Inaugurations

January, once every four years, involves a formality that we mark today.  Inaugurate has a strange derivation, you figure it out.  With this post, I’m in no way intending to divine futures.  Really it’s just sets of photos taken four years apart. 

Ice and lightship yacht Nantucket floated in the harbor in mid January 2009. Do you remember what else was literally in the harbor?

Weeks tugs stood by ready to move a barge underneath the airplane when Weeks 533 lifted the Airbus 320 from harbor waters that had cushioned its fall . . . twelve years ago. 

Next inauguration day, 2013, I watched fishermen drag clams from the bottom of Gravesend Bay.

Rebel, destined not to run much longer, pushed a barge across the Upper Bay with an incomplete WTC beyond.  Many more details had not yet sprouted on the Manhattan skyline.

Mid January 2017 . . . CMA CGM Nerval headed for the port with Thomas J. Brown off its starboard.  Here‘s what I wrote about this photo and others exactly four years ago.

Nerval still needed to make its way under the yet-to-be completed raising of the Bayonne Bridge, assisted by JRT Moran.  This view was quite different in mid January 2017.   As of today, this container ship in on the Mediterranean on a voyage between Turkey and Morocco.

All photos, WVD, taken in mid January at four-year intervals.  Nothing should be read into the choice of photos.  Sorry I have no photos from January 20, 2005, because back then I didn’t take as many photos, and four years before that, I was still using a film camera, took fewer photos in a year than now I do on certain days, and that skyline above was very different.

My inaugural event . . .  cleaning my desk, my office, and my kitchen.   If you’re looking for an activity, something might need cleaning. Laundry?   Yup, work after work.  All inaugurations call for clean ups.

And if you want to buy that lightship yacht above, here‘s the info.

 

Random Sixth Boro 8

You’d have thought I use this title more often, but it’s been almost three years since it last appeared. I’m starting with this photo of the lightship WLV-612, because this is where I’ll be this evening for a FREE and open-to-the-public 6 pm showing of our documentary Graves of Arthur Kill.  Seats for those who arrive first.

Over the years I’ve done many posts about the WLV-612, but my favorite is this one.

Here’s a very recent arrival in the sixth boro’s pool of workboats . . . Fort McHenry, just off the ways, although just yesterday an even-more recent arrival.  more on that one soon, I hope.  I don’t know how new Double Skin 315 is.

Ships in the anchorage and waterways must think they are in a tropical clime, given the temperatures of August 2016.

NS Parade, Iron Point, MTM St Jean …  have all been here recently.

Robert E. McAllister returned from a job, possibly having assisted Robert E. Peary.

MSC Lucy headed out past

Larry J. Hebert, standing by at a maintenance dredging job.

MOL Bellwether, all 1105′ loa of her, leave into the humid haze, existing here along with

some wind to propel this sloop.

Finally, just the name, sir;  No need for the entire genealogy. This photo comes compliments of Bob Dahringer.

Thanks to Bob for the photo above;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Sixth Boro Summer 2

Even with sunglasses on, you can see the provenance of this barge Matilde in summer light.  Jeddah was my point of departure for a voyage I took just over 30 years ago . . .  and greatly enjoyed.

Summertime brings folks out to all the geology along the north Brooklyn side of the East river.

And Sunday I finally made it to the Brooklyn Barge, and I’m sorry I waited so long. I went there via the East River Ferry, getting off at India Street and walking around via West and Milton.  I highly recommend the fish tacos and the shrimp tacos.

Here’s where you pick up the food after the magic has been done.

Of course, the Media Boat fleet was out and busy, and

the juxtaposition possibilities are great on a summer weekend.

Imagine the possibilities for a Spencer Tunick installation, partly on the hillock and partly on the scrap metal . . . .   Of course, I’m don’t know if all the stakeholder would agree, so I’ll just imagine those oxidized shapes on the scow and those fleshy forms on the hillock have been painted that way by Mr. Tunick.

What will bring me back to this part of the East River soon–other than the tacos–is this air traffic, dodging

PWCs and ferries.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, whose next post will be “whale watching summertime.”

If you’re looking for summer reading, check out this list.

 

Beacon WLV-612

You’ve seen this vessel before here.  Last night I saw the inside and heard the narrative of its service life (California, Maine, Massachusetts) as well as the three-year process of its adaptive reuse, the basics of which you can read on its own website.  The minutiae of its size, equipment, and propulsion, again, check  here.

(No, this isn’t a duplicate foto. Notice the Statue of Liberty–itself a beacon– just forward the bow in the lower foto.)  What I found most compelling about last night’s slide/lecture was the role of vision that brought the vessel to its current incarnation.  No matter that it almost went for scrap or that it might have capsized or sunk on its way to the yard, the current owners aka stewards maintained their gaze on what it could turn into.   Vision fuels discipline.  Vision led to its reconstruction, and vision is what it can provide, both literally and figuratively.

According to Bill Golden, only 12 lightships remain today.  Four are in (or relatively near) sixth boro waters.  Can anyone comment on where the others are?

Excuse this wheelhouse pic taken sans wide-angle lens.  Interesting about the controls is that the wheel, binnacle, and engine order telegraph though present are disconnected.  Hidden beneath the wood panels below the portholes are throttle/transmission control levers and joystick steering as well as electronics.  While in Coast Guard service, the ship had no wood surfaces.

Nantucket WLV-612 will remain in North Cove until mid-spring, at least.  Need a unique space for a function?  It’s  $4000 for four hours.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  Thanks to New York Ship Lore and Model Club for organizing the event.