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Even on overcast days, the sixth boro aka NY harbor offers sights. It’s long been so; here’s much abridged paragraphs 3-5 Chapter 1 of Moby Dick:
[People] stand … fixed in ocean reveries. Some leaning … some seated … some looking over the bulwarks of ships from China… [some] pacing straight for the water… Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land… They must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling in. And there they stand… infallibly [move] to water… Why did the poor poet of Tennessee, upon suddenly receiving two handfuls of silver, deliberate whether to buy him a coat, which he sadly needed, or invest his money in a pedestrian trip to Rockaway Beach? Why is almost every robust healthy [youth] with a robust healthy soul… at some time or other crazy to go to sea? Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning…. we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans … the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.”
OK, so that might be over the top, but I find at least as much entertainment along the water as in all the other places in NYC. Maybe that makes me a hermit, but that’s irrelevant. Can you name these boats?
At less than 10 miles an hour, trade comes in, commerce of all sort goes on.
different hour different goods,
different tasks,
different energies
and errands
by different
companies . . .
All photos, WVD.
And in order, Jonathan C Moran, Meaghan Marie, Ellen McAllister, Andrea, Schuylkill, Rowan R McAllister, Thomas D Witte, Susan Miller.
Here are previous riverbanks posts, although for some inexplicable reason, they are not indexed in order.
Name the riverbank in the image below?
Above and below, that’s Manhattan, as seen from about 30 miles out. It would take another four hours before we passed the 59th Street Bridge. The darker image in the center of the photo below is Vane’s Brooklyn, which we were following.
The sunset colors below in the photo below taken about an hour after the top photo were stunning.
Three hours later we approached the Hell Gate bridges. See Thomas D. Witte hidden in the lights?
Passing the northern tip of Roosevelt Island, the refurbished lighthouse looked like this, compared with
this image of the very same lighthouse I’d taken only eight days earlier. The Nellie Bly “faces” tribute there is worth seeing by day. The main channel passes to the left in the photo below.
Here is said 59th Street Bridge looking at the Graduate Hotel (No, that’s not a 1967 movie reference.) and some buildings of Cornell Tech.
New on this bank of Manhattan are the American Copper Buildings, here
framing a seasonally-lit Empire State Building . . . ESB. That belt joining the two . . . that houses a swimming pool.
The repurposed Havermeyer Sugar building has just added a new but retro sign, alluding to the former enterprise of the building.
Behold the 120-year-old Williamsburg Bridge
and then eventually the 140-year-old Brooklyn Bridge. The 113-year-old Manhattan Bridge is in between the two.
After rounding the “horn,” we headed up the North River for the Hudson, passing other new buildings framing the ESB. This twisting pair is called The Eleventh. The ghostly white tower is the Bank of America Tower, and below it is IAC.
Notice a pattern here in framing the ESB? The “web” of course is The Vessel, a structure whose origins by water I posted about here and here.
Looking toward the Manhattan side of the GW Bridge, that red speck at its base is the “little red lighthouse” at Jeffreys Point made obsolete by the GW itself.
As down broke, we were north of Poughkeepsie, breaking ice and about to turn into the Rondout.
All photos, WVD, who hopes you’ve enjoyed this phantasmagorical sequence of the five boros as seen from the sixth.
This will be the last post for a few days . . . William F. Fallon Jr. at the Statue.
Thomas D. Witte, dredge Delaware, Durham, and some smaller boats in the Upper Bay.
Marjorie B. McAllister with NYNJR 200 on the Brooklyn side.
Jessica Ann and another RIB appear to be involved in diving ops. Brrr.
Schuylkill moves a tank barge across the boro.
James William tows a mooring into Erie Basin.
And finally, the ever busy Chandra B heads for the Kills.
All photos recently, WVD, who hopes to be back by week’s end.
Discovery Coast has been around for over a decade now. One of my first times to see her was here.
Lightning has only recently been joined by Thunder, here. Might tugs named for other weather phenomena like hail and fog be coming?
Helen was only renamed that earlier this year; before that, she was Charles Burton.
Thomas D. Witte appeared here only once as Kendall P. Brake, and that was a decade and a half ago with Powhatan, class-establisher for Apache.
Defender last appeared on this blog a year and a half ago here . . . She was
formerly Davis Sea, my favorite photo of which was here, struggling with solid water upriver.
Pearl Coast is a regular at the cement dock on the KVK, here with Cement Transporter 1802, one of a fleet of barges dedicated to exactly that.
And while I was at this location, I caught a convergence of tugboats, Pegasus eastbound and Stephen Reinauer westbound. Stephen has been in the sixth boro for nearly 30 years now.
All photos, WVD.
I’ve compartmentalized my photos from the Pioneer sail the other night, in part because in a short two-hour sail there was so much to see. For starters, Stephanie Dann had earlier just rushed eastward and came back with Cornucopia Destiny, a dance partner on her starboard side. I can speculate about this, but I don’t know the details.
As we headed into the Buttermilk, we met Susan Rose AND
Jordan Rose, ex- Evening Breeze and Evening Star, respectively.
This sweet downeaster passed.
I suspect Jordan came along to assist
Susan into the notch.
Meanwhile, a ways down the piers, Stasinos Jimmy and currently still Evening Tide were rafted up for the moment.
Whatever brought Jordan to the Red Hook piers, by the time we had sailed passed the gantries, she was overtaking us.
On the return, as night began to fall, we met Thomas D. Witte and
then her fleetmate Douglas J.
At this point, my photos were pixelating, but I still managed to get Eastern Dawn, heading back to the “barn” at dusk.
All photos, WVD, who has handed the keys to the tower over to the robots again for a while.
Laurie Ann Reinauer is pushing RTC 85 for an appointment somewhere the Kills.
Meagan Ann moves dredge spoils out of MOTBY.
Thomas D. Witte stems with another scow as Meagan Ann passes by.
J. Arnold takes the Back Channel over to Claremont.
James William heads for an assist.
A fact about Buchanan 12 . . . it appears she’s had that name and worked for that same company since 1972. That’s longevity.
All photos, WVD, who’s happy the days are getting longer, with fewer than 200 days until the summer solstice.
I’m posting early today and can’t guarantee I’ll be able to move this on to FB the next few days because I’m traveling. So, sign up to get new posts straight to your email. Also check the note at the end of this post.
Here’s one that got away: the tug to the right is the 1975 Mary Emma, ex-Evening Light. I’d been waiting in St George hoping she’d move from Mariner’s Harbor eastbound. Finally I gave up and boarded the ferry. Partway to Whitehall, I noticed she was headed east, right past where I’d been. Once in Whitehall I boarded the next ferry south, hoping to get photos near the St George side. It’s not a great shot and it would have been if only I’d stayed put . . . but life is full of as many missed opportunities as fulfilled ones.
Sarah Dann (1983) recently made a big move of a crane from Wisconsin to Maine, a longer trip by water than by land. Two years ago, she made another long tow with components for a refinery.
Franklin Reinauer (1984) has been based in the boro and carried that name since she came out of the shipyard.
Osprey (1961) is a recent newcomer to the sixth boro.
Christian Reinauer (2001) is the most powerful of this batch, with 7200 hp moving her payload.
A year ago Eastern Dawn (1978) was still painted white.
Andrea (1999) came here without the upper wheelhouse.
Thomas D. Witte (1961) and James E. Brown (2015) pass each other in the Back Channel.
Diane B (1980) seemed to drift through this part of the channel the other day.
And finally, I believe, Morton S. Bouchard IV (2004) is the only remaining Bouchard tugboat over at the stack in Stapleton. When will her transformation to Jesse Rose begin?
All photos, WVD, who has left the boro for a while.
By the way, a few days ago I made up some 2022 calendars, of which 17 are left for sale. I used a subjective process for selection this time. More details later but if you’re interested, email me your interest and your address. Send no money at this time, please, but prices will likely be up a tad because, of course, politics.
Marjorie B. McAllister is one of those tugs that confused me when I first started paying attention. Below the house is down, and
and here the hydraulics have raised it up to look over Bulkmaster.
Ava M. McAllister‘s elegant lines are shown off as she assists a tanker to the Arthur Kill.
Cohoes on the Hudson River was the launch site of Mary Turecamo, the last tugboat to be built there.
Thomas D. Witte originally had a telescoping wheelhouse to fit under bridges on the Erie Canal and elsewhere, but I’ve never seen photos of that superstructure.
Ever sharp-looking 2006 Pegasus goes to a job.
The veteran Ellen McAllister escorts in a tanker. I’ll do a tanker post here one of these days soon, maybe later this week.
Capt. Brian heads eastbound on the KVK to a job.
Pathfinder is rarely seen light, but here she heads over to pick up the TUP at the trash transfer station.
Twins . . . at the 10-year mark . . . looks to need some TLC.
Here was Twins a minute earlier, coming out of a busy but typical traffic pattern on the KVK. I count five tugboats besides Twins.
The mighty Patrice powers her way east to pick up a job. Note the crew aboard Chem Singapore.
And to end this post, which of course could go on and on, the 4610 hp Doris powers along a container barge from one NY/NJ container port to another, a local example of short sea shipping.
All photos, WVD.
Mornings on the KVK can be busy.
Above, Sea Fox (1971) follows Barney Turecamo (1995), and below, Kimberly Poling (1994) is followed by Mary H (1981)
Kimberly Turecamo (1980) and Marjorie A. McAllister (1974) head east to escort different incoming ships.
Chesapeake Coast (2012) assists Gulf Coast (1982) moving the cement barge out into the current.
Bruce A. (1974) and Patrice McAllister (1999) hasten out for work.
Thomas A. Witte (1961 when she was called Valoil) returns to Port Newark.
Joyce D. (2002) passes the docked Normandy (2007).
And Cape Canaveral (2019) makes for her yard.
All this and much more during a few hours one bright, mild morning recently by WVD. Any errors, my blame.
2015 is the last year I saw the race; in the following years I was working and away. But 2015 Labor Day Sunday had beautiful weather.
Again, I’m not going to name each; you can read the names either on the boats or in the tags . . . and then match up. And in the photo above, the jetskis had no names, but I hope you noticed them.
I’ll make an exception for Sea Horse, the Linden-based Sea Scout boat. Click here for more info on the boat.
See Harvey back at the end of the line? It was 19 years ago that Harvey came out of retirement to assist when tragedy struck.
Both lead tugs here are nicely appointed with the colorful pennants.
Ellen certainly had the best matched “riding crew” that day.
Let’s hope the this race comes back in 2021.
All photos, WVD, whose fabulous ride was care of the NY Media Boat. If you’re looking for something to do, click on the link and book a ride.
tugster: a waterblog 
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