Category: Uncategorized
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Perfect Monday
Terrific conditions arrived Monday though by the end of the day the wind was picking up again. Tanker and hopper traffic on the river remained heavy.
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Mothers’ Day Improvement
Conditions improved steadily over the course of Mothers’ Day after the drenching of the past few days. The morning saw three AT/Bs at anchor in the river: the Mako and Haggerty Girls remain for a second day, and the Jacksonville arrived in the early hours of the morning from Port Jefferson and anchored near Grant’s…
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A Saturday drencher
Drenching rain and high winds persisted for most of the day, keeping recreational boaters off the river. Walkers were in evidence through the morning though, as the annual Great Saunter, a 32-mile walk around the entire circumference of Manhattan went on as scheduled. You can read more about that in my article on it today…
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Friday washout
Thursday’s perfect conditions gave way to a Friday washout, with soaking rains cancelling ball games. Things will get worse before they get better, with winds set to pick up on Saturday. Commercial traffic on the river remained heavy even as recreational boaters stayed dry.
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Perfect Thursday
Thursday brought beautiful conditions with light winds and sunny skies. The Port Richmond was servicing the North River sewage plant, and brought sludge to the Passaic Valley Water Authority plant in Newark, which receives a small portion of the DEP’s sludge for dewatering under contract.
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Sun breaking through again
It started as a chilly and rainy morning, but by afternoon the rain had stopped, ball fields were reopening and the sun was trying to break through. Dann Marine’s Neptune came up the river light, heading the Yonkers Domino Sugar plant where she likely assisted Margery in docking a sugar barge which the latter had…
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Spring Tuesday
Warmer weather and fairly light winds made for nice conditions, with winds out of the northwest swinging around to the south by the end of the day. AT/B traffic on the river was fairly heavy in the afternoon.
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Back to the 1960s — fireboat special
UPDATE 3: This post has been updated with a correction. The transfer bridge where the Frying Pan and Harvey are located was a B&O Railroad Pier, not Lehigh Valley as originally written. The LV transfer bridge which fed the Starrett Lehigh Building was located north of Pier 66, closer to where the Pier 66 boat…
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Weekend update
The strong northwest winds slowly abated over the weekend and swung around to the south. Temperatures came up into the 60s, but there is rain coming tomorrow. Dredging activity continued but shifted to the south side of Pier 88.
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Friday is for the birds
Brisk northwest winds continued for a third day and kept recreational boaters at bay, but the birds were out in force. A bald eagle flew over Pier i in the morning, pursued by crows. Meanwhile, back on the ground, the first of the spring goslings emerged in Riverside Park, perhaps a tempting snack for the…
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Switching horses
Another brutal northwest wind kept recreational boaters off the river and had sailors cancelling plans Thursday. A Dann Marine tug, the Pearl Coast, came down the river with a loaded cement barge from the Lafarge plant in Ravenna, swung around into the ebb tide and dropped anchor north of the boat basin. Shortly after, another…
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Another windy Wednesday
Brisk northwest winds kept recreational activity to a minimum on Wednesday, but there was a fair amount of commercial traffic. The cargo ship BBC Rushmore came up the river early, arriving from Newfoundland, Canada and heading for the Port of Albany. Over at the Boat Basin, a work boat from the Miller’s Launch was busy…
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Lots of action at Pier 88
The passenger ship terminal remains busy, with Norwegian cruise lines accounting for the bulk of the business. After Getaway and Gem departed Sunday for Nova Scotia and Portugal, respectively, Norwegian Escape was here Monday and is now off to Bermuda, and Norwegian Joy arriving this morning and now also heading off to Bermuda. Perhaps things…
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April cruising
The dredging operations at the passenger ship terminal moved aside on Sunday and were replaced by two Norwegian ships and the smaller Ocean Explorer cruise ship. The Norwegian Gem and Getaway were both in port Sunday morning, and were heading out Sunday night for Portugal and Halifax, respectively, a break from the Bermuda and Caribbean…
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Weekend update
Beautiful spring weather, though still chilly on the water Saturday. Activity is picking up, with more recreational boaters and dinner cruises starting up, and a steady flow of barges heading to the dredging operation at Pier 88/90. The newly commissioned cutter Clarence Suthphin, which we photographed yesterday on Pier 86 (see yesterday’s post), headed out…
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Sutphins happening on Pier 86
The newly commissioned Coast Guard 154’ Fast Response Cutter the Clarence Suthphin Jr. is tied up at the end of Pier 86, the pier which houses the Intrepid Museum. The Sutphin’s commissioning ceremony was apparently yesterday and it is soon heading for Bahrain, one of six such cutters which support the US Central Command in…
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Practice makes perfect
Coast Guard Sector New York’s four 29’ response boats were back in the river Thursday, drilling similarly to what we observed almost exactly a month ago (see Drill Baby Drill). Once again, two boats had their forward machine guns mounted. FDNY’s 140’ Marine 1 fire boat was also practicing on the river (or perhaps just…
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Back to the river
Clearing skies and warmer temperatures saw activity on the river continue to pick up. The knot of tugs anchored in the river broke up, with only Stephen Reinauer remaining. What looked to me like a juvenile bald eagle passed over Pier i in the early hours, being harassed by a crow. The eagle was followed…
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Windy Easter
Dropping temperatures, whipping winds, and the Easter holiday kept activity to a minimum on Sunday. Vane Brothers Wye River came through with an empty-looking barge arriving from Boston via the Cape Cod Canal and heading straight for Albany without picking up cargo in Jersey. This is a somewhat unusual movement, though perhaps the barge is…
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Hello from the other side
The weekend has brought perfect spring temperatures, though with a steady wind coming in from the south keeping things choppy during ebb tides, especially on Friday. A trip to New Jersey can provide a Western perspective on the North River. Below, the Haggerty Girls pushes an empty tanker barge from Albany under the George Washington…
North River Notes 