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An evening at the dam
An evening cocktail at the Yacht Club bar atop the old Starret Lehigh freight terminal provides a great vantage point for watching activity at the Gateway Tunnel coffer dam. As noted in the past, the project seems to spread work across all the non-petroleum hauler tow companies working in the harbor.
Late afternoon on Wednesday, New York State Marine Highway’s Maddie K headed for Bayonne after a day of moving barges around the work site. A bit later, @donjonmarine’s Brian Nicholas stopped by after leaving a DSNY scow at Pier 99 and picked up a hopper barge loaded with what looked like some dredge spoils and headed for Newark.
The coffer dam is in place to allow workers to stabilize the riverbed below with a cement mixture in order to allow tunneling for the new Gateway Tunnel that will pass underneath. The dam is now shifting closer to the New York shoreline and away from the center of the channel as work progresses. As of Thursday morning, Maddie is back at the coffer dam while Brian is at Port Newark.
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Up from the South River
The Vane Brothers tug Potomac, who I last saw almost exactly a year ago bunkering a container ship in Port Newark, came up the North River on Tuesday with a loaded-looking Double Skin 507, arriving from Philadelphia. After killing some time off North Bergen, she headed for IMTT Bayonne, perhaps to deliver the cargo. In the photo, she passes the anchored super yacht Constance, owned, at least at one time, by an American tech billionaire according to a 2018 article, and the Palisades Medical Center.
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Salty
The Hong Kong flagged 650-foot bulker Nightingale Island came down the North River Monday afternoon, in ballast and heading for sea with some of her hatches vented after discharging a cargo at Sims Metal’s Cabbage Island wharf at the Port of Albany. I believe she probably delivered road salt up there. By Tuesday afternoon she was about 74 nautical miles off Virginia Beach, heading south with no AIS destination registered yet.
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Acadia’s debut
The brand new rock installation vessel Acadia came up the Hudson River Monday morning, I believe for the first time. The Jones Act compliant vessel was built in Hanwha’s Philadelphia shipyard and delivered to Great Lakes Dredging and Dock last month. Its first assignment, according to the company’s press release, will be supporting Equinor’s Empire I wind farm now under construction in the New York Bight.
I believe she is now heading for Port of Coeymans to load rocks that will be deposited offshore on the seabed to help protect the giant turbines being erected out there, a good example of how’s New York’s marine highway helps link the state’s mineral resources upstate to major projects in the south.
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Cleanup, cleanup
Cleanup continues in the aftermath of the Independence Day celebrations two weeks ago. On Saturday morning, Stasinos tug Charles James came up the North River with what I believe were sections of the temporary dock and gangways used to accommodate Sail4th 250 tall ships between North River piers 90 and 92. Charles travelled up to the King Marine yard in Verplanck. By Saturday evening, she was back in New York Harbor, stopping in Newtown Creek before heading up the Sound to New Haven. In the background of the photo is one of the mega yachts which sometimes anchor in the North River during the summer months, usually without owner or guests aboard.
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Regulars brave the smoke
Air quality was getting lousy again Saturday morning as North River regular Saint Emilion came through with the A87 tank barge, Albany-bound for the second weekend in a row. The Saint was overtaken on one by another regular, the DEP sludge tanker Red Hook heading for the North River water treatment plant to load.
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Back in town
Genesis Vision, a 3,620 HP tug, was heading for anchorage off Yonkers on Monday with the company’s GM 6508 65,000 barrel tank barge. The unit remains up there as we head into the weekend. We saw Vision up here in April of this year but I believe she has spent some time working out of the Delaware River ports in the intervening months.
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Work day
The Army Corps of Engineers drift collection vessel Hayward came up the North River on Sunday, traveling as far as the Upper West Side before looping back to the harbor. The ship is primarily charged with keeping local waterways clear of hazards to navigation but had the additional role of carrying the flag at the head of the July 4 parade of ships. Hayward has been a familiar sight around New York Harbor going back to the 1970s but received a major upgrade in dry dock a few years ago.
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One of the regulars
Four of Poling & Cutler’s five tugs are regulars on the Hudson River petroleum products runs, and the 1973-vintage 3,800 HP Evelyn Cutler is the oldest of the fleet. On Sunday, she was southbound on the North River, returning from a run up to Rensselaer with the 30,000 barrel barge Noelle Cutler. Wednesday morning finds her outbound on the KvK having with the barge likely having loaded another cargo overnight for delivery upstate.
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Salt ship
The bulk ship Grand Concord, 650 feet long and Panama flagged, was northbound on the North River Monday morning, heading for the Port of Coeymans. She was arriving from Egypt and likely carrying road salt for delivery up there.
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.
North River Notes 