Category: Uncategorized
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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,…
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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…
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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.
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Back to work!
Thomas Dann and the deck barge CBC Savannah came down the North River on a slow bell Saturday, running on their regular route ferrying offshore wind components for the Sunrise Wind project assembled at the Port of Coeymans to their staging area in Rhode Island. Work on the project has resumed after a February 2…
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Returning to the front
Coast Guard icebreaker Penobscot Bay was on the North River heading back to the front Saturday morning, returning to icebreaking duties up north after a few days back at base in Bayonne. It has been a busy winter for this cutter, along with the other Bayonne-based 140-foot Sturgeon Bay and the smaller 65-footer Hawser. A…
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Flock of eagles
A group of six bald eagles gathered on a North River ice floe off 72nd Street Thursday morning to discuss important matters. Eagles like to follow the ice so we do tend to see them in the lower reaches of the estuary during the winter, but I’ve never seen a group of six together like…
North River Notes 