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Gypsum day
A pair of Moran tugs, the Margaret Moran and the Laura K Moran, travelled up the North River on Friday to help assist a bulk ship loaded with Spanish gypsum docking at the drywall factory in Buchanan, NY. Margaret, nearly 50 years old and a dean of Moran’s New York Harbor tug fleet, came first, followed by the more modern Laura K.
Laura was taking advantage of the longer-than-usual haul up north to test her fire monitor, running water over the starboard quarter; we saw her doing similar on the way back from Buchanan back in May. Both tugs have their iconic M tinted pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as noted by @eastriverkeeper yesterday.
The bulker Armonia came through about an hour after the tugs, about 650 feet long and drawing 31 feet partially laden.
A wallboard plant in Buchanan has been operating since the 1960s, though the import of gypsum from Spain is a more recent innovation as in historic older times synthetic gypsum derived from residuals of coal-fired power plants and brought in by barge was used. With the closure of the sugar plant in Yonkers last year, the drywall plant is the only manufacturer utilizing the marine highway left in Westchester.
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Less green
Fall colors have finally reached as far south as the North River. On Thursday morning, Marilyn George, Poling & Cutler’s 4,200 HP tug, passed under the GW Bridge with the Edwin A. Poling barge, one of two 30,000 barrel barges in P&C’s five barge fleet. Edwin was carrying a New York Harbor products cargo between the Buckeye’s Port Reading and Rensselaer terminals. The tow arrived in Rensselaer just a little after midnight.
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Winter supply chain
The winter logistics supply chain is a key theme on the North River this week. Early in the week we saw heating oil and power plant back-up fuel heading north, and on Tuesday afternoon Carver Marine’s Helen had hoppers loaded with road salt. The cargo was likely lightered off a bulk ship in from Egypt anchored in the Upper Bay and the bulker, with AIS reported draft reduced by nearly 10 feet from where it was when she arrived in NY Harbor, would later follow to deliver the rest of the cargo in Albany.
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Back-up fuel
Centerline Logistics tug Hawsepiper had the TB-601H tank barge loaded and heading north on the North River early Tuesday. Along for the ride and barely visible in the photos was Marine Highway’s tug Maddie K, lashed up on the port side. The tow was heading for the Bowline power plant in Haverstraw where Maddie assisted with docking the barge at the fuel dock and they likely filled up the plant’s reserve oil supply tanks.
Bowline, like most conventional power plants in New York State, mainly runs on pipeline natural gas, but in periods of tight gas supply such as we saw this past February, they can switch over to fuel oil. I would not be surprised if plants were being more prudent about laying in reserves this winter given disruptions to global energy markets and the need to scramble for oil in icy conditions last winter.After spending all day at the plant, the two tugs and the barge departed in the early hours of Wednesday, returning to the North River before sunrise where Hawsepiper anchored with the barge and remains Wednesday morning while Maddie headed for Bayonne.
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Peeks and Pokes
Dann Marine’s Gulf Coast came down the North River early Tuesday with the light 40,000 barrel Vane Double Skin 43 barge, returning from a delivery of probably heating oil to the small products terminal in New Hamburg, just south of Poughkeepsie (actually in the Town of Poughkeepsie).
We see Gulf and DS 43 periodically servicing the smaller and shallower draft terminals on the east side of the river in Peekskill and New Hamburg/Poughkeepsie (Peeks and Pokes?) periodically during the winter and fall.
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Smaller business
Ankora Fuels 1,000 HP tug Stephen B came up the North River on Friday with the tank barge John Blanche loaded and heading for the Sunoco terminal in Rensselaer. The company mainly focuses on bunkering I believe but we do occasionally see these vessels delivering to terminals up north.
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Familiar names
Vane Brothers tug Red Hook, 3,000 HP, came up the North River on Friday with a loaded 50,000 barrel barge heading for the Global Terminal in Albany. Red Hook is New York Harbor based but I rarely see her doing Hudson River work like this, though the name is difficult to look up in my archives given how often I refer to the Red Hook location, the DEP tanker Red Hook and use the word Hook in Sandy Hook or to refer to an anchor so I can’t say for sure when the last time I saw her was. By Sunday evening, the tug is back at the Vane base in….Red Hook!
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The world takes
The heavy lift cargo ship BBC Africa, Antigua-flagged, came up the North River just before sunset on Thursday heading for the Port of Albany. These ships sometimes carry project cargo for delivery up there, but more often of late they are collecting electrical generation and transmission equipment manufactured by GE Vernova in Schenectady for delivery overseas.
Global demand for transformers, generators and wind turbines is running high and GE Vernova has invested to build more capacity in Schenectady, with access to the Hudson River marine highway in Albany providing easy access to the global market.
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Stopping by
Kirby’s Cape Henry/ DBL 103 ATB came up the North River Thursday afternoon to anchor off Guttenberg with the 100,000 barrel barge looking light. We see New York Harbor-based Cape Henry anchoring on the North River from time to time, but I believe she is mainly servicing terminals in New England. This summer, Cape Henry was reported loading an asphalt delivery on the Great Lakes in Canada for delivery in New York Harbor, a rare import job for a US ATB. Kirby Corp is, I believe, the only publicly traded operator of tank barges and ATBs in the U.S. By early Friday, the unit was on the move again, heading for a pier at Bayonne’s IMTT.
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Foliage watch
Marine Highway’s hardworking tug Sarah D was northbound on the North River on Saturday, pushing empty hoppers past Hoboken’s Stevens Institute of Technology. Tree colors have not really turned yet in New York Harbor, despite autumn foliage being well-advanced up north. By Thursday this week, Sarah is back down south distributing stone quarried upstate, currently at a concrete plant dock in Stamford CT.
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.
