Random Tugs 109 Plus

All fotos here from yesterday . ..

Liberty Service as you may never have seen her.  Here (third foto in this link) she was four years ago.

Ditto Huron Service.  Repainting on Huron seems farther along than that on Liberty.   Here’s how Huron Service looked a year and a half ago.   Get ready for Genesis Energy. 

In the past year, this Pegasus has sprouted an upper wheelhouse;  compare with here.

Welcome to the waters around Houston.  Well . ..  I do mean the 118,000-barrel barge married to Linda Moran.  Uh . . . do tugs and barges ever get divorced?

Trucks on the water pushed by Shawn Miller.

I realized only later that–had my conveyance lingered here–I would have seen Catherine C. Miller push past with FIVE trailers/tractors on a barge.  See her in the distance there beyond the bow of  RTC 83.

Reinauer Twins waits alongside RTC 104 with a faux lighthouse in the background.

Lucy Reinauer–earlier Texaco Diesel Chief built in Oyster Bay NY–is the push behind RTC 83.

DBL 29 pushed (ok, will. . .  open eyes.  thanks for the correction.)  moved alongside by Taurus.  See some of my previous Taurus fotos here and here.

And thanks to wide-eyed bowsprite, a vessel I’ve not seen before pushing stone.  It’s Patricia.  She reminds me of a vessel I spotted along the road a few years back . . . Hoss.

So, this is the “plus” in the title, the group-sourcing request portion of this post:  what company is operating Patricia?

And another question . . . from an eagle-eyed upriver captain.  Notice the weather instruments on this channel marker just off Bannerman’s Island (I am planning to do another post on this unique location north of West Point.) And . . .

here are more weather instruments on this federally-maintained channel marker off the Rondout.  Questions:  who’s responsible for these and is there a website where  the data collected can be monitored?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, except for the last three, which come from bowsprite and Capt. Thalassa.

Speaking of bowsprite, today she’s running Radio Lilac and I’ll be there tending bar.  Here’s something of the inspiration.  Come on by if you have the time.  Teleport in if you’re otherwise out of range.

Taurus Heads Upriver

I had no idea why Fred Johannsen (47′ loa x 18′ and launched 1971) showed up at the east end of the KVK, westbound.

But a few hours later, she reappeared  . . . with a dead ship.

Taurus, identified on the VHF as a dead ship?!  !@#@!!

Up to Kingston she goes, and at 3 kts fighting the flood, it’s

going to be a long ride.

Click here for a post of almost five years ago when Taurus herself moved another dead ship.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Sixth Boro Random Delights 6

Forecast for the morning after the Oscars was for some sun, which I sorely needed.  And who’s out . . . William Oscar aka W. O. Decker, for starters.

CCNI Aquiles and Dallas Express at Global . . . and a Moose boat racing toward us.

I couldn’t quite figure out what Sorensen Miller‘s load was.   In the background, that’s the Newark Bay Bridge, which doesn’t make it on my fotos much.

Virginia Sue was fishing off Clermont.

John P. Brown moved nine (?) railcars from Brooklyn to Jersey.

Clipper Legacy arrived here yesterday.

Shawn Miller‘s pushing trucks around again, this one  all ready for the mid-March holiday.

Taurus light moves past Christine McAllister.

And . . . let’s conclude with another shot of William Oscar, wherever it may be heading.

All fotos this morning before the clouds moved in . . . by Will Van Dorp.

Tugster Retrospective 2012

My library for the time period  January 1, 2012 until today contains 11,244 fotos.  Starting from tomorrow, any 2012 fotos will be taken along the road.  So I decided to choose ONE foto per month, quite subjectively and without regard for this foto having previously been featured here.  I don’t claim these are the best of the month. Only 12 fotos, one per month.

January, Sandmaster . . .  waiting to refuel.  Today, Dec 22 . . .  Sandmaster was out there doing what it usually does, mining sand.

February . . . Eagle Beaumont escorted in the Arthur Kill by Charles D. McAllister.

March . . . side by side, CSAV Suape and bulker Honesty, Pacific bound through the Miraflores locks, demonstrating graphically what panamax means.

April . . . red-trimmed Taurus west bound on the KVK, cutting past Advance Victoria.  And just today, I saw Taurus, now blue-trimmed, heading north between Manhattan and Jersey City.

Choosing just one foto per month is tough, but for May, here’s Swan packed and almost ready to go hulldown toward Africa with these specimens of the Crowley, Reinauer, and Allied fleets.

June . . . Weeks Shelby tows shuttle Enterprise from JFK toward Manhattan.

July and an unforgettable 4th using Pegasus as subject under the rocket’s glare

August . . . and coal-fired Badger heads into the sunset . . . and Wisconsin.

September, and a parade of vessels including Urger and Buffalo leave the Federal Lock bound for Waterford.   My inimitable platform here is Fred’s Tug44.

At the start of the Great Chesapeake Schooner race, crew is setting sail on the unique tugantine Norfolk Rebel.  In the distance, it’s Pride of Baltimore 2.

Coming into the home stretch from Montreal, it’s Atlantic Salvor delivering segments of the WTC1 antenna.

And December . . .  it’s Stena Primorsk looming over the USCG vessels.   At this time, Stena Primorsk was impatient to load that first hold with “north dakota crude,” only to experience the malfunction that has left her temporarily disabled upriver, its outer hull gashed open.

Tomorrow I hit the road . . . gallivanting and visiting season.  I thank all of you for reading, many of you for helping me get these fotos, lots of you for correcting my errors and supplying missing info. Happy New Year and let’s pray for much-needed Peace on Earth . . . .

Fog 11

10 was just over exactly a year ago, and my first “fog” post fotos were taken over six years ago here.    This autumn dawn brought fog and horns . . . horns that could be heard, with echoes, and felt.  Eukor Morning Conductor seemed asleep to shore folk

as Anna L. Miller motored by.

On the KVK, Gage Paul Thornton chugged to an appointment as Bow Summer , which I last saw in springtime Panama, made all lines fast.

Mary Alice towed more Kills bottom out to sea.

Finally, the loudest and deepest horn came into view.

attached to Americas Spirit, a name of a befogged yet moving vessel which I’ll avoid attributing too much symbolic meaning to.

Taurus passes Robbins Reef Light.

And Americas Spirit came closer.

She was so close to this shore observer that two of her crew could be clearly seen on the bridge wing.

Barbara McAllister spun her stern to put the tanker portside to at the dock.  More of these docking fotos tomorrow.

And Hunting Creek also made her way from Brooklynside to Bayonneside.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 96

Colleen basks in early morning light before the race earlier this month.

Resolute makes a quick turn to assist with a tow.

Discovery Coast turns westbound into the KVK.

Resolute takes the stern of Thomas J. Brown.

Miriam Moran reports for yet another job.

The inimitable Herbert P. Brake leaves the east end of the Kill.

Laura K. Moran . . .  speed turning.

Taurus heads for the mooring.

Treasure Coast crosses in the foreground after Taurus  gets to the mooring.

Discovery Coast cruises back to home base.

It’s Choptank light about to cross the Upper Bay for Brooklyn, and

a whole bevvy of McAllisters, including Helen. in Mariner’s Harbor . . .  also just before the tugboat race almost three weeks ago.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who does a short gallivant starting later tomorrow.

Rhythms 3

Here was Rhythms 2.

And the tugboat with the travel trailer on the afterdeck–anyone wish to help C. E. Grundler speculate about why it’s up there?–is Nancy Ann on the Willamette River in Oregon.

Last night my question was “to post . . .  or not to post,” and  . . . I think I made the right choice.   Here . . . at dusk was Gramma Lee T Moran, light east bound in the KVK, and

less than an hour later, westbound with a tanker–like a trophy–alongside.   The tanker is Kimolos, two weeks out of Denmark.

A view of a Bouchard barge notch, and

a different Bouchard barge inside the “notch” of Caddell’s big floating drydock.

Taurus light, and

slinging a barge.

Asian King delivering cars to NYC Bayonne, and

Radiant Sky taking their dismemberments away from Claremont.

Meridian Ace crew getting their last fotos in NYC before geting their next fotos in  . . . who knows . . .

Philly.  By the way, click here and scroll down to see where all they’ve been in the past quarter year . . .

All fotos by Will Van Dorp last night, with thanks to JC for getting me there.