50 Shades of Spray 1

Oh . . . 50 at least!

If anything serves as evidence of the sixth boro temperatures,

the patterns of Zim Luanda surely do.

Wolf River cruised by and howled approval.

I’d love to see your evidence of the temperatures outside this weekend.

Indoors . .. . well, that may be a different story.   Here’s to hoping it is.

All photos this morning by Will Van Dorp.

Random Ships 32

Red Hook with Alice Oldendorff in background.

Lia with Stolt Effort on the far side.

Hellas sisters with Left Coast Lifter in the background.  Anyone know when the gargantu-crane will move toward the TZ Bridge site?

Ever Divine has seraphic lines . . .

Zim Luanda follows a sinuous path through the KVK with assistance from Brendan Turecamo…

… as does Hanjin Durban, escorted by Miriam Moran…

maintaining a steady course between the two container ships as MOL Excellence bounds seaward…

and encounters a sister MOL Expeditor waltzed in with Marjorie B McAllister.

So . . . what do you know about this ship?

Answer tomorrow.  All photos here by Will Van Dorp.

 

People on the Boro 16

Here was 14.

And in the photo below, dozens of people occupy  the vessels, mostly invisible even as the weather starts to warm up.

But some work is done outside . .  like preparing to retrieve a docking pilot, whereas

others, after a time at sea, feast their eyes on details of a foreign port . . . one that might NOT look like the legendary port they are entering,

looking at the south side of KVK and thinking, “This is New York?”

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Excessively Windy

“Excessive wind”  . . . i.e., a constant 20+ mph describes Wednesday’s weather quite well.  The following fotos all come thanks to Capt. Fred Kosnac, who was on one tug of three accompanying the Weeks crane barge to the right.   Farther up the dock, notice the blue/green hull of a container ship, MOL Destiny.

Two hours later, notice our perspective relative to MOL Destiny.  The tugs with the crane barge were asked to move to make room for passing traffic . . .  the black hulled container ship.  The next fotos all transpire in a three-minute period as docking tugs struggle to safely get MSC Nerissa to the dock on the opposite side of the channel.

Count the tugs wrestling the MSC vessel over.  There’s Joan Turecamo, Gramma Lee T Moran, and

Resolute.    The other two container vessels are Zim Luanda and Ever Respect.  And the Weeks 533, see her here lifting locomotives a few years back and an Airbus 320 –now in a Charlotte museum–before that.

These are the hidden dramas that routinely happen in the context of moving our goods into and out of the port.

By now . . . a mere 48 hours later, these behemoths are hundreds of miles from here and from each other, the docking tugs have finished at least a half dozen other docking assists, and the Weeks barge and tugs  . . . at work on other projects.    Again, thanks for these to Capt. Fred Kosnac.

Unrelated:  Does anyone know whether whether any wooden 64′ USCG tugs still exist?

Also unrelated:  I found the incident I recalled reading that involved M/V Cosette, mentioned a few days ago.  Here’s the article.   I still don’t know if she’s scrapped or sunk or still sailing.

Totally related foto from summer 2009, the orange Fred K II.

Outs and Ins

There are ports and bottlenecks, and the sixth boro is surely a port, not that within it bottlenecks do not exist.  Yesterday afternoon I caught Charles Island headed for sea, and ultimately Ecuador . . . so it’ll pass through that bottleneck called Panama, which has so frequently preoccupied me these days.

Zim Luanda also departed yesterday, bound for Savannah.

Meanwhile, an equal number of vessels enter port, the sixth boro, our enormous honey pot.  Like this one, huge but fairly empty.  This foto of CSAV Rio de Janiero –and the two after that–come compliments of John Watson.   CSAV Rio de Janiero leaves here (probably tomorrow) for the Mediterranean.

Also, new in town and caught by John’s eye, it’s USNS Grasp T-ARS-51.  Possibly in town for maintenance?  And while I’m on the subject of sharp eyes and unusual craft, check out Mage’s report from San Diego, featuring USS Peleliu LHA-5, Navy dolphins, and an unusual vessel that defies my ability to identify it.  Any help?  Ooops . . . here’s Mage’s link.

And finally, arriving this morning, Polish-built Ice Pearl, vintage 1980.

To a casual observer of the harbor, a lot of vessels come in, park, and then leave.  They all do, but some areas of the sixth boro ARE designated anchorages.  This explains vessels like Pacific Quartz (recently arrived here from the Arabian Sea) and Avonden.  Tug Mary Gellatly (1978, ex-Capt. Jentry, North Star, North Service) leaves her dock and heads north.

Thanks to John Watson for the three fotos in the middle;  all others by Will Van Dorp, who’s happy to find others too could while the time away doing the Otis Redding thing on a bay, any bay any day.  Just think, what if Otis had started waterfotoblogging!!!