Small Craft 15

Hats off to the small boats that work all year round . . . crew boats,

patrol boats,

fishing boats,

line boats,

pilot boats,

dive boats,

more fishing boats,

more crew boats,

government boats,

more —soon to face major cuts--government boats

more line and boom boats,

and here’s a special . . . a historic life boat, long atop Binghamton, which is still intact as far as I know, and a bit longer ago had

guys in hazmat suits doing the last ever lifeboat drill aboard the 112-year-old condemned ferry.

And finally, of course there’s the New York Media Boat. 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who gives a hat tip to all the crews in small boats on the big waters.

 

Something Different 11

Cold winter waterscapes –like especially hot dry landscapes –delight with the optical ilusions they yield.  Behold Hyundai Glory . . . or maybe just an assemblage of coherent containers hovering together.

Have a look at MSC Catania.   On the left in the distance, notice the very long  arm of the Statue of Liberty, and midway between it and the ship . . . a very tall building in Queens, One Court Square, looking much taller than its 50 stories.

Rosemary Miller ? (center)  meets Torm Aslaug, which triggered today’s series.

Sand Master and sand mining barge nearly spans the Narrows.

Tanker Cape Tallin heads for the anchorage, passing the tops of the towers of Marine Parkway.

Here’s the foto that started the series.  notice two grayish shapes forward of the bow of Torm Aslug?  I could see them all the way from the top of a bridge on the Belt Parkway.

Here, as seen from Mount Mitchill, the highest headland on the east coast south of Maine . . .  you can see the same two vessels–MSC by the color of their stacks–and McAllister Responder.

This is the closest I could get . . . . T-AKE 13 USNS Medgar Evers at the Leonardo docks of  Naval Weapons Station Earle.

East of her . . . I don’t know, but my guess would be a T-AOE.

Any guess on the viewpoint of Manhattan with Hood Island departing back south for more tropical fruit?

It’s taken from the same ridge at Sandy Hook, looking down across the still closed Sandy Hook National Park area.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Barging

First two fotos thanks to John Dupee . . . barges and cranes can be beautiful as well as functional

and tireless like this tow at daybreak approaching the Williamsburg bridge with a light dusting of snow.

Barge Hartford, pushed by Juliet Reinauer, has two feet of freeboard, and later will look like

Lisa, light and exposing the architecture of her stern.

A spud barge pushed by a truckable tug I can’t identify is about to be eclipsed–except the spuds–by a light barge pushed by Melvin E. Lemmerhirt.

I’ve neglected barges . . . so a few more with unlikely names.

The name Alfalfa confounds me, as would Sandy Hook if I was unfamiliar with local geography.

More soon.

Photos, WVD.