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.

Last Hours 2015

One of my (formerly) secret heroes is Guy Noir, secret because I may be revealing too much about myself in admitting that.  But life’s too short to care about drivel like that.   Noir has an office on the 20th floor of the Acme Building in a “city that knows how to keep its secrets,”  yet each week a different mysterious woman seems to find him in quest of a favor. So imagine this as a view from Noir’s Portsmouth VA office around 1600 hrs .  . . on the last night of the year.  It’s rainy but warm and all the creeks feeding into the estuary course in, with color and warmth of some old coffee  . . .  I was last here, though on the river then, about six weeks ago here.  And notice the hammerhead crane to the right.  Here’s

the deal.  But I’ll come back to this history stuff later.

For now, this is a record of the last night of the year, what my parents used to call “old years night.”

In the fading light, there’s Michael J. McAllister, another McA (Nancy??) behind it, Camie, and a trio of Robbins Maritime minis called Thunder, Lightning, and Squall.  AND if you look carefully beyond the McAllister tugs, you’ll see Dann Ocean’s Neptune and the Colonna Shipyard, where a Staten Island ferry is being overhauled. Click here for previous posts referring to Colonna.

In the driving rain as the last hours of the year ebb away, Vane tug Chatham heads south;  the oil must move . . . . even when the postal stream sleeps.

Shadows . . . on a rainy night paint the river.   And under the “tent” inside

And so ended 2015 for me . . . not a low-flying aircraft but a high flying window perch.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, private and public eye.

 

Ports of St. George

GHP&W 3.   And I don’t mean the northern Staten Island area named for a developer with the first name George.

As the lobster might suggest, this St. George is in Maine, and named for the river which is named for the English explorer/captor of Squanto who visited this area in 1607.   I was confused the first time I arrived here because I was looking for Port Clyde and all the signs said was “St. George.”

But it turns out that within the town of St. George are villages like Tennants Harbor, Martinsville, and Port Clyde.

I hope to return to Port Clyde next year, in part because this is the mainland wharf for the Monhegan Boat Line.  Elizabeth Ann was preparing for the passenger run, but

I didn’t get to see the “world-famous Laura B,” a repurposed 1943 Army T-boat, which after doing WW2 duty in the Pacific, ran lobsters from Maine to Boston and New York. Anyone know of old NYC sixth-boro photos of Laura B delivering Maine fruits of the sea to the city?   Laura B was working, delivering freight to Monhegan.  And these cargo nets filled with firewood await for the next cargo run.

A glance at a map or chart of the peninsulas of Maine is enough to explain the value of craft like Reliance and her sisters.

The work boats in the harbor represent only part of the “gear” needed to fish;  the rest is on paper.

Even on rainy days, I like looking at these boats.  Taking photos of paperwork  . . . never so much.

 

 

From a short conversation of the wharf, I have the sense that the paperwork and regulations keep vessels like these in port many more days than they fish. And global water temperature trends make this an even harder way to earn a living.

 

 

All photos here by Will Van Dorp, who wants to get back up here soon.