Government Boats 35

First, two photos from Jason LaDue, up in Lyons on the Erie Canal.  Click here to see some of the many photos Jason has sent along over the past years from Lyons and the Great Lakes.  The vessel Lyons, below, has been painted NY blue and gold since it last appeared here two plus months ago.

Docked astern of Lyons is Salem, which has also gotten some new paint recently.

From the Canal to the sixth boro, here’s the sight I caught last week from the MediaBoat, as we entered North Cove.  The vessel is the New York Naval Militia’s 440 Moose boat.   Click here to see some of NYNM’s previous vessels.

I’m not sure where the group was headed.  The schooner is Clipper City, which I really need to get out on one of these days soon.

Top two photos . . . thanks to Jason LaDue;  last three by Will Van Dorp.

 

Unusual Drive

Let’s backtrack . . .  is it only a month ago, less than a month ago, that Onrust launched?  Its inaugural trip down to the sixth boro and back evidence that Onrust the restless has reincarnated.   On that launch day, as Onrust settled to its level, tug Waterford and SPS-60 (in the distance) stood by.  Onrust‘s Deere engine waited patiently here, mere hours from propelling the sculpted oak through water for the first time.

Tug Waterford has–like Governor Cleveland–a modern Caterpillar diesel, although I know nothing about the specs for either.

Waterford arrived first on the launch site that morning dragging quite a puddening, like a grass skirt and elongated breadfruit or durians?

SPS-60 (self-propelled scow) moved in with its crew of at least five, but

not until it spun its stern toward me did I see this blue box and tube.

Clearly it drove the scow, propelled it into position next to Onrust, but I had little sense of the “heavy duty outboard” until the next day when I stopped at the dry dock in Lyons.

Older model maybe or rival manufacturer?  But no one there could tell me the name.  Of course,  the only people

around were state highway workers.

Then last week I found my answer from the captain of Governor Cleveland:  Thrustmaster . . . er Thustmaster of Texas.  Check out the company link here.  How’s that for a corporate name?

Check out the NYS Canal Corporation site.  Here’s Tug44’s Canal Corp site.  For unusual sail, check here.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated: “Unusual” is the mildest adjective to describe Saturday’s Mermaid Parade.  Drive, swim, subway, cycle . . .  come any way you wish . . . you won’t regret it.