Retro Sixth Boro 43

I hope you enjoy looking back 10 years as much as I do, although some might say I live in the past a little too much.  Here’s some dense traffic, l to r, Twisted Sisters, Lucinda Smith, Maurania III, and Petrozavosk. 

Up in Lyons NY at the drydock, Governor Roosevelt shows her deep 8′ 6″ belly. Rosie will turn 100 in summer 2027.

Greenland Sea . . . one of my favorites is likely on her terminal lay up.

Does Duty still do duty on the Delaware?

Maria J is now Nicholas Vinik.

Charles D. is still working hard  in the boro, as she was here helping Zim Virginia around Bergen Point.  I do miss the walkway on the WEST side of the Bayonne Bridge.

This Peter is now Long Island . . . or Long Peter if you like.

Resolute assists Maersk Kentucky around that same point.

Amberjack is now Kirby Dann Ocean white and blue, and some of the Bouchard boats are now this Penn Maritime gray. 

Giulio Verne was in town for some submarine cabling, and I’ve heard tell there was a fabulous Italian chef on board.  She’s now docked in Naples IT.

I went to Detroit for Thanksgiving, and made a stop at Mariner’s Church, alluded to in “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” [In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed.  In the maritime sailors’ cathedral.  The church bell chimed ’til it rang twenty-nine time…]  .  I’m told the pastor at the church objected to the word musty and now Lightfoot sings it as “In a rustic old hall in Detroit …”  In fact, you can confirm that here.

And let me throw two more in.  I took this photo seven years ago from Rhinecliff as I headed south the day I completed my season on tugboat Urger.  This was my way of reconnecting with the sixth boro. Maryland is now Liz Vinik.

And finally, a photo from Jason LaDue . . .  it’s Grouper as she looked in 2000.  A week ago her second auction concluded with a winning bid of $4850, but I don’t know who tendered that bid.  According to my source, no movement has happened since the auction concluded. 

Happy November.  All photos except Jason’s by WVD.

 

More Cargoes 16

Here was 15.

Cargoes of all sorts move through the harbor.  One that has always surprised me is this ore from the Congo in the first half of the 20th century.

Here’s a vessel–certainly empty as it was towed to drydock in the old Brooklyn Navy Yard earlier this week.  I missed it but John Watson caught it.  Any ideas?  I believe I saw it in Wilmington back in mid-October.

It’s Falconia of the Corral Line, adapted to carry things that go “moo” in the night.  Stephanie Dann and Ruby M act like drovers to get Falconia into its own private East River corral.  Having grown up on an upstate NY dairy farm, I’d love to see a Corral Line vessel loaded and at sea;  even better, anchored on a calm night in a comfortable harbor.

Here’s an additional shot of the cargo barged in last week from Canada, powered by the inimitable Atlantic Salvor.  The cargo, if you missed last week’s post, is antenna sections for the World Trade Center.

Look closely at that patch of blue on Stolt Emerald‘s port side.

Although not cargo, it is truly unique application of paint . . . surfing penguins.

And finally, look at the frontmost cargo on Zim Virginia.

Here’s sideview of two Ford tow trucks, ones to be operated by wrecker drivers rather than towing officers.  And that’s Barbara McAllister running alongside.

Many thanks to John Watson for the Falconia fotos.

Plus 80, 80 Plus Redux

There always needs to be a first time, for everything.  Maria J (ex-Jesus Saves)  did it for me . . .

my passing from innocence to experience.  I picked the day, bridge dedication plus 80 years with vivid bridge shadow on the water.  Land in the distance is Elizabeth, NJ;  point on right is Bergen Point . . . a section of Bayonne, NJ that once was a farm of tanks . . . an orchard if you prefer.

Zim Virginia was the first ship

to pass beneath me.  Anyone know of fotos of traffic through here 80 and 75 and 50 years ago?

Charles D. McAllister assists port side, and

besides the hard over rudder,

Maurania III, starboard, nudges the vessel to starboard to

avoid Shooter’s Island and head up to Port Elizabeth.

Happy dedication day!  If you missed the link to the pdf published by the Port Authority upon the 75th anniversary, click here.  Great vintage pics.  If you missed the diagram of the planned approximately 80′ raising of the roadbed, click here.

All foto by Will Van Dorp.

Spring Treats

Happy . . . .  first sunny Sunday in April.  With balmy weather and a full spectrum of light conditions this first weekend of April, just call it the weekend right before summer although it may snow yet this spring  . . .  Whatzit below?  I’ll do a post on Gabby soon; for now that’s all I’ll say.

Adriatic Sea–the most powerful sounding vessel in the boro–and Lincoln Sea, off in the distance lower left both recall for me summers past.

Oleander heads off to Bermuda while Baltic Sea enters the east end of KVK.

Kuroshio Express flushes water through its dolly partons while arriving for its boro-6  appointment, escorted by

Brendan Turecamo.

Patapsco prepares for an assist.

Ellen McAllister escorts in Zim Virginia.

As I watched from pier 66, Melvin E. Lemmerhirt passes between me and the setting sun, which

also burnished the dull gray surfaces of Intrepid.

All fotos taken on good Friday afternoon by Will Van Dorp.

Meditations Z

Z . . . the end.   Of the alphabet but not the blog.  This A through Z set of meditations–with one medication slipped in on Q day–happened quite by chance.  If I am moved to repeat the series, Z could be ZULU time, z-drive or Zuider Zee.  Or Zachery Reinauer (Cohoes, NY-built and ex-Mobil 1 and Tioga)  . . .

or Zim San Francisco,

one of more than 40 vessels operated by Zim Integrated Services.  Again below is Zim San Francisco and McAllister Sisters.

Or Zhen Hua 10, one of many differing only in the number suffix.

Or Zim Qingdao or

Or Zim Shenzhen.

Or Zim Virginia . . . here following Mary Gellatly.

But actually I’m reflecting on something different . . .  non-tangible.  Zulu tango, my invented term for

“zero tolerance,” a term which is way overused.  Zulu tango (“zebra tango”  . ..  some striped equines doing a sultry dance snout à snout  . . . would be more fun to imagine) or ZT gets my complete support in some areas, like operating any large or lethal machine under “the influence.”  But then ZT gets overused . . . like in the case of the “end of the pocket knife.”  It reminds me of the time I was almost arrested as I entered the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian just after sailing:  when they ran my backpack through the scanner, they found my boat “tool” and spike, which I’d forgotten was there.

So here’s my list of  ZT acts:  no postponing projects, no assuming outcomes, no ducking disagreement, no enabling chaos, no hobbling myself, no losing sight of priorities . . . .and I guess I might as well say . . . no excessive zebra tango.    Thank you for bearing with me in this series of meditations.  Time to move on, although I’m happy to hear your association(s) with different letters of the alphabet in this vein.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.