Fog 24

Brazos is in the sixth boro;  I caught her at the east end of Fire Island a few months back here.

R/V Shearwater approached, but that’s likely just because Shearwater appears to survey every square millimeter of the sixth boro and beyond.

A day later I approached Brazos between the raindrops and from a different angle.  A kayaker was checking her out too.

 

 

On yet another day recently and in some different geography, notice the vessel?

I checked the same location a few hours later, and the fog had moved on or just plain dissipated, revealing USCGC Coho. If you’re interested in a tour of the cutter, click here.

All photos, WVD.

If you have a hankering for more boats-in-the-fog photos, do a google image search with the search string “fog tugster.”

Government Boat Surpise

The smaller surprise was to see USCGC Beluga (WPB- 87325) traveling with speed from Sandy Hook into the Upper Bay. 

I don’t believe I’ve seen Beluga before, although she looks identical to the 70+ Protector class 87′ boats named for marine predators.  I didn’t realize that many marine predators existed, although once you start counting . . . they add up. More on parameters for replacing the WPBs here.

But what really surprised me was what Tony A mentioned about the blue/yellow vessel in the photo.  Of course, it’s R/VShearwater, the Alpine Ocean Seismic Survey boat that’s been creating a complex bathymetric picture of parts of the sixth boro.  I long thought she had an unusual design.  What I hadn’t known is

that she’s former USCG WSES-3.  WSES expands to “surface effects ships.”  Hull 1 of the WSES series, WSES-1, was built for the US Navy as 110BH, then modified and became USCGC Dorado, then back to the USN as SES-200 Sea Flyer, then IX-515.  That’s a lot of modification. More on that here (start near bottom of p 25) and here. For a photo of Shearwater, black hull and orange USCG stripe, click here.   For her Alpine tech specs, click here.

All photos, WVD, who enjoys learning from surprises.  Many thanks, Tony A.

Sixth Boro Sampler 2

Some harbors are more varied than others.  I’m happy to call the sixth boro home for now. 

I’d never expect to see Emma Miller come in from “sea” or even in through the Narrows.

The weather is quite variable as well.  In a singularly unpleasant day, MSC Alicante, 

Ziyou ( a Tayana 37??), and

a Kadey-Krogen Evening Light (not the tugboat) all head out to sea.

A day or two later, warm morning light bathes Dorothy J

as she brings Weeks 536 into the boro.

It’s not winter yet, but there’s a lot of fishing going on with all manner of goals.

Shearwater is running a lot of line, but of course her quarry is

not the finny type.  Rather, she’s generating bathymetric images. I guess I’m not privvy to them, not being the client.  You can see her track lines on AIS. Sharp, another research vessel, is running the same lines from Sandy Hook south.  Has anyone gotten a photo of her?

This I’d wager is a fleet angling for bluefish or stripers or more.  Tanker Maya pushes the finny ones in their direction as she makes for sea.

 

Osprey herd the finny ones from just above the VZ.

Fugro Explorer comes in from sea for supplies, fuel, and who knows what more.

 

 

All photos and sentiments, WVD, who asserts that no one can ever be bored along the margins of the sixth boro.

A few of you have written to ask that I again upload photos of larger size so that when you double-click on a photo, they enlarge.  Here’s the problem:  Facebook won’t allow me to upload at that size if I want a photo on the preview.  Since a lot of folks just read on FB, my compromise has been to upload smaller photos.    

Survey Vessel 2

This exact title–sans the number–goes way back to 2007 here.   The orange vessel doing surveys in 2007 has been replaced by the one below, which I’d not seen until very recently.

The USACE has several survey boats in the boro, as

does Rogers.

Alpine Ocean has been surveying the harbor and the bight for some time now . . . with R/V Shearwater, which I’ve seen as far south as Norfolk.

Shearwater is 110′ loa; clearly here you see how Dina Polaris shrinks her size, the latter has five times the number of berths.

She was in briefly and out this past weekend, so I devote more space to her.

 

 

 

And while we’re in this general group, I couldn’t pass up this vessel, which I’ve not seen.  She may be the one doing working on the WW2 tanker wreck Coimbra, 30 miles south of Shinnecock Inlet. Has anyone gotten photos of her?

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wishes you all a happy may day . . .

 

 

GWA2: Hudson River

I took these photos over a two-day period in late July, traveling the entire 130 miles of the Hudson from the Battery to Troy while on the trip from Narragansett Bay to the “source” of the Chicago River.  RV Shearwater here surveys the river/bay;  that’s Willy Wall on the horizon left, so the Battery is behind us.

The Tappan Zee nears completion:  the gap on the left side is all that needs to be bridged.  The Left Coast Lifter will then become the “left coast lowerer,” I assume.

Infrastructure materials come out of the ground here in Haverstraw,

Viking passes below Osborn Castle,

summer play happens in the Hudson,

Buchanan 12 pushes more raw materials for infrastructure,

a tribe paddles over to Bannerman’s,

a truck lifts three vessels in imitation of Combi-Dock III,

Vane’s Delaware pushes DoubleSkin 50 upriver,

Spring Sunshine offloads aggregates at Caymans, where

a 400-ton 12-story structure awaits (then) its float down to NJ [more on that soon],

yacht named Summer heads south for Key West,

raw materials that once rolled on roads await the trip back to the blast furnace,

a horde does sun salutations on shore,

the American goddess Columbia trumpets at the top of a needing-to-be-updated soldiers/sailors monument in Troy,

 

and an oracle wearing a sea creature hat and using an old-school device taps out verbiage suggesting I’m headed for Ithaca and not Chicago, although I’m pleased with that too.

All photos and observations by Will Van Dorp, who is grateful to the oracle.

Somewhat related:  Click here for a CNN Travel clip called “Liquid City” and starts out with the sentence “most people think NYC has five boros, but there’s really a sixth one;  it’s the largest one and it connects all the others.”  I heard it while waiting at the airport in Indianapolis the other day and was stunned.  Do you suppose Justin Davidson reads tugster?

For blog posts written by folks going first northbound and then southbound on a LNV tug, click here and here.

 

First Hours 2016 b

As was true yesterday, all photos today were taken in the first 12 hours of 2016.  For Chatham, the last tug I saw in 2015, the year end/start distinction was likely irrelevant.  No doubt the same holiday treats were out in the galley in the wee hours of 2016 as were a few hours before in 2015.

From a different angle as last night, here are Michael J,

Camie,

and the “weather tugs.”  I’m happy the precipitation of December 31 has ceased.

Although some people movers waited in reserve, 

another was cross-crissing the Elizabeth.  By the way, is this the same James C. Echols?  Is it still LNG powered?  Does anyone know where the new ferries are being built and delivery dates?

 

The quick side ramp system impressed me.  It was in fact similar to a system on “water bus” I saw near Rotterdam a while back.

Surrie heads back to base, passing BB-64 USS Wisconsin. 

Recognize this vessel, which spent a little time in the sixth boro a bit over a year ago?

It’s HMS Justice, slinging Bryant Sea now in the curvaceous Elizabeth River and

passing Mahan, Stout, and

Oscar Austin, far right.

Closing out today . .  what can you do with $12 million and a 1962 North Sea trawler?  Check here for this story on explorer yacht Discovery.  Here’s another story with much better photos.   Docked astern of Discovery is Shearwater, which was doing a project in the sixth boro back in sumer 2013.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Doing Social 2

Thanks . . . for the social media sourcing of this vessel.  Nick Massa sent along these fotos of the Alpine Ocean Seismic Survey vessel Shearwater, which he took in another part of the sixth boro while I was clinging along the edge of Manhattan.  Nick does a blog called NYCruiseInfo.com, which I think complements tugster well.

And in case you missed Xtian Herrou’s comment, he pointed out that Shearwater had an earlier life as a USCG surface effect ship.  Here’s more on that hull technology.  That reminded me of the term, which came up a few years back during the visit of a Norwegian minesweeper (third foto there) in the sixth boro.  Here’s more info on that vessel.   Here’s a post from last year of French vessels, thanks to Xtian.

What does the track of a survey vessel look like?  Here’s the path Shearwater cut across the Lower Bay yesterday.

So here’s my next group sourcing project.  I took this foto of Angel’s Share  Saturday but had no time to go to North Cove to get close-ups.  I had planned to do that early this morning, bt it appears she’s sailed off during the night.

Angel’s Share is a 130′ Wally sailyacht.

Unfinished group sourcing business . . . did anyone catch Iona McAllister  towing Amavisti into the port early on September 7.

And finally, last but certainly not least . . .  Bob Stopper has some followups to stories I’ve been following on the Erie Canal.  First, details on that sinking on an otherwise quiet stretch of the Erie Canal . . .  here’s more info.  And a story I heard tug44 Fred mention numerous times while I was at the Roundup . . . Julia Holmes rowing the length of the Erie Canal in the 17′ dory she assembled in her Brooklyn apartment!  She’s more than halfway across the Canal already.

Thanks much for reading.  Special thanks to Nick for sending along the closer-ups of Shearwater and illustrating that social media is  . . . social!

 

 

Doing Social 1

Meet Amavisti.  I took the foto over in the Buttermilk yesterday.  Here’s why I call this post “doing social.”  It was reported that Iona McAllister towed Amavisti into the sixth boro last Saturday after the ship had experienced loss of power some hundred miles out.  Did anyone get a foto of Amavisti  under tow and be willing to share it, i.e. do what social media allows?    Thanks to all who’ve already done that on this blog.

When I got closer to Amavisti, I saw another name in raised steel …  Ocean Neptune.   And then when I did some hunting online I saw BBC Tahiti.  And Janne Scan.  And FCC Embolden.  All these names for a vessel that’s six years old!!

Please send along a foto of the tow if you have one and I’ll post it here.

So here’s another social media aka group sourcing request.  Yesterday between 1 and 2 pm I caught this vessel leaving Morris Canal and likely headed for sea.  It looks a lot like this foto by Tom Turner of R/V Shearwater, an Alpine Seismic Ocean Survey vessel.  Here’s the parent company.  Did anyone catch a closer foto?

Here and here are more links to what I think this vessel is.

Here was my ride yesterday . . . Pegasus, all dazzling in new red paint on the main house.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp yesterday.  Let’s do social.