Dropped Balls and New Years Ships

January 1 glides in as some folks pay attention to dropped things like balls and quite unusual and unexpected other items.  In fact, in a few weeks media will be mentioning balls in bowls ad nauseum.

My surprise on my new year’s morning jaunt was that two tankers side by side sported baskets.  See it on Stolt Efficiency, painted on the homeport backstop.  Presumably, halftime would include drinks served on the picnic table.

 

The angle is not as favorable here, but Stena Penguin also had a basket through which balls might drop.

The back to back ships seemed to beg for crew to compete, but first they’d have to move the tankers stern to stern and each team post some of their crew on the other vessel’s deck.  I don’t think this will catch on.

Silver Philippa appeared to have no basket.

Nor did Arctic Flounder or

the revelatory vessel Single.

Single what?!

Overnight, though, a whole new set of ships arrived in the port, as some of these tankers departed, possibly to away games?

Photos and attempts at levity by Will Van Dorp.

 

Browns 2

Thomas J. Brown and Sons Inc. has been a marine towing enterprise in the sixth boro since 1927.  Their boats are busy and always very attractive. More than a decade ago I first used this title.

Thomas J. Brown, the oldest current boat, is a classic.

Joyce D. Brown, the most powerful current boat, is headed past Shooters Island here.  That color . . .  I just love it, especially in winter like this.

The newest boat–James E–arrived from the shipyard just a few years ago and regularly moves the rail cars across the boro.   I wonder if this cross-harbor rail tunnel will ever happen.

A few weeks ago James E. was moving this jackup platform.

Paul Strubeck caught the same job here.

As he did catching Thomas assisting James moving rail cars.

And finally, a real treat from Paul, a photo of Cecilia J. Brown, ex- DPC 42, Skipper (1948), Viatic (1952/54), Dalzellance (1957), Cecilia J. Brown, reefed some years ago, although I know not where.

Thanks to Paul for his photos;  all others by will Van Dorp.

 

Scale 10

I think of ROROs like Dignity Ace as being fairly large, but this juxtaposition made me re-evaluate.

So let’s let the tape tell its tale:  three vessels here are (l to r) Anthem of the Seas, YM Utmost, and Dignity Ace with respect to their length and breadth; and I realize that the photo does nothing to show loa.  It comes out as 1141′ x 162′  v.  1099′ x 140′ v.  656′ x 106.’

The two Vane tugs are 90′ x 32,’  although I know it’s Fort McHenry alongside Anthem and cannot identify the tug alongside Dignity.

I’m guessing the fishing boat anchored here is about 20′ and

Franklin Reinauer is 81′ x 27.9 . . . .

And since we’re doing numbers . . . from the “globe” atop the “sky arm” to the water . . . that’s 300.’

That puts some perspective on scale of some sixth boro traffic.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

On Turning 86

The 1931 bridge has been so prominent on this blog over the past decade plus that the past few years of construction and now deconstruction mesmerize me.  Just look at the header photo I’ve not changed since 2006.  I’ll never change it now.

I spent a few hours watching the work yesterday and share some of the photos here today and tomorrow.  Photo 1 was taken at 06:49 before work began, from what I could tell;  I’m the observer only and speculate sometimes because I’m not privy to the communications.  NY is to the left and NJ to the right.

06:54 … NJ side.  A safety and planning meeting?

07:01.  Workers use various means to venture out to the severed transverse beam (?) to begin its removal.

07:30.  Similar activity starts on the NY side.

07:52

08:25.  Almost imperceptibly slow, the movement of the transverse progresses.

08:28.  And then it speeds up.

08:36.  A flatbed trailer has backed into place to receive the beam.

08:38.  Meanwhile, over on the NJ side, a similar evolution has begun.

08:39.

Meanwhile, at 08:43, a container vessel is rounding Bergen bend  and headed for sea, after “threading the needle,”  …  well, not really, it made it in with those beams in place . . .

08:43, and we’ll pick up the evolution here tomorrow with MSC Kolkata   . . .  Note the crewmen on the bow?

I’d like to give a hat tip to all the Bayonne Bridge workers who work with such skill and safety in this enormous project, one of at least six bridge projects happening simultaneously in the greater sixth boro.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

KVK Surprises 2

Surprises can be ranked in degrees.  Here was a surprise . . . people walking way up on the Bayonne Bridge back in 2011.  Ditto here I was looking into a hot tub on the stern of a scrap-carrying bunker (photo#7).

The surprises in this post emerge slowly.

This PCTC has been on this blog before, as has Kirby Moran.

That it’s called Don Juan was surprising the first time I saw it, but this line names some of its vessels after characters from opera, so Don Juan fits.

But the detail below–just forward of the radomes– blew me away.  In fact, when I took the photo, I had no idea what it was, maybe some netting, I imagined.  But a painted-on bower?  Or is it painted on . . . maybe it’s real bougainvillea?  Is there a Don Juan aboard who uses this as his love nest?  Here’s stanza XVIII from Lord Byon’s epic Don Juan Canto 1:

Perfect she was, but as perfection is
Insipid in this naughty world of ours,
Where our first parents never learned to kiss
Till they were exiled from their earlier bowers,
Where all was peace, and innocence, and bliss,[b]
(I wonder how they got through the twelve hours),
Don José, like a lineal son of Eve,
Went plucking various fruit without her leave.

Next . . . even stranger, I think.  See TS Kennedy over next to the GMD Graving Dock and Anthem of the Seas out beyond that?  Surprise?

A giraffe?!  !@#!

Maybe it’s an amusement.  Maybe it’s a stand-in for emergency drills?  I went looking and found out about Gigi.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Government Boats 42

Let me start with the oldest ones not yet published.  There’s something timely about Tracy, the vessel below.  I took the photo from mid river between Ogdensburg NY and Prescott ON.  Are you hankering for a project?  Details below.

The next day I got this photo as we entered Oswego.  RV Kaho was christened in this post I did a little over two years before.  Its mission is research on habitat and fish in Lake Ontario.  Here’s an article on that christening that mentions the meaning of the name in Ojibwe.

I shot this last week as it was tied up at the dry dock in Bayonne, and wish I could have gotten closer.  Ferdinand R. Hassler was christened in 2012.  Its namesake is this gentleman, distinguished in two countries.

Line has had light work this season in its role as a 65′ ice breaker.  Here’s an article I did on this 54-year-old vessel a few years back.

I’m not sure where 343 is these days;  Feehan seems to be covering the North River these days.  Click here for photos of Feehan as she transited from Lake Ontario to the sixth boro.

Fire Fighter II passes the hose rack–not water hoses–on the KVK.

And here’s a twofer… a Staten Island ferry and a small USACE survey boat, I believe.

 

So here’s why the top photo of Tracy is timely;  it’s for sale.    The minimum bid is $250,000 Canadian, which is a mere $189,880 US, given today’s exchange rate.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Fishing February

I’ve done lots of fishing posts, mostly about this unlikely estuary, where I’ve never fished.

Here’s Virginia Sue heading past Sakizaya Champion and out

 

the Narrows.  By the way, I’m planning a post on that fort in the distance some day soon.

Dutch Girl is a regular here,

as is the unlikely named but frequently seen Eastern Welder. 

 

Speaking of fishing, here’s my most recent Professional Mariner story on a group of guys who catch-and-release great big white fish.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Here and here are some related posts from six years ago. And why not another about a boat I’ve not noticed yet this year, Miss Callie;  keep in mind, I’ve not been out that much myself.