Happy Lunar New Year from NOT the North River. Driving across country this week, I did not expect to encounter Coast Guard vessels, but in Little Rock on Tuesday I found the cutter Muskingum, a 75-foot buoy tender comprised of a towboat paired with a crane barge equipped with a spud in the bow. The Muskingum is responsible for 1,000 aids to navigation along the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River System stretching from Tulsa to the Mississippi River.

Tuesday marked the Lunar New Year, and coincidentally a year ago on Lunar New Year (January 29 2025) I photographed our own local buoy tender Katherine Walker on the North River. This year, Katherine is working out on Long Island Sound near New Haven, in very different conditions from 60-degree warmth in Arkansas.