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Observations on the Hudson River as it passes through New York City. The section of the Hudson which passes through New York is historically known as the North River, called this by the Dutch to distinguish it from the Delaware River, which they knew as the South River. This stretch of the Hudson is still often referred to as the North River by local mariners today. All photos copyright Daniel Katzive unless otherwise attributed. For more frequent updates, please follow northriverblog on Facebook or Instagram.

  • Denali stops by

    Kirby’s Denali/DBL 104 ATB, a 5,000 HP tug paired with a 106,000 barrel barge, anchored on the North River off Guttenberg overnight on Thursday on the way back from a products delivery in Newburgh. By mid-morning Friday, she was on her way again, heading for the harbor. We haven’t seen Denali very often on the North River lately, but Kirby units do seem to be doing a lot of Hudson River work this winter.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Between the piers

    A pair of Vane Brothers tugs maneuvered a bunkering barge out of the tight space between North River Piers 88 and 90 on Monday just before sunset. The city’s Economic Development Corporation noted this week that Pier 90, on the right of the photo, has deteriorated to an extent it must now be taken out of service, reducing capacity at the terminal by 1/3rd (see article on W42ST for more).

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Jayhawk passing through

    A Coast Guard MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter flew up the North River at 500 feet on the way from Elizabeth City North Carolina to Cape Cod Airbase in Falmouth, Mass on Monday. The Jayhawk made a right over Westchester County and continued up the Sound to its destination. Falmouth is the closest base to NY Harbor for these medium-range offshore rescue helicopters.

    We see the orange MH-65s over the North River more often, flying out of Atlantic City, but the NYPD’s aviation fleet based at Floyd Bennett Field is the main air resource for emergencies in New York City’s waterways. This Jayhawk made the 482 mile flight from Elizabeth City to Cape Cod in just under 4 hours, easily within the helicopter’s listed 700 nautical mile/6.5 hour range.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Port security

    A Coast Guard security team in a pair of 45-foot response boats with machine guns mounted provided an escort for the cruise ship Norwegian Breakaway as she dropped lines and departed from North River Pier 88 just before sundown on Monday. They accompanied Breakaway down to the Narrows and then returned to the Staten Island base.

    We don’t usually see this, although the NYPD Harbor Patrol keeps a boat at the cruise terminal and often will be on the water as ships leave, particularly in the warmer months with heavy recreational activity. Breakaway was heading for the Leeward Islands and is home-ported in New York for the winter. I don’t know why this particular departure got an escort, perhaps randomly selected.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Fueling Long Island

    Monday morning finds Vane Brothers’ Jacksonville anchored on the North River with its barge. Jacksonville, along with the similar Charleston, is one of two Vane ATB 4,200 HP units paired with 50,000 barrel barges based out of New York Harbor alongside numerous conventional tug/barge combinations. A third larger ATB, the Wachapreague, was up here over the summer but is now back down in the Gulf of Mexico. We see these two ATBs anchor on the North River occasionally but they don’t usually travel further upriver and instead I believe they are mainly employed on product deliveries along Long Island Sound. Jacksonville had returned from Port Jefferson over the weekend and Charleston appears to be currently loading cargo at Kinder Morgan on the Arthur Kill after returning from Port Jeff overnight.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Working the dam

    Brinn Courtney, a Stasinos 1,800 HP tug built in 1966, was on the North River this past week maneuvering barges at the Gateway Tunnel cofferdam off Pier 66, more formally known as the Hudson River Ground Stabilization Project. The floor of the river is being reinforced with concrete slurry at this point so that tunnel boring machines will be able to dig through. Sunday morning finds Brinn tied up at a pier in Bayonne.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Staff meeting

    The Janice Ann Reinauer / RTC 103 was Albany-bound on the North River with a New York Harbor products cargo Thursday afternoon. They passed the Haggerty Girls / RTC 107 which had anchored off Guttenberg for a few hours on the way back from a delivery in Newburgh. The barges are the same size (108,000 barrels, 411 feet long) but the 107 appears bigger because it is light and mostly above the waterline. As of Saturday morning, Janice Ann remains docked at the Global Terminal in Albany, with her AIS signal indicating she will call on Newburgh on the way back to the harbor. The Girls are Providence-bound on the outside route, running along the south shore of Long Island in calm seas (2 floor wave heights at the harbor entrance).

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Cement to Cementon

    The bulk ship Artax, 583 feet long and Portugal flagged, came up the North River Monday morning with a cargo of Turkish cement. Artax had first called on Providence, RI to partly unload and was now heading for Cementon in the Town of Catskill NY where an import terminal sits on the site of a decommissioned cement manufacturing plant. As of Friday morning, Artax remains tied up at the terminal.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Just visiting

    The 90-year old research vessel R/V Robert Gray is visiting New York City and tied up at North River Pier 25 for the winter. The 125-foot Gray began life in 1936 as an Army Corps of Engineers survey ship, served as an Army tug in the Aleutians in World War II and later was transferred to the USGS in 1970 before entering private ownership. She maintains many of her historical fittings. The Gray was acquired in 2024 by The Voyagers Club and is available for charter by research groups.

    The crew is running hourly tours this month and will show all parts of the ship and give a detailed overview of the ships technical specifications and history. Information on signing up is on the Hudson River Park’s website. Pier 25 is the only spot on the North RIver and one of the few places in New York Harbor where historical ships can dock and be accessible to the public. Further in on Pier 25 and visible in the photo above is retired Coast Guard buoy tender Lilac, a permanent resident.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Another black hull

    The morning after the Coast Guard’s Penobscot Bay passed up the North River heading for ice breaking duty upriver, another black-hulled cutter came through. The buoy tender Katherine Walker, Keeper of the Harbor, headed north, perhaps to join ice breaking operations or to restore navigational marks knocked off station by ice flows, or both (or neither). Kate stopped at Lighted Buoy number 40 south of Constitution Island near Cold Spring and then continued on to reach Poughkeepsie by sundown. Wednesday morning finds her on the move again, heading north and passing Hyde Park. Meanwhile, Penobscot Bay is heading south towards her after spending Tuesday on ice patrol around Kingston and traveling nearly as far north as Hudson NY. Still no ice to be seen further south on the North River where warm temperatures brought pea soup fog on Wednesday morning.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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