Conditions improved dramatically as the week progressed, while commercial traffic observations were light and typical, with fuel moving north and cement and stone moving south.

The GCS 230 barge surprisingly was returned to Con Ed’s Pier 98 fuel dock by a pair of Vane tugs after an absence of a couple of days. The barge holds number 4 oil, a backup fuel for the 59th Street steam plant which normally burns natural gas, and last spring it disappeared in spring and returned in November. In retrospect, the barge’s disappearance last weekend seems to have been to accommodate the big Weeks Marine crane which spent Tuesday at the pier, and perhaps Con Ed anticipates it will still need to burn some oil this year.