Daily 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 by Daniel Katzive unless otherwise attributed. Twitter @dannykatman
Thursday brought clear skies with temperatures in the 30s and 15 knot winds out of the southwest. Conditions are set to deteriorate as we move into the weekend, with temperatures dropping sharply. Small craft warning was in effect for the Harbor Thursday, and a gale warning goes into effect Friday. On the River, tanker cargos were moving north again for the first time in few days, though traffic still seemed light.
One interesting movement observed was the delivery of a fuel barge to the Con Ed dock at Pier 98. Con Ed keeps a fuel barge (GCS 230) docked there during the winter to store oil as a backup fuel for the landmarked steam plant on the opposite side of 12th Avenue, which mainly burns natural gas delivered by pipe but will sometimes burn oil in the winter. The GCS 230 barge remains all winter, but is refueled from other barges brought alongside, as appeared to occur Thursday (see blog post First Freeze for more on this). Centerline’s Lightning delivered the barge at sunrise, and another Centerline tug, Andrea, picked it up at the end of the day.
Lightning delivers a fuel barge to the Con Ed dock at Pier 98 at dawnThe Centerline barge tied up behind the GCS 230 bargeSaint Emilion was pushing north with what was probably an at least partially loaded barge; the Saint’s barge always seems to ride high in the water even when circumstances suggest it would have a cargo on board.Vane’s Choptank arrived from the Delaware River (South River to the old Dutch) with a more obviously loaded barge and then appeared to have anchored north of the Bridge, perhaps getting out of the weather for a bit.Pinuccia came back from Newburgh’s Global Terminal with a light barge. This barge, New York 30, was last seen last week being brought to Newburgh and back by Stasinos’s Charles James while Pinuccia sat at a disused pier in Port Reading, but Pinuccia appears to be back in service and the barge has now been reunited with its usual tug.Dann’s Diamond Coast was running light, perhaps heading up to Yonkers to help maneuver barges at the Domino sugar plant there.Sound Marine’s small work boat seems to be commuting regularly, coming down in the morning from Sound’s Nyack North River Boatyard base to some job in the Harbor…and then returning home in the afternoon.DEP’s 2008 vintage Red Hook, second oldest in the fleet though much younger than the oldest and only 6 years younger than the 3 newest, was heading to the North River plant to load some sludge for dewatering.Thomas D Witte headed for Pier 99 to collect a DSNY paper recycling barge.A trio of Army Blackhawk helicopters with medical Red Cross markings flew northOne of the Coast Guard’s Atlantic City based Dolphin choppers flew a patrol up the River, then likely turned right and returned over the Sound or off the south shore of Long Island.This outrigged kayaker was running with the ebb tide but into the face of a 15 knot wind and in temperatures below 40. Tough.
North River Notes 
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