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Back to work at the Transfer Bridge
Jessica Frances, a small 600-HP twin screw tug based in Verplanck, picked up a crane barge at the North River Harlem piers and delivered it to the 69th Street Transfer Bridge restoration worksite. Frances single-handedly backed the big barge alongside the structure and then ran around to push her into place. Tuesday brought cold rain and hail but with temperatures set to warm and ice having cleared it seems that work on the project could be getting underway again soon. For more on the project see: https://www.westsiderag.com/2024/10/24/refresh-in-store-for-historic-rail-structure-in-riverside-park-south
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Friday night light
Kimberly Poling left North River anchorage with the 30,000 barrel Noelle Culter barge Friday evening at sunset, passing Weehawken and heading for an Arthur Kill terminal. By Sunday morning the barge has a new products cargo and is northbound on the Hudson, passing Cementon and Albany-bound.
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Passing through and sticking around
Tank barges were moving on the North River Thursday as temperatures climbed. Vane’s 4,200 HP Choptank left anchorage off Riverdale in the morning with the 54,000 barrel capacity Double Skin 54 and headed for Bayonne’s IMTT, passing the DEP sludge tanker Red Hook on two whistles on the way.
A bit later, Poling & Cutler’s 3,000 HP Kimberly Poling came up from the harbor to anchor off North Bergen with the unloaded 30,000 barrel Noelle Cutler, passing the Army Corp’s driftwood collection vessel Gelberman on one.
The Janice Ann Reinauer/RTC 103 ATB (4,400 HP tug/107,000 barrel barge) was through traffic, with the barge loaded up with a New York Harbor cargo and headed for Newburgh. After partially discharging there, she was Albany-bound on Friday morning.
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Velkomst
Norwegian tall ship Sorlandet arrived at North River Pier 86 on Thursday morning. Margaret Moran was on hand to assist, but with the river ebbing and ice having mostly cleared out, the 98-year-old sailing vessel was able to sidle up to the pier with no help, leaving Margret standing by to retrieve the docking pilot.
Unlike many of the foreign tall ships which call on New York, Sorlandet is not a naval training vessel but rather is owned by a non-profit and hosts a program for over 60 high school students on an academic year-at-sea program. The students, who represent a wide variety of nationalities, take a full load of academic courses and also learn seamanship and stand watches along the way. The ship is completing a clockwise circuit of the North Atlantic, having previously called on ports in Europe, Cape Verde, Suriname, Guadalupe, and Charelston, with the next stop on the itinerary calling for Portugal.
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Between snow falls
The sun came out Tuesday, finding a gap between Monday’s blizzard and Wednesday’s aftershock dusting of snow. Sound Marine’s 680 HP tug Matthew G took advantage of the window to bring a crane barge down the North River loaded with what looked like fendering for piles. They were heading for the Seastreak dock in Highlands, NJ by Sandy Hook, perhaps to repair ice damage. Matthew arrived after sunset but the tug did not stay on site long (though perhaps leaving the barge), turning around and heading back to the Sound Marine base at North River Shipyard in Nyack where they arrived a little after 2 a.m.
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Regular customer
Kirby’s Mount St. Elias / DBL 82 ATB was northbound on the North River a week ago Thursday with a New York Harbor products cargo bound for Newburgh. This unit has been a regular on the Hudson route this winter and has just returned from another Newburgh run a week later, heading to Carteret to load a new cargo. In the background in the photo is the NY Waterway Weehawken maintenance facility and, at the top of the cliff, the domes of Union City’s St. Michael’s Monastery Church, constructed in 1875 and currently home to a Presbyterian congregation.
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Tough morning
Temperatures were hovering around 5 Fahrenheit and winds were gusting above 30 knots just after sunrise on Sunday February 8 as Franklin Reinauer left the relative shelter of the North River anchorage with the RTC 42 barge and headed for the harbor, passing the much larger Reinauer Twins/RTC 104 ATB still at anchor.
Franklin, rated at 2,100 HP, is Reinauer’s smallest tug and one of the company’s few non ATB units, while RTC 42 is 300 feet long and can carry over 40,000 barrels of oil product. In contrast, the Twins has nearly twice the horsepower and the RTC 104 is over 400 feet long and has a more than 100,000 barrel capacity.
Eleven days later, conditions in New York Harbor are much more moderate. Franklin is docked at the Buckeye terminal in Sewaren on the Arthur Kill while the Twins are discharging cargo in Providence after first calling on Bridgeport yesterday.
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Aids to navigation
Happy Lunar New Year from NOT the North River. Driving across country this week, I did not expect to encounter Coast Guard vessels, but in Little Rock on Tuesday I found the cutter Muskingum, a 75-foot buoy tender comprised of a towboat paired with a crane barge equipped with a spud in the bow. The Muskingum is responsible for 1,000 aids to navigation along the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River System stretching from Tulsa to the Mississippi River.
Tuesday marked the Lunar New Year, and coincidentally a year ago on Lunar New Year (January 29 2025) I photographed our own local buoy tender Katherine Walker on the North River. This year, Katherine is working out on Long Island Sound near New Haven, in very different conditions from 60-degree warmth in Arkansas.
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Winter resident
A red breasted merganser is among the birds wintering on the North River, seen by the A Dock of the 79th Street Boat Basin on Valentines Day Saturday. In spring he will head back to northern lakes and rivers, perhaps in Canada, for breeding.
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Day tripper
Vane Brothers 4,200 HP tug Choptank was Newburgh bound on the North River Saturday morning with a New York Harbor oil products cargo loaded on the Double Skin 54 barge. Ice has mostly cleared from this section of the Hudson, but more could be on the way as floes break up to the north. Choptank made a quick turn and was back in New York Harbor by midday Sunday, anchoring in the Bay Ridge Flats where she remains as the sun rises Monday.
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 