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Navy above
A Navy MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter made several loops up the North River last week on what was presumably a training flight originating somewhere in South Jersey. The MH-60S is a multi-mission navy helicopter based on the same platform as the Army’s Black Hawk. Monday is the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy.
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Get out of the weather
The Reinauer Twins/RTC 104 ATB arrived early Saturday and got a good parking space in the anchorage area north of the GW Bridge ahead of the nor’ easter which arrived in the harbor Sunday morning. By morning, there were 11 ATBs and tug/barge combinations anchored between the bridge and Yonkers, with an additional four units south of the bridge, always a good indicator of bad conditions coming offshore. The Manhattan Cruise Terminal is also loaded up, with all three active berths occupied as schedules get delayed, and the NOAA ship Henry Bigelow docked at the end of Pier 86. A NWS Storm Warning is in effect through 6 p.m. Monday.
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Lisa Lisa
The tug Vinik No. 6 came down the North River Friday afternoon with the sludge barge Lisa in tow, heading for Newark Bay. New York City’s DEP continues to employ the privately owned barge to make occasional pick ups at the North River water treatment plant as well as the Owl’s Head plant in Bay Ridge for de-watering at the Passaic Valley Sewage Commission plant in Newark, which handles some of NYC’s sludge under contract.
The appearance of the Lisa this year has coincided with a number of the DEP’s own sludge tankers being out of service: the tanker Hunts Point is at Caddell’s dry dock now after spending month’s tied up at Wards Island after a fatal explosion while loading at the North River plant in May, while the old North River tanker has been out of service all year. Use of the Lisa might also have something to do with draft conditions at the Passaic Valley plant, as the DEP’s Red Hook, Rockaway and Port Richmond tankers all seem to be moving sludge to the DEP’s own centrifuges in Hunts Point and Wards Island.
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To and from the old quarry
Norfolk Tug’s George Holland came up the North River Wednesday with a light hopper barge heading for the Clinton Point quarry near Poughkeepsie. George passed Buchanan12 on one whistle off North Bergen, coming down from the same quarry with her daily float of loaded stone hoppers. B12 leaves her loaded hoppers at moorings off Jersey City for onward distribution by others and then goes back up with empties, but looking at AIS, I believe George brought the stone she collected up there all the way around the Battery on Friday and through the Gate to the Tilcon dock in Hempstead Bay.
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Smaller doses
Heating oil season was kicking in Wednesday, with temperatures poised to drop, brisk winds, and a recently full moon elevating tidal currents. For whatever reason, tanker barge traffic was dominated by some of the smallest units we see on the Hudson. The Matthew Tibbetts, one of Reinauer’s smallest tugs and one we have not seen on a Hudson River run in over two years, came through early with the RTC 28 barge which has about 1/3rd the capacity one of Reinauer’s typical ATB barges.
Balico Marine’s Navigator followed later in the day with her Balico 100 barge, which I believe is smaller than the RTC 28.
Just at sundown, Boston Marine Transportation’s Quenames came through with one of that company’s barges. Quenames and Matt Tibbetts were both heading for the Global terminal in Newburgh. Navigator seems to have dropped off AIS before her destination but may have been going to the Heritage terminal in Kingston. By Thursday morning, all three units are on their way back to New York Harbor after unloading overnight.
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Hello Number Five
UPDATE: I’m told the barge is borrowed while one P&C’s other barges is out of service, not a permanent addition to the fleet despite the name.
Poling & Cutler’s Marylin George and her blue and white painted tanker barge “Number Five”, first seen heading upriver a few days ago, spent a few hours anchored off West New York on the way back from Albany on Tuesday. They were there right through the midday high tide slack providing a good look as she swung at anchor before the tug and barge headed for Bayway to load a new cargo. While at anchor, they were passed by the Kirby Cape Henry/DBL 103 ATB, seen by NRN for the first time since January, heading for anchor off Yonkers.
I don’t know the ownership of the Number Five barge, but if this is to be a permanent addition to the P&C fleet it would be the company’s fifth barge (along with Edmund, Noelle, Patricia, and Eva Leigh) so the name would be appropriate and perhaps we will see her in green and white some day.
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At the watering hole
The Gateway Tunnel cofferdam work site off Hoboken is for marine photography a bit like what I imagine the watering hole is on a wildlife safari. An…er…diverse assortment of tugs are out there on any given day, representing most of the local and locally active towing lines, other than those dedicated to moving petroleum or ship assist. After we saw tugs from Stasinos and NY State Marine highway two weeks ago, last week Dann Ocean Towing’s Charles A., recently down from Narragansett Bay, and Brewster Marine’s William Brewster were moving barges at the site. Charles A subsequently went upriver moving stone hoppers to and from the quarry dock in Hudson New York and is now heading up the East River with an AIS destination off New Rochelle.
There is a cloud of uncertainty over the funding for this critical infrastructure project and really all infrastructure projects in the northeast due to recent rulings from the Federal government, but work continues though there are no tugs out there this morning yet.
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Campbell and Long Island
The Centerline Logistics tug C.F. Campbell, who we have not seen on North River Notes this year, came up here early Friday with the barge Long Island to anchor for the weekend. On the way up, she passed the anchored Kirby Mount St. Elias ATB which had spent most of the week anchored off Guttenberg. By Monday morning, Campbell and Long Island are still at anchor, seen in the morning haze visible to the right of the anchored Gracie M Reinauer ATB. Although it looks in the photo as if they are anchored near each other under the bridge, in fact Gracie is about 1/2 mile north of C.F. Campbell and three miles south of the bridge.
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Horse of a different color
Poling & Cutler’s Marilyn George came up the North River Thursday morning with an unfamiliar oil products barge. Rather than one of the company’s four familiar green and white painted tankers, Marilyn was pushing a blue and white painted barge Number Five which I’ve not seen before on the North River. The trip was otherwise a routine run up to an Albany terminal. By Sunday morning, Marilyn was back on the Arthur Kill.
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Back again
The Thomas Dann was back on the North River on Friday morning, returning from Rhode Island with the deck barge CBC Savannah on the wire and heading for the Port of Coeymans. Thomas has been making periodic trips upriver, picking up equipment for wind turbines, perhaps manufactured by GE Vernova in Syracuse, and bringing it back to Rhode Island. Thomas passed the Kirby Mount Saint Elias/DBL 81 ATB at anchor off Guttenberg this week, the first time we have seen this unit on the North River in 2025.
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.
North River Notes 