Survey Vessel 2

This exact title–sans the number–goes way back to 2007 here.   The orange vessel doing surveys in 2007 has been replaced by the one below, which I’d not seen until very recently.

The USACE has several survey boats in the boro, as

does Rogers.

Alpine Ocean has been surveying the harbor and the bight for some time now . . . with R/V Shearwater, which I’ve seen as far south as Norfolk.

Shearwater is 110′ loa; clearly here you see how Dina Polaris shrinks her size, the latter has five times the number of berths.

She was in briefly and out this past weekend, so I devote more space to her.

 

 

 

And while we’re in this general group, I couldn’t pass up this vessel, which I’ve not seen.  She may be the one doing working on the WW2 tanker wreck Coimbra, 30 miles south of Shinnecock Inlet. Has anyone gotten photos of her?

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wishes you all a happy may day . . .

 

 

Random Tugs 243

I missed Josephine Reinauer (actually I saw her but couldn’t get a clear shot)  when she visited town recently, but I did catch Jacksonville, the latest Vane machine in the harbor.

For some reason I expected her to look different, but it’s an Elizabeth Anne class tug, which’ll look a lot like most of the rest of the Vane fleet.

Eric and the other McAllister escort tugs have been quite busy recently.

Ernest Campbell has been here about a half year doing bunkering, I believe.

Trevor usually works as a dredge tender, focusing on the Jersey shore this fall.

Brooklyn was called Brooklyn Service when I first discovered the sixth boro.

Daisy Mae is just over a year old.

Normandy came to the sixth born from Colombia a few years ago.

Rowan has been working in the sixth boro of late.

In fact, almost seven years ago, it was Rowan that brought Patrice McAllister into the boro after the tragic fire during her delivery from the Great Lakes to this salt water.  These days, Patrice is looking great.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who has heard about but not yet seen Hunter D.

 

Random Tugs 236

Along the Jersey shore . . .  it’s Candace, a Damen Shoalbuster design . . . built at Eastern Shipbuilding in 2004.

Hete’s a slightly sharper, closer shot.

Working with Candace in dredge support, it’s Trevor.

Trying to keep her ground tackle tackling the bay bed, it’s Linda Moran holding with Houston.

OSG 350 is practically a ship . . . and she’s pushed by

a force more powerful than what drives some ships, the 12,000 hp OSG Vision.  I first saw her here in 2010.

Also, holding fast or trying to, it’s Genesis Valiant, previously Erie Service.

In much calmer weather, it’s Nicole Leigh Reinauer and

Atlantic Enterprise, formerly Barents Sea.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Combi Dock III & Peking Saga 2

I stopped by around midday today.  Trevor had been alongside all morning.  I presume this was loading cargo support materials. Here’s the last post I did where Trevor appeared.   These first two photos are taken from Brooklyn looking across at Staten Island.

Time is of the essence here, but I’ll bet working in the 90 degree F temperatures was draining.

Here’s the prep as seen from Fort Wadsworth.

Reynolds‘ Twin Tube appears to be standing by with supplies for crew and possibly spares.

 

Let’s hope tomorrow proves an eventful day. . .

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Weeks 3

I do not try to group tugboats in posts by company, but in the past week I’ve noticed an inordinate number of Weeks boats in the sixth boro.  Let’s start with this shot of Trevor, which I caught yesterday.   Here are some previous Trevor shots.

Earlier I’d caught Trevor tailing a tow pull by Alexandra.  I might have to dig in the archives to 2009 and 2008 to find my previous photo of Alexandra.

Here was that tow, the Weeks 533, the flagship of the Weeks fleet.   The 1965 crane also has tragedy associated with it now.

A few days ago I caught Thomas and

Shelby over on the KVK.  Beyond Shelby here are Jill Reinauer and Brooke Chapman.   This was a first to see Brooke Chapman in the sixth boro.  Will she become a regular?

All photos in the past week by Will Van Dorp.  And speaking of Weeks tugs, I’d be happy to see Candace again.

My favorite Shelby photos have her towing the Starship Enterprise. and tailing here.

Replenished Rockaway

Aug 31.  A late summer day at the beach, where a new “towel drying rack” has been adopted and a bumper crop

of sand awaits the erosion of winter, perhaps?  All photos here taken by Barbara Barnard.

Sept 1.  A tug (Trevor?) moves a crane barge to where the “drying rack”/piping needs to be fished out for transport to the next job.

Sept 13.  The remaining pipe on the beach, no longer serving to dry swimmers’ towels, awaits dismantling and

allows for closer inspection.

This Rockaway series was of course motivated by Hurricane Sandy and the photos of Rockaway by my friend Barbara in the past 12 months.  Barbara, many thanks.   Here was my Nemo to Flag Day post, which started with a mystery house.

And now it looks like the Nola “make it right” rebuilding plan is coming to the Rockaways.  Click here for the design for “resilient house.”    Here’s an earlier article.

Click here for a project/business entirely created by the devastation of trees during the storm.  It’s not maritime, water,  or even specifically landthreshold related, but is quite interesting.

Whole Lotta Dredgin’ 11

Here and here are previous posts on a Rockaway Beach replenishment dredging operation that has now ended.   Sea Wolf is still local, but the vessel on the horizon (“atop” the red buoy) has now moved to southern NJ.  Remember, for most fotos, doubleclick enlarges.

Weeks’ Trevor was assisting in this project.

Also assisting was George W.

But here’s the powerhouse, the dredge.  Let’s take a tour.

In spite of about 16,000 total horsepower, C. R. McCaskill is not self-propelled.  To see what towed the dredge to the south, see the foto at the end of this post.    All that power moves the cutterhead on the submerged arm (called a “ladder”) that extends to the sand at the bottom of the Channel here.  At the top end of the ladder are two huge pumps (you could stand inside the pump housing) that suck the sand and whatever else off the bottom and send it as a slurry to a point on the beach some miles away.  Click here for a pdf that shows the beautiful (ok . . . roll your eyes) virgin red cutterhead with green teeth.    Each tooth weighs around 35 pounds!

Here inside the dredge are some interesting astounding facts about the machine.

See the sand colored building on the horizon off the stern of McCaskill?  That’s the area around 105th St. Rockaway Beach where the sand is headed through piping powered by this vessel.  The first few fotos in this post were taken at that beach.  There’ll be another Rockaway post soon.

Candace towed C. R. McCaskill south.  I missed her when she was in town, but John Skelson caught her here.  Click on the foto to see John’s complete shot.  Many thanks to John for use of that shot from his Flickr page.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, except for the one shared by John Skelson.  For more info on each of the Weeks tugs, click here.  More McCaskill tomorrow.

Shear Legs

title sounds provocative?   Well,  I’ll subtitle this “whole lotta dredgin’ 6.”  It’s been almost three years since I’ve used this title, but .  .   . when Sabine‘s this close to the beach and

there’s a tube in the water, there must

be a shear leg  or

two lurking nearby, although I wonder if these are shear legs . . . technically speaking.

I’m not positive what Sea Wolf

George W, and

and Trevor were doing  . . . other than arranging the dredge spoils pipe,

with Sabine  monitoring . .  .

ut it has to do with the mother dredger ship some distance away.  Fotos of her .  . tomorrow.  And if there’s a dredger’s rainbow and someone gets a pic, I’d love to see it.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who found a reason to lurk awhile along NYC’s Copacabana/Ipanema . . . .