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Coming or going?
BBC Amethyst, an Antigua-flagged superstructure forward heavy lift cargo ship, came down the North River Monday evening. She was heading for sea and her next port of call in the Dominican Republic after calling at Port of Albany where she either delivered some project cargo from overseas or collected something heavy for export abroad. On the way down, she passed Evelyn Cutler and the Noelle Cutler barge, Albany-bound with a fuel cargo.
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Farewell to Florida?
A small Air Force jet flew a series of loops up the Hudson to Tappen Zee and back to the Battery while en route from Clarksburg WV to Stewart Airport in Newburgh on Monday. I believe this is a T-1a training jet based in Pensacola, though I read that these jets are no longer going to be based there with the final set to depart this month so perhaps this aircraft will not return to that base.
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Blue crab blues
Blue crabs live in the mud at the bottom of the North River. Fisherpeople on Pier i bring them up using traps baited with raw chicken, as was the case with this one caught last week. NYS DEC’s minimum size for a keeper is 4.5 inches and this one was thrown back. The NYS Dept of Health says it is ok for women over 50 and for men to eat six crabs a week (not the green stuff) but recommends women under 50 and children under 15 to avoid them.
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A green and white Thursday
Three of the five tugs that currently wear the distinctive Poling & Cutler green and white livery passed up the North River on Thursday pushing three of the company’s four barges. In the morning, Evelyn Cutler, 3,800 HP, passed by returning from a delivery in Albany with the Noelle Cutler barge. In the afternoon, Kimberly Poling (3,000 HP) came through with the Edwin A Poling barge, also returning from up north. And in the early evening, the company’s largest tug Kristin Poling (5,000 HP) came up the river with the higher capacity Eva Leigh Cutler barge, I believe returning from a run up to New England and heading for anchorage. A few days later, on Sunday morning, we see Evelyn on the upper Hudson returning from another Albany run and about to pass Kimberly heading north with a new cargo near Saugerties, NY. Kristin is taking a break at the Caddell yard on Kill van Kull.
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Have that removed
Coast Guard Cutter Katherine Walker, the Keeper of NY Harbor, came down the North River Thursday, returning to her Bayonne base with Hudson River lighted buoys 3, 11, and 13 on deck. A Coast Guard notice says the three buoys, one of which normally marks the west side of the main channel off Riverdale and the other two just south of Ossining, have been “temporarily disestablished.” I’m not sure why, but this may have something to do with the construction of the CHPE power cable which will be running through here later this year, or perhaps there is another explanation.
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Coming and going
Activity continues in stops and starts at the 69th Street Transfer Bridge restoration project. On Monday, Jessica Francis, a small 25-foot tug came down from Verplanck to remove a small spud barge. Three days later, the much bigger Toula C arrived with the Hughes 280 barge loaded with a crane and other equipment. The construction company’s power boat provided about 500 HP of assistance in placing the barge before it spudded down. Toula C is not local and appears to have come in from Providence or Boston for the job—by Friday morning she was on her way back out of town.
Jessica Frances leaves with a small barge Monday 
Toula C got in position to deliver the Hughes 280 barge Thursday as Carnival Venezia was leaving about a mile to the south 
The barge was nosed into place 
A construction boat helped counter the flood tide and push the barge alongside the structure 
Spuds were dropped 
As the tug crew watched 
Delivery complete, Toula spent the night on a pier in Bayonne and then headed back out of town Friday morning -
A little more sugar
Dann Marine’s Topaz Coast had the dry bulk barge Montville on the wire heading for sea Tuesday evening after discharging sugar at the Yonkers refinery. This cargo appears to have come up from the Gulf coast rather than Florida and the tow was heading back there now. Dann Ocean’s Captain Dann ran light up to the plant ahead of time to assist with sailing the barge.
The 130-year-old Yonkers sugar refinery remains open but will close by the end of this year, with raw sugar cargos instead heading for Baltimore where modifications have been made to allow for 24-hour operation and increased storage. A new industrial occupant seems unlikely in Yonkers, which will mean an end to the working water front in that city, other than the Hudson River pilot station nearby.
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Special delivery
Norfolk Tug’s George Holland came down the North River Monday morning with da cargo of crushed stone from the Clinton Point quarry near Poughkeepsie loaded on one of the company’s barges. Daily stone shipments from Clinton Point are usually brought by Buchanan Marine to moorings off Jersey City, but George brought this shipment straight through to the Arthur Kill and apparently delivered directly to North American Aggregates in Perth Amboy.@
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Apres le deluge
The North River was mirror flat in light northeast wind Tuesday morning and still flowing to sea just after low tide after Monday night’s massive thunderstorms and flooding. Alexandros P, a 656-foot Liberia-flagged bulk ship, came through heading for the Port of Coeymans. Alexandros originated in Garrucha, Spain, which makes gypsum a likely cargo, perhaps an ingredient for the Amrize cement plant next door to the port.
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Tag team
Reinauer Transportation ATBs were moving petroleum products up the North River Monday morning en route to Albany. Ruth M/RTC 102 came through early, seemingly originating at the Bayonne IMTT, followed an hour later by Janice Ann/RTC 103 who seems to have set out from the dock at Kinder Morgan on the Arthur Kill in Perth Amboy.
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 