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Sweet Monday
A cargo of sugar arrived on the North River from the Dominican Republic just after sunrise on Monday morning aboard the Panama-flagged bulker Century Melody. They were heading for the refinery in Yonkers. The plant there has been operating for over 100 years and also receives domestic sugar deliveries via U.S. flagged barges.
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Heavy lifting
Atlantic Salvor had DonJon’s big Chesapeake 1000 crane in tow coming up the North River on Sunday en route to Port of Albany for a heavy lift job.
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Joined at the hip
Patrice McAllister had RCM 262 on the hip as she left anchorage and headed for the Upper Bay on a sunny Friday morning this week.
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Just stopping by
Among the familiar ATBs and tug/barge pairs getting out of the wind in the North River anchorages was one not seen in a while. Dann’s Calusa coast seems to normally work out of Baltimore but was anchored off Edgewater this week with a tank barge, possibly having ducked in on the way back from a run to Portland ME. We saw Calusa about two years ago when she was on the North River periodically over a period of weeks, but this latest visit was short—by Saturday morning she was heading south for Baltimore via the C&D Canal.
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Hello old friend
The Army Corps of Engineers workboat Hayward was back on the North River this week, the first time I have seen her in two years. Hayward was once an almost daily presence, collecting hazards to navigation with her big crane. In past years, I have also seen her carrying the flag in Fleet Week parades, retrieving the engine from United 1549 off the river bed, recovering a WWII fighter that crashed off Edgewater in 2016, and lifting a capsized speedboat in 2022. But the Hayward was hauled out for work in 2023 and has been scarce since then for unknown reasons, with the smaller Gelberman and larger Driftmaster seen instead.
Hayward on the North River this week 
Fleet Week 2022 
Clearing a hazard in January 2022 -
Moving fuel to the cold north
Less than 24 hours after returning from up North, Kimberly Poling was Albany-bound again with a fuel cargo on tank barge Noelle Cutler loaded in Carteret overnight. In the photo she is passing the Bulls Ferry condos and the West New York sewage treatment plant, with JFK Boulevard visible on top of the cliffs.
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Visitor from New Bedford (Updated)
The tug Sitka, appropriately named for a very cold Wednesday morning, came up the North River just after sunrise. Running light, the out of town visitor was arriving from her home port of New Bedford and signaling Kingston, so probably heading for the Feeney Shipyard there and perhaps collecting a barge being worked on. The owner company was recently approved to begin freight roll on/off barge service to Martha’s Vineyard.
UPDATE on Thursday Jan 9: Sitka made a quick turn in Kingston and was heading home within 24 hours with a deck barge in tow with what looked like two spuds lashed on the deck. She paused for some time in the Upper Bay Thursday morning, perhaps waiting for wind and tide.
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Import or export
Dutch-flagged cargo ship Singelgracht was on the North River bound for Port of Albany on Sunday morning, arrivng from Finland. She’ll likely be either delivering some project cargo up there or loading some heavy machinery for export.
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Ready for winter weather
Coast Guard icebreaking tug Penobscot Bay headed up the North River Saturday, making prodigious amounts of smoke as usual. The cutter was heading upriver ahead of winter weather coming in this week and, after stopping for some time in Haverstraw Bay, was continuing north under the Newburgh Beacon Bridge by Monday morning.
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Winter fuel
Centerline Tug HMS Liberty stemmed off North River Pier 97 on Saturday afternoon, waiting to deliver a fuel barge to the Con Ed Pier 98 dock. Backup fuel oil is stored on barges here for the nearby 59th Street Steam Plant, which mainly burns natural gas but sometimes can use number 4 oil during periods of constrained gas supply in the winter months. The old GCS 230 barge is stationed at the dock semi-permanently and is sometimes supplemented by an additional barge, with HMS 2605 now tied up there as well. Note that HMS stands for Harley Marine Services, the former name of Centerline (not His/Her Majesty’s Ship!).
The GCS 230 barge at Pier 98 
The HMS tied up astern of GCS 230
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 