• Arriving from Sweden

    The 387-foot Dutch-flagged cargo ship Trade Navigator moved up the North River in Monday morning rain bound for the Port of Albany. Previous port was Vallvik, Sweden which makes wood pulp or another lumber product a probable cargo. In the photo, the ship is passing an inbound Edgewater ferry off North Bergen.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
  • Visit from the French navy

    The French navy dropped in for a visit to NYC Wednesday, with the amphibious assault ship Mistral, one of three in the French fleet, and the frigate Surcouf tieing up on the south side of Pier 88. The ships are about half way through a five month training mission making a clockwise circuit around the North Atlantic. They previously called on New Orleans and conducted exercises with the US Navy off the coast of North Carolina.

  • Summer cruising grounds

    Vane Brothers tug Fells Point stood by near Pier 88 on Tuesday as Norwegian Getaway took on fuel from a barge alongside and disembarked passengers waited for transport. Getaway began its summer schedule last week making regular runs from NYC to Bermuda through mid-August after spending the winter visiting Mexico and Central America from New Orleans. Fells Point later departed with the barge on the hip, heading for the Vane barge docking area on the Brooklyn waterfront.

  • Cement waits

    Cement barges do not often anchor in the North River, but early on Monday morning Sapphire Coast got only as far as the cruise terminal with a cement transporter barge loaded in Ravenna before heading back up into the federal anchorage area. Sapphire spent most of the foggy day in place there before heading to the Bayonne cement terminal in the afternoon. While at anchor, Dann Marine colleagues aboard Gulf Coast passed by with a loaded Vane tank barge bound for the small products terminal in New Hamburg.

  • Business trip

    Mary Turecamo passed down the North River in Sunday afternoon rain, running light on her way back to the harbor. Mary was coming from assist work up north, helping the bulk ship Amis Wisdom VI which had called on Port of Coeymans last week navigate from Catskill NY to Hyde Park. See Glenn Raymo post on this FB link for photos of the assist work up there:
    https://www.facebook.com/100006838754599/posts/3972917709612815/?

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
  • Summer activities

    A 35-foot NYPD Harbor Patrol launch assisted a jet skier on the North River off 69th Street as temperatures topped 80 degrees on Saturday afternoon. In the background, a J80 sailboat headed downriver close hauled with a reefed mainsail.

  • Reinauer river

    Reinauer power was moving fuel up the North River on Thursday morning, with the big Haggerty Girls/RTC 107 ATB (4,000 HP tug, 413’ barge) and the Curtis Reinauer/RTC 80 ATB (4,000 HP tug, 347’ barge) passing by in quick succession heading for different terminals in Albany. They passed Lucy Reinauer anchored with a light barge about 3 miles south of the bridge after returning from Newburgh. Don’t know the exact cargos any of these barges carry at any given time, but with temperatures warming, gasoline and diesel are probably supplanting heating oil demand up north.

  • Sugar express

    The last day of April found Dann Marine’s East Coast arriving from Florida with the Sugar Express barge on the wire. The barge was loaded with a cargo of domestic raw crystals headed for the refinery in Yonkers. Coming soon to a table near you.

  • Late goslings

    I always like to record the first goslings I see every spring on the North River. April 30 is later than I have seen them begin to appear in the past and this is the only family I’ve seen so far—perhaps the harsh winter or the bird flu took a toll or the windy spring is keeping them out of sight.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
  • Cleanup

    DonJon tug Paul Andrew, with nameboards removed, ferried a scow loaded with debris cleared from the area around the 30th Street Heliport to a pier in Port Newark on Tuesday, part of the ongoing Gateway Project work.