Category: Uncategorized
-
Farewell to ice season
Coast Guard 140-foot icebreaker Penobscot Bay returned to base on Tuesday after spending the past two weeks and, before that, much of the winter, upriver. With the 2026 ice season now finally coming to a close, both the Penobscot and Sturgeon Bay cutters are back at Bayonne, along with the 65-footer Hawser. The winter of…
-
Winter duck
March has come in like a lamb and cleared out the ice from the North River, but some of our winter ducks are still with us. This bufflehead, or as I like to call it, an Orca Duck, was hanging around among the old New York Central piers off Riverside Park South this week.
-
Back in service
Buchanan Marine’s Buchanan12 is back on the North River over the past week after a notable absence. The 3,000 HP towboat is normally a daily presence on the river, bringing hoppers loaded with crushed dolomite stone down from the Tilcon Clinton Point quarry just south of Poughkeepsie to moorings off Jersey City and then returning…
-
Back for more?
Out-of-town tug Mr. Goldie came up the North River just after sundown on Monday evening, having spent a few days in New York Harbor upon arriving from the Gulf last week. The 2,700 HP tug owned by Marquette Transportation of Jefferson, Louisiana brought the CBC 4508 deck barge equipped with a bracket for securing some…
-
Ciao!
The Italian frigate Alpino departed Pier 88 on schedule in the early hours Monday, leaving in darkness as she had arrived last week. A few crew members got a last look at the Big Apple, however, with the ship’s SH-90 helicopter launching from around Ambrose light and flying a loop up the North River. The…
-
Pass the salt
The Marshall Islands-flagged bulk ship St Greg, 625 feet long, came up the North River loaded with salt from Egypt to replenish municipal supplies depleted by the harsh winter. Some of the cargo was likely lightered off in the Upper Bay and brought up by barge ahead of the ship. St Greg was Coeymans-bound and…
-
Lights, camera, action
Stasinos Marine’s James Charles, a 2,000 HP tug built in 1970 and not to be confused with the company’s Charles James tug, was at North River Pier 94 Wednesday pulling the crane barge that has been there for over a year. The Sunset Studios sound stages and production facilities constructed on the pier opened in…
-
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Cabinet visitor
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Exactly a year ago, on March 5 2025, I was hanging out with some local tabloid reporters outside the Manhattan Cruise Terminal as Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem boarded the Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma at Pier 88 where she hosted a meeting with federal law enforcement officials on the ship’s enclosed…
-
Benvenuta Alpino!
The Italian warship Alpino, NATO Frigate 594, arrived at Pier 88 late Tuesday evening. The ship’s visit was advertised in advance by the Italian consulate, but she came in quietly, with AIS off until reaching the Ambrose light where the pilot likely boarded. Alpino is on a tour of Atlantic ports after completing exercises in…
-
Back to work at the Transfer Bridge
Jessica Frances, a small 600-HP twin screw tug based in Verplanck, picked up a crane barge at the North River Harlem piers and delivered it to the 69th Street Transfer Bridge restoration worksite. Frances single-handedly backed the big barge alongside the structure and then ran around to push her into place. Tuesday brought cold rain…
-
Velkomst
Norwegian tall ship Sorlandet arrived at North River Pier 86 on Thursday morning. Margaret Moran was on hand to assist, but with the river ebbing and ice having mostly cleared out, the 98-year-old sailing vessel was able to sidle up to the pier with no help, leaving Margret standing by to retrieve the docking pilot.…
-
Between snow falls
The sun came out Tuesday, finding a gap between Monday’s blizzard and Wednesday’s aftershock dusting of snow. Sound Marine’s 680 HP tug Matthew G took advantage of the window to bring a crane barge down the North River loaded with what looked like fendering for piles. They were heading for the Seastreak dock in Highlands,…
-
Aids to navigation
Happy Lunar New Year from NOT the North River. Driving across country this week, I did not expect to encounter Coast Guard vessels, but in Little Rock on Tuesday I found the cutter Muskingum, a 75-foot buoy tender comprised of a towboat paired with a crane barge equipped with a spud in the bow. The…
-
Winter resident
A red breasted merganser is among the birds wintering on the North River, seen by the A Dock of the 79th Street Boat Basin on Valentines Day Saturday. In spring he will head back to northern lakes and rivers, perhaps in Canada, for breeding.
North River Notes 