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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.
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North River Pelican
The R/V Pelican, a converted navy LCM-8/Mike Boat landing craft owned by Madeline Marine of Verplanck joined work on the North River West 69th Street Transfer Bridge restoration project this week. I have seen this boat a few times on the river over the years coming to and from job sites but not up close and stationary like this. The project to stabilize and restore the historic piece of rail infrastructure has been under way for over year now and appears to be getting closer to completion, with new paint in place on most of the exposures and the control house above having been reclad with new windows installed.
The transfer bridge once allowed rail cars to be moved by barge from the New York Central’s 60th Street yards to the railroad’s Weehawken yard across the river or to other rail terminals and piers around the harbor.
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Sail freight
The French sail freighter Grain de Sail II spent some time anchored on the North River upon arriving from her home port of Saint-Malo this week. This is the first time I have seen her since she came up here to shelter from a Nor’easter in December 2024. The 170-foot schooner makes five trips per year from Saint-Malo to New York and then continues on to the Caribbean. This latest visit seems timed to coincide with next week’s Climate Week events. The vessel left anchorage on Friday and is currently tied up at a pier in Elizabeth.
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Moving on up
Haugland Group towboat Emma Rose, 20 years old and 1,700 HP, was northbound on the North River with hopper barges Tuesday, passing Riverside Park and the pre-war apartment buildings of Riverside Drive. Emma was heading for Haugland’s materials port in Tomkins Cove on Haverstraw Bay.
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.
