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Rule, Britannia!
The Royal Navy arrived in New York Harbor Sunday, with the flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth steaming in to host an Atlantic Future Forum on board. The carrier was accompanied by the frigate HMS Richmond, which came up the North River to dock at Pier 88 as the carrier anchored in the Upper Bay. A carrier based Merlin HM2 helicopter flew up the North River ahead of the Queen’s arrival and made several loops up the River during the day. Meanwhile, tanker traffic on the River was heavy.
A Royal Navy Merlin helicopter looping up the North River ahead of the arrival of the carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth in NY Harbor 
Frigate HMS Richmond arriving at Pier 88 
A Poling-Cutler tug with a light barge heading south 
Buchanan12 with its daily load of crushed dolomite approaching the bridge 
Pinuccia with a light barge coming down from Newburgh, passing a Metro North Hudson Line train just north of Spuyten Duyvil Station 
Stasinos’s Brinn Courtney bringing hoppers down from Tomkins Cove, passing Spuyten Duyvil en route to the Newark Bay side of Bayonne 
Haggerty Grils came down from Albany with a light barge Sunday late afternoon, passing Alpine NJ with the Mario Cuomo Bridge towers in the distant haze 
And then anchored off Edgewater 
Centerline’s William F. Fallon was anchored off 125th Street 
Susan Rose left its anchorage off Yonkers and headed for the Arthur Kill 
Dann Marine brought a light cement barge north as the light faded in front of the Lincoln Tunnel ramp ©2024 Daniel Katzive Uncategorized -
Saturday morning with a barge fire
Beautiful cool fall conditions persisted Saturday, with light winds out of the west punctuated by occasional gusts. Commercial traffic was heavy and a small fire on a paper recycling barge at Pier 99 brought FDNY Marine units to the scene. The fire was quickly extinguished, but five DSNY employees reported minor injuries (see article in West Side Rag for more details).
FDNY marine units at Pier 99 
Ladder 35 and Engine 40 responded by land 
Marine units monitor the barge after the fire was extinguished 
Cape Henry remained anchored off West 86th Street for another day 
Ellen Bouchard also remained anchored 
Vinik 6 left its Yonkers anchorage and headed for Raritan Bay 
Kimberly Poling brought a light barge south from Albany 
Buchanan12 was on its daily dolomite run, but turned mid river and stemmed off Pier 90 to kill some time mid-morning before continuing to Jersey City 
Cutter Sturgeon Bay left its North River anchorage, briefly anchored by the Statue, and then headed for its Bayonne base, joining Penobscot Bay there, with UN Week now behind us 
Dace Reinauer, of 1968 vintage, came down from Newburgh with a light barge 
Kristy Ann was heading the other way with a loaded barge 
Evelyn Curtis passed Chelsea with a loaded barge for Albany 
Dann Marine pushed a load of cement south from Ravenna, passing Cape Henry at slack tide 
DonJon Marine brought empty scows north, passing Cape Henry 
Jonathan Moran headed to Pier 88 to assist Carnival Magic 
Carnival Magic left for Bermuda, as seen from J24 sailboat 
Arcadia got an assist from Laura Moran as a kayaker steered clear by Pier 86 -
Four’s a crowd
Friday morning saw an unusually large gathering of anchored tugs in the North River, with Cape Henry, Ellen Bouchard, Jacksonville, and Genesis Glory all swinging on their chains. There was no obvious reason for this glut of tanker capacity, though perhaps strong winds overnight were a factor(?) In any event, by the end of the day, only Cape Henry and Ellen remained, though they were also joined by the Coast Guard cutter Sturgeon Bay, which resumed its UN week security post off 96th Street after a day tied up by the Intrepid.
Cape Henry at anchor Friday morning 
Ellen Bouchard, Jacksonville and Genesis Glory lined up south of the bridge 
A crowded river Friday morning. Source: MarineTraffic 
MHT’s Nathan G came south in the morning with a deck cargo from Albany which looked by its shape to perhaps be a large air conditioning unit Meanwhile, a trip to Brooklyn’s Fulton Landing ferry dock offered a good chance for ship watching. The Nathan G passed by there as well, coming back from Newtown Creek with an empty hopper barge.
Nathan G with an empty hopper barge on the East River Norfolk’s Pathfinder and Paula Atwell were bringing empty Covanta municipal waste containers back to the Flushing Bay marine transfer station. These Norfolk tugs do not visit the North River regularly but rather shuttle full containers from Flushing and the Upper East Side transfer facility to the Staten Island container terminal where they are put on trains and shipped to the Covanta waste-to-energy plant near Buffalo. Covanta also has a plant in Newark, but trash travels there by truck according to a recent article in New York Magazine’s Curbed.
Norfolk’s Pathfinder with a set of empty waste containers on the hip 
Followed by Paula Atwell with a similar cargo 
Coast Guard Cutter Katherine Walker was on UN security duty 
Along with numerous small response boats -
Autumn arrives
Autumn rolled in with a fast moving storm, but overcast skies gave way to beautiful conditions with 15 knot winds out of the northwest. The UN meetings continued but, with the main events behind us and the President back in Washington, some of the security measures seemed reduced. Coast Guard Cutter Beluga left the FDNY Marine 1 base in Chelsea Wednesday night and headed back to its home at Fort Hancock in Sandy Hook, while the Sturgeon Bay left its station off 96th Street in the North River and tied up at the end of Pier 86, by the intrepid. Her counterpart Penobscot Bay remained by the UN, along with the Woods Hole based cutter Sanibel.
Ellen Bouchard, now owned by Centerline Logistics, anchored in the River, replacing the Haggerty Girls which made an afternoon departure. Josephine Reinauer also anchored briefly on her way back down from Albany. Norwegian Getaway arrived at Pier 88 and made a quick turnaround for a trip back up the coast to New England, while P&O’s Arcadia arrived from the UK via the Canadian Maritimes and looked likely to stay the night.
USCGC Sturgeon Bay prepares to dock at Pier 86 behind the Intrepid ‘@USCG_Tri_State shared some good photos of the operations on the East Side on their Twitter feed.
P&O’s Arcadia is assisted to Pier 90 by two Moran tugs, as Atlantic Enterprise of the DonJon dredging crew stays out of the way 
Reinauer’s Josephine heading for the harbor after briefly anchoring in the River on the way back from Albany 
Sarah Dann hands off a mud scow for Enterprise to tow out to the dump site 
Dann Marine brought a sugar barge from New Orleans up to Yonkers as the morning storm moved in ©2024 Daniel Katzive Uncategorized -
Presidential address
President Biden addressed the UN General Assembly Wednesday, snarling traffic on the East Side and periodically blocking the East River, but North River traffic was fairly typical. USCGC Sturgeon Bay continued to keep a watchful eye on the West Side from its anchorage off 96th Street as motorcades zipped along the Henry Hudson Parkway, and Haggerty Girls remained anchored a bit further south.
The most notable shipping of the day came before sunrise as the bulker Jasmine slipped up to the wallboard plant in Buchanan with a load of gypsum from Garrucha Spain. The only daylight manifestation of this on the North River was the Doris and Miriam Moran coming south from Buchanan late in the morning after presumably helping the Jasmine dock at the plant up there.
Doris Moran passing Guttenberg after helping a gypsum carrier with docking up at the Buchanan wallboard plant Followed shortly after by Miriam Moran 
The Haggerty Girls and Cutter Sturgeon Bay at anchor off Riverside Park 
Sturgeon Bay can mount machine guns on its bridge wings for security details but we cannot see clearly enough in the photo whether she has done so 
A Reinauer ATB came upriver early in the day with a cargo 
Vanes Brothers’ Fells Point pushed an empty down from Albany in the afternoon 
Kimberly Poling left her Yonkers anchorage and brought her empty barge down towards the harbor as well 
As did her colleagues on Evelyn Cutler 
And Boston Marine’s Quenames, which passed the anchored Haggerty Girls 
Buchanan12 made a turn towards Manhattan to avoid the traffic and anchored vessels -
Security, security, security
Beautiful late-fall conditions prevailed Tuesday after Monday’s line of storms, with winds around 10 knots out of the west. Security was tight on land and on the rivers as the UN Meetings kicked off and ahead of President Biden’s visit Wednesday. The Coast Guard 140 foot ice breaking tug Sturgeon Bay was stationed in the North River anchorages and her counterpart Penobscot Bay was on station by the UN. The faster 87’ Protector Class Sandy Hook-based cutter Belgua was tied up in reserve at the Marine 1 FDNY station in Chelsea, and the 110’ Island Class Woods Hole-based cutter Sanibel was patrolling the East River, along with numerous small Coast Guard and NYPD boats. Commercial tanker barge traffic remained heavy on the North River, perhaps signaling that heating oil season is upon us.
Bayonne-based USCGC Strugeon Bay at anchor in the North River off Edgewater in the afternoon haze 
Vinik 6, a tug we have not seen or noticed before on the North River, was bringing a light looking, though perhaps just lightly loaded, barge from Shell’s Newark terminal towards Albany Tuesday morning 
Evelyn Cutler, a North River regular with a more obviously loaded barge, was close on her heels heading for the same place 
Josephine Reinauer was also pushing a loaded barge north late in the afternoon 
Haggerty Girls was (were?) anchored all day off the Boat Basin Marina 
Buchanan12 was on an early dolomite rock run down from Clinton Point 
Sarah Dann and the Delaware Bay dredger had moved to the south side of Pier 88 -
A storm in the afternoon
Monday was hot and hazy, with storms coming through in the afternoon. Commercial traffic observed was mainly concentrated in tanker barges. Dean Reinauer came up from the Arthur Kill and anchored in the North River with a loaded barge, which is not typical (usually anchoring barges are light). The periodic closures of the East River as the UN meetings get underway was the likely explanation. By 6pm she had pulled up her hook, headed around the Battery, up the East River, through Hell Gate towards the Sound.
Dean Reinauer anchored in the River with a loaded barge, probably to wait out the closure of the East River for UN meetings. 
Haggerty Girls came up the River following the storm to anchor off Riverside Park 
Susan Rose also moved up the River with a light barge, presumably to anchor Ivory Coast headed for Yonkers in the rain, joining the Carolina Coast up there likely to assist at the Domino Sugar plant 
Sarah Dann assisted the dredgers south of Pier 90 
Thomas D Witte brought a load of scrap down from Sims Metal Albany, passing the anchored super yacht Moca -
Perfect Sunday
Sunday brought near perfect conditions, with steady 10 knot breezes from the southwest making for excellent sailing. The cruise terminal was hopping, with three boats at the docks and dredging continuing in between. The tug Sarah Dann joined the dredging operations, having just arrived in New York Harbor this past week escorting the newest Staten Island Ferry to join the fleet (see the tugster blog article for photos).
Sarah Dann, on the right, has joined the DonJon dredging crew 
The dredgers at work behind a cruise ship 
Douglass J with a loaded mud scow on the wire passing the Lincoln Tunnel vents and heading for the dumpsite off Highlands NJ 
A crowd at the cruise terminal Sunday morning, with 3 cruise ships, two Centerline bunkering tugs and the dredge, from MarineTraffic 
The Viking Star at Pier 90, with Norwegian Breakaway visible the background 
The Silver Whisper on the south side of Pier 88 
Norwegian Breakaway heading for New England and Nova Scotia, passing Circle Line Staten Island approaching its pier 
Coast Guard Cutter Beluga was tied up at the FDNY Marine 1 dock as security tightens for the UN annual meetings, as seen from the bow of a J24 sailboat 
Mister Jim pushing a deck barge towards Coeymans Sunday morning Dean Reinauer brought its barge back from Newburgh and headed for Seawaren for new cargo 
Dann Marine pushed a loaded cement barge south as a J80 sailboat stayed out of the way, with Norwegian Breakaway at Pier 88 in the background 
This unusual cruising yacht was anchored off Englewood Cliffs last weekend and was heading upriver in that direction again Sunday 
The Pier i fishermen caught a blue crab on Friday -
Mystery pollutant
Beautiful weather extended into the weekend, but serenity on the River was somewhat marred Friday afternoon by a strange armada of white cubes which travelled up the estuary on the flood tide. At a distance this appeared to be a huge collection of styrofoam floating in, but on closer examination the cubes were made up of some kind of sudsy material which broke up easily when fished out with a stick. Inquiry to the NY State DEC brought no immediate response, and Riverkeeper responded to a Tweet that they were unable to identify it from the photos. As we reported in the West Side Rag Friday night, the mystery remains unsolved for now. Other observed traffic in the river has been more typical.
Mysterious cubes floating north 
Haugland’s Evening Mist making a run south from the company’s Tomkins Cove port 
The dredgers remain at work in the passenger terminal, hauling mud scows to the HARS dump site off Highlands, New Jersey 
Janice Ann Reinauer brought a light barge back from Newburgh, heading for the Kinder Morgan terminal in Perth Amboy. She passed the Carnival Magic, loading up for a trip to Nova Scotia 
Evelyn Cutler was on a similar course, brining her light barge down from Albany to the Phillips 66 terminal at Tremley Point on Saturday 
Colleagues on the Kimberly Poling were moving in the other direction later in the afternoon , bringing a cargo from Cataret up towards Albany -
And the days go by…
A clear and slightly cooler week has followed the weekend rain. Busy times on land and shorter days means less chance to get on the River and watch the traffic. Vessels observed in recent days were all North River regulars.
The dredging team remains hard at work at the cruise terminal 
Haugland Group’s Evening Mist has been making runs from the quarry up in Catskill NY 
A Poling-Cutler tug, Kimberly Poling, pushed a tanker cargo north, passing the still-anchored super yacht Moca near 72nd Street Dann Marine continues to move cement south from Ravenna, NY and bring back empty barges north 
A Vane Brothers tug was running light coming south on Thursday 
Another trip to the narrower East River allows for closeups of North River regular Mister Jim 
Also on the East River, this Buchanan Marine tug, Mister T, is not one seen often on the North River
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 