sixth boro, although it is common in other places.

Arrival of this vessel did stir some excitement among the herd of ‘scapegoats over at Fort Wadsworth, where I’d stopped by on this morning that I chose to visit my haunts around the harbor on my days off from Urger.   That’s Australian Spirit over in the distance.

Identification via VHF transmission did sound like “makel lornce” headed for the “wakes” yard,

which translated through my ears was Michael Lawrence bound for Weeks.   Well, welcome to NYC if this is the first trip in.

When I was finished with my other business and heading back home to Queens, there it was again, this time

headed to the job site off Rockaway.

All photos this morning by Will Van Dorp.