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Collect them all!
September brought a rare visitor to the North River, the Coast Guard 65-foot small harbor tug Cleat, who passed through on the way upstate on September 13 and coming the other direction on the way back to her base in New Haven on Monday this week.
Cleat spent the intervening 2 weeks up aground Saugerties and Kingston. The light icebreakers were built in the 1960s and are the smallest cutters in the Coast Guard’s fleet, all named for various items of tugboat hardware. Fifteen were built for service in the northeast but only 11 or fewer are still active.
We frequently see Bayonne-based Hawser who held down icebreaking operations around New York Harbor during this past harsh winter while the larger ice breakers were busy up north. Line is also based in Bayonne but has been out of service for some time, while Wire is based in Saugerties and will be moving to Kingston according to the latest news from the Coast Guard.
I believe Cleat may have formerly been based in Philadelphia but is now working out of New Haven, perhaps replacing Bollard who appears to have gone out of service shortly after I saw her in Montauk last summer.
There is an RFP out this summer for a replacement for these vessels, most of which are older than me. I have photographed 6 of these over the past few years, which I share in this post. Hope to collect the whole set before they retire, though they all look pretty much alike!
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Cargo contrast
Two tankers were Albany-bound on the North River this week, both managed by the same shipping company and wearing the same livery but with very different cargos. The first, the 16,000 deadweight ton Bonita, was arriving from Honduras after first partially discharging cargo in Baltimore. Based on the port of origin and where she tied up in Baltimore and Albany, this cargo was very likely molasses heading for Westway Feed Products, a key ingredient in the company’s liquid cattle feed supplement.
The second larger tanker, the 19,000 DWT Falcon Galaxy was arriving from a Valero refinery terminal in Quebec and probably is carrying a refined oil product, perhaps diesel which has been in short supply in New York Harbor or another fuel.
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Rain check
Genesis Energy’s Vigilant had a New York Harbor products cargo loaded on the GM 8001 by Thursday morning, I believe at Bayway. But with the Nor Easter coming in, she came up the North River, headed for anchorage off Yonkers to hunker down for the weekend. On Monday, with conditions improving, Vigilant was on her way out, heading for the Riverhead Terminal on the North Shore of Long Island where, by Tuesday morning, I believe she is waiting to discharge.
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Clean up, clean up
The Army Corps of Engineers drift collection vessel Hayward is hard at work on the North River in the lingering rain Monday morning. Heavy rains and tidal surge from the full moon nor’easter has brought lots of debris and hazards to navigation into the river. At the morning high tide, Hayward came cautiously inside the old pier head line south of Pier i to check out what must have appeared to be driftwood but was actually the top of some old pilings left over from a long gone New York Central pier. With nothing to collect there, the crew backed out and continued their patrol.
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Let’s get that barge
Vane tug Fells Point was visible on the north side of North River Pier 88 on Tuesday, heading back to the south side to retrieve a bunkering barge that had been left alongside a visiting cruise ship there. Fells Point is New York Harbor-based, about 12 years old with 3,000 HP. The historic Weehawken water tower is visible in the background. The tug is currently tucked in at Vane’s Gowanus Bay base Saturday evening as the sun sets and the nor’easter moves through the harbor.
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Nor’easter
The North River runs on a roughly southwest to northeast axis once it passes Weehawken and with the northeast winds already gusting near 30 knots by noon on Friday, there was some swell on the river even with the tide still ebbing. Vane tug Philadelphia was northbound with the light Doubleskin 508 tank barge heading for relatively sheltered anchorage off Inwood, while Poling & Cutler’s Marilyn George was Albany-bound with a New York Harbor products cargo loaded on the Edwin A. Poling barge.
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Nor’easter coming
A trio of ATBs were at anchor on the North River at high tide slack Thursday morning as winds began to build ahead of the weekend nor’easter. From left to right in the photo, the Janice Ann Reinauer was off West 100th Street, Vane’s Charleston about a mile north, and Kirby’s Cape Canaveral about another mile north of that and about two miles south of the bridge where the river appears to be still flooding as the barge’s bow continues to face south.
The anchorage will likely get more crowded today ahead of the storm as more units come in to the relative shelter of the river.
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Moving a crane takes two
Marine Highway’s Maddie K and Henry Marine’s Pelham were working together on the North River Tuesday to move the big Weeks Marine 526 crane. The tugs brought the crane back from the Gateway Tunnel North River cofferdam work site to the Weeks yard on Jersey City’s Greenville shoreline.
©2024 Daniel Katzive Uncategorized -
Cutters on the North River
Coast Guard ice breaker Penobscot Bay, a 140-foot Bay class cutter, came up the North River last week, passing West New York, the first time I have seen her since ice season. Cutter 107 traveled as far north as Irvington before heading back to her Bayonne base. This may have been a shakedown cruise ahead of security duties for this week’s UN meetings. Penobscot Bay has taken up station in the Upper Bay by the Statue for UN week, while the white hulled Sandy Hook patrol boat Bonito has been on the North River, spending Monday night on the Coast Guard’s mooring off Edgewater south of the bridge.
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Survey says!
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s survey vessel HSV Piping Plover was on the North River last week, the first time I have seen her this year. The Plover, which is equipped with water sampling and laboratory equipment, replaced an older vessel the HSV Osprey and facilitates the agency’s Harbor Survey program, regularly testing water quality along New York City’s 500+ miles of shoreline.
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.
