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
Temperatures troughed just after sunrise Saturday in the low single digits across the New York City area, but climbed steadily through the rest of the weekend as winds abated. The cluster of tug/barge combinations on the North River began to break up as conditions improved and visitors went back to work. By Sunday evening, Kristy Ann was the only vessel left at anchor in the River.
Sapphire Coast normally pushes cement barges back and forth to the Lafarge plant in Ravenna, but Friday night she brought a 300’ tank barge up to anchorage off 72nd Street from the harbor for safe keeping during the gale.Around midday, Sapphire handed her barge off to Chesapeake Coast, a pusher tug more commonly assigned to tanker barges which had road out the storm at pier on the Staten Island north shore.Chesapeake stayed put with the barge until sunrise Sunday when they headed for the Kill van Kull.Dean Reinauer pushed its 413’ barge down to the Reinauer dock in Port Richmond Saturday morning after riding out the storm on the North River.Followed closely by the nearly identical Dylan Cooper, passing the Sapphire Coast still in place behind its barge at that pointVane’s Elk River escaped the gale with its loaded barge, spending Thursday and Friday off Spuyten Duyvil, but on Saturday they headed for Cateret where they likely finally discharged a cargo which had originated at the refineries on the Delaware River south of Philadelphia.Kirby’s Cape Henry returned from Providence Saturday morning with a crust of ice on the bow of their barge, a frosting which boats anchored on the River avoided.Henry made a long loop up to Yonkers, but did not linger, instead heading to anchorage in the Harbor as conditions improved and the ice line receded from her bow.A pair of Reinauer ATBs at anchor Saturday morningBy Sunday morning, Curtis remained uptown, with the DEP’s Red Hook tanker seen in the background making a right turn into the North River sewage plant dock.Curtis left the River Sunday around midday pushing their 350’ bargeOnly Kristy Ann was anchored off 72nd Street by the end of the day SundayGracie Reinauer was heading for Newburgh Sunday with a cargo from Bayonne and an ice coating on the bow of her 400’ barge after spending the night at anchor on the Upper BayReinauer’s Matthew Tibbetts had a loaded barge bringing an oil products cargo to Poughkeepsie. Matthew is one the smallest tugs in the Reinauer fleet and one of the few without ATB couplings. Shallow draft at the Poughkeepsie pier may be the reason why Matthew does this run.Ice was accumulating on the shoreline Saturday but there have been no large flows on the River yet this year. The Coast Guard’s Sturgeon Bay icebreaker has been operating between Kingston and Albany, so perhaps we will see some soon. The smaller icebreaker, Line, was heading back to the Bayonne base though, after spending four days working from PoughkeepsieA Cape Cod-based Jayhawk came down from Falmouth Saturday along the south shore of Long Island, made two loops around Manhattan, then landed at Teterboro for a bit before flying back to base over the Sound.A 35’ NYPD launch patrolled on SundayA smaller NYPD boat was moving south later in the dayNew Jersey State Police’s Jersey City-based boat was also on patrolDonJon had a load of paper heading for recycling from Pier 99 SaturdayRecreational activity was out of the question for most of the weekend, but a kayaker got out Sunday as temperatures climbed above 40
North River Notes 
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