BOATMANBLOG

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2012-01-20T09:41:00.000-08:00

Northbound at Ellis Island

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2012-01-19T12:33:00.000-08:00

Lady Liberty

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2012-01-19T11:21:00.001-08:00

Eastbound through the Rose Bowl

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2012-01-19T10:41:00.001-08:00

North Bound Arthur Kill

Virginia C II

2012-01-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

VIRGINIA C II

This is where it all began - as far as my maritime career goes. Dad acquired this boat in 1978. He found it sitting in Merrit Island Florida where it had been languishing out of service - for a few years. She was built in 1962 in Biloxi Mississippi. At 86 feet overall length, 5 foot draft, the hull is 3/4 inch mahogany, double planked. Power is 2 Detroit Diesel 16-71 engines.

There's a lot of history to this little boat. One of the neatest things about her is that she saw service as ferry in Cuba in her early years. We had been told that by the previous owners, and it was always part of the story that goes with the boat (all old boats have stories). Well, low and behold, a friend of ours was watching a documentary about the Cuban revolution and the Bay of Pigs invasion, and sure enough there's the boat, loaded with people in some harbor in Cuba.

Besides that little tidbit, there's tons of personal history around her too. In 1978 I was 12 years old. I'm now 45 and this boat is still here! The following year, 1979 she went from Boston down to Miami to work the winter season. At 13, I was able to make the trip from Savannah Georgia to Miami. Right around this time is when I began to learn how to stand a wheel watch - there was no auto pilot - and to make engine room checks. Somewhere between Boston and Savannah one of the fuel tanks split open, and Dad tried to salvage almost a thousand gallons of fuel out of the bilge by filtering it through rags back into other fuel tanks that were still functional. The result was stuck injectors that got progressively worse as the trip went on. When we got to Miami the problem was that there was no throttle control. My job was to go down in the engine room and shut off the fuel supply when the engineer's call signal went off. I imagine that was a pretty tense moment for the old man, shape up for the dock, say a prayer, and shut her down. At the end of the season I made the trip all the way back to Boston, pretty cool for a young kid!

Yeah, so I learned all those things that make up the skill set of a mariner, and then I learned a whole lot about working with the public too. I learned how to pretend I was having a good day even when I wasn't. I learned how to tend bar, sling burgers, all that sort of stuff.

Over the years she ran countless trips between Boston and Gloucester, and became a familiar sight at the Studio Restaurant in Rocky Neck. Besides that she did a lot of Whale Watching on Stellwagon Bank, and many evening party cruises. She made the trip to Newport RI a few times to carry spectators for the America's Cup Races.

We took her down to New York in '86 for the Statue of Liberty centennial and the Tall Ships. That was a fun trip. We spent a week in Newport with the Tall Ships, then went down to NY and ran trips from Hastings on Hudson down to the City for a week. A lot of memories there. I looked around for some better pictures, but this all I could find so, well, ya................... ~ Al

You live on a boat?

2012-01-14T22:49:00.000-08:00

I used to get that question all the time back in high school. Yeah, I live on a boat. This is the Joseph J Luna, a retired Boston fire boat. Dad bought it in '78 and we lived aboard, Mom Dad, four kids, a cat and dog.

As Ma would tell the story, it wasn't the plan, but the summer of '78 wasn't exactly a banner year for A.C. Cruise Line. One boat had a fire, and the other sank, all in the same week, so funds were a little tight and as often happens, temporary measures became shall we say, a little more long term.

So there were six of us on board, and it was a little tight, yeah, but cozy, even comfortable. The lower deck consisted of the galley, the master stateroom, and a head with bath. The galley served as kitchen, office, dining room, and T.V. room. We never knew who might be sitting there when we came in from school: Potential customer, sales people, old family friends......... "Alan, this is so and so." ' Oh, hi - howyadoin?' I'd mumble as I started rummaging through the fridge for something to eat. There was always someone coming or going.

The upper deck had three staterooms and a smaller head with shower. After a while the wheelhouse also got co-opted as a stateroom too. There was heat, and laundry facilities, and all the comforts of home - maybe a little abbreviated -but it was all there.

She served as dad's home after we all grew up and went our own ways. She finally sank a couple of years ago after thirty something years of faithful service.

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2012-01-11T13:20:00.001-08:00

Bucking tide and dodging ferries in NY Harbor

New boat, same old job

2012-01-09T00:28:00.001-08:00

I switched boats a few months back. I'm on the Sarah Ann now. I had went over here to fill in for a couple of weks and forgot what it was like to be on a boat that had some room, and that had enough height of eye to actually see over and around the tow. so here I am. It's a good deal in all respects except one: The schedule is three weeks instead of two. To put it mildly, I HATE IT!! I really didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but the extra week is a killer. On an offshore boat, it makes perfect sense. You never know where you're crew changing, and three and three gives the boat time to get somewhere, and gives you some time to get to and from the boat between hitches. It also cuts down on travel expenses over the year. On a harbor boat though I find it exhausting. We're pretty busy on this boat, running up and down and back and forth all over the harbor. It can get a little stressful, what with all the other traffic, and the radios going all the time. After a few days, your can get just wore out. It doesn't seem to be so bad this trip, we've gotten a litle down time since we got on last Tuesday - so I'm not trying to say it's all gloom and doom - but still, it's a little much.

Other than that, it's great, there's plenty of room over here, compared to the Brian Nicholas, and the crew is great. And the boat is an absolute dream to run, real manouverable, good visibility, it's really nice.

I quit smoking last week, and I seem to be sleeping a little better, so that's helping with the fatigue level this trip too. I'm missing the smokes a little, like when I first get up, but just because I feel like I need a smoke doesn't mean I have to have one. And really, just because I feel like a want to smoke, doesn't really mean I want to smoke either. It occured to me earlier tonight that the discomfort of withdrawal is probably less than the discomfort of being a pack and a half a day smoker, what with all the wheezing and coughing and shortness of breath and whatnot. So with that in mind, I'm going to keep going. today will be nine days smoke free, and other than the cravings that come and go, I feel really great. I'm using the patch to deal with the cravings a little bit, although they are still there. This way, what I'm mostly dealing with over the next couple of months is getting away from the ritual of the smoke: the lighting, and puffing, and all of that; Also, the triggers too: Eating, drinking coffee, waking up, getting ready for bed, driving, hanging out with friends..............All of that. It isn't easy, I'm not going to lie, but I feel awesome, I can already breathe much better. ~ AL

more on living aboard.....

2012-01-04T22:06:00.001-08:00

Yeah so there's the space thing, the water thing, and then there's other little adjustments to get used to. Some people say that it must be kind of cold in the winter. It's a little bit cool maybe, but I wouldn't say it's cold. It's true that most boats aren't insulated, being designed for use in the warmer months. Besides that it is a little drafty for sure. I insulated some of the windows and hatches with some foam panels, and others I put up some of that clear shrink wrap window insulation - to stop the drafts somewhat - and then got some heavy insulated drapes too. It's really kind of cozy though I admit I haven't really seen a deep freeze yet. I think the coldest it's been so far is about 32 or so. We'll see what it's like when I get home at the end of January, when I expect we'll get some serious cold snaps.

Some people build frames and make a plastic tent to protect them from the wind and snow, and they get some radiant heat from the sun with this too. I didn't have time to get that all together this year, time sneaked up on me pretty fast - what else is new?

My heat is a couple of electric heaters that I bought out of a marine hardware catalog. they seem to work well. My electric bill is a little high though, but considering how reasonable the winter dockage rate is, I think it's not too bad. One thing that helps is that I'm only there half the time, and work the other half - three weeks home and three weeks away - so it's pretty doable.

I paid $1470.00 for dockage from Nov. 1 to May 1. the electricity is probably going to come to another $700 or so - maybe a little more. So even if the whole total is $2500 for six months, that's pretty good i think for six months of housing in Boston. I haven't asked many other liveaboards how they feel about the whole thing, but I'd bet many of them would probably agree with me on this: If I could afford to keep a boat and maintain a house or apartment, then I'd rather live on land in the winter. I don't have a lot of money, and I love boating, so this is how I make it happen. In the warmer months, its great. Lots of people around the docks, long days cruising around the harbor, or anchored out somewhere. What's not to like? But in the winter it can be a little bit much. ~ Al

Inbound Newtown creek

2012-01-04T11:18:00.002-08:00

Shifting scows at Long Island City scrap dock

2012-01-04T11:18:00.001-08:00

Outbound Newtown Creek with two loaded scrappies

2012-01-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

Living aboard

2012-01-03T21:51:00.000-08:00

Wow! three followers, this like, becoming a trend or something. This is my home. I bought it in June, and have been living aboard. I spent the summer in Quincy, where the boat was located when I bought it. Now I'm in East Boston where I moved because the marina has a heated shower and bathroom. In Quincy, they shut down the heads and showers for the winter.

Living aboard is not a bad thing, as long as you can get used to a few things. The first big thing is space. My whole living area is contained in that little space right there, twelve feet wide by about thirty feet long (plus the back deck which is about four feet long). In the winter it's even a little smaller because I close off the fore peak area to make it all a little easier to heat. I use that area for storage, which leads me to the issue of storage. There isn't a lot of room for stuff. Everybody's got stuff right? Books, clothes, kitchen gear, knickknacks and whatnot. one has to make peace with what's necessary and what's worth the clutter, and all the other stuff that, well, just isn't that important once you've lived without it for a while. Besides the whole space issue, there's also the bathroom thing. On a boat, we're not hooked up to the sewer system like in a house. Dumping waste overboard isn't option - unless we're out at sea - so most boats use a holding tank, or a treatment system. In the winter, there aren't a lot of options for having the waste holding tank pumped out so the way to get around that is to go up the gangway and use the facilities up on the dock. I liken it to living back in the days when there was an outhouse out back, except that there's heat up there. Same with the shower. I'm developing a habit of going to the gym every other day, so I get my shower there on those days, and use the marina shower on the off days. So once you get past those things, there's only a few minor adjustments to make. In the winter, fresh water is something to think about. Our water line isn't in the ground under the frost line. It's right there in the open air where it can freeze. When I was a kid growing up at Fan Pier somebody was always around to check on things, so we kept a faucet open in the tub so as to keep the water flowing. Flowing water won't freeze unless it gets really really cold, so that worked for years. The problem with that is that if a pipe burst in the bilge (if you're not a boat person think cellar) then the boat fills up with said water and sinks. It's not really a good idea to keep a faucet open unless there's always someone there to keep watch on it, not to mention the water bill gets a little high if there's a meter on it. The marina I'm at now runs a water line under the docks to keep it in the salt water where it wont freeze, so all you have to do is top off your water tank every so often and make sure you drain all the hoses that are out in the open air: the one coming down from the pier to the dock and the one from the dock to the boat. That's it for now, I have to get some work done. I'll continue this in the next couple of days, stay warm! ~ AL

New Year Resolution

2012-01-01T18:20:00.000-08:00

This was a few summers back, we took the Chesapeake 1000 up to Maine to lift this tug into the water. Washburn and Doughty had a fire and their railway was destroyed, so this was the solution for keeping the work on schedule while they were also working at rebuilding the yard.

The tug is the Laura K Moran. We were told that the boat weighs 500 tons, so the crane is working at only half capacity here - mighty impressive.

As for New Years resolutions, I don't usually make them. I am going to try to develop a routine for writing more though. It shouldn't be too difficult to sit down for a few minutes every couple of days and get some thoughts out there. The big news in my world these days is that I have quit smoking. Yup, started working on it over the holidays and today is my first day without a cigarette! I threw out a half a pack, my lighter, ashtrays, matches, rolling machine, all my paraphernalia. I'm gonna be using the patch for a little bit to help with the physical part of the addiction. That will make it a little bit easier to deal with the mental part - the triggers and associations between smoking and everyday things like smoking with coffee, or driving, or after meals, etc......That's all for now, see ya in a few days. I'm working on a few posts about how I got into this kind of work, and where I came from - that sort of thing.

assisting the Caitlin Ann with the Chesapeake 1000.jpg

2011-10-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

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The wrong way

2011-10-05T05:58:00.003-07:00

What we are looking at here is two lines on a cleat of a New York sanitation scow. One of them leads forward to the tug, and one leads aft. This is what we call "scow style" make up. We do this when there aren't enough cleats on the scow, or if the cleats aren't in the right place for a more conventional make up. One of these lines does the pulling, the other is there for backing purposes. Out of view, back at the stern of the boat, is a stern line that holds the boat alongside while turning.

So here's what's wrong: Notice how each line is only hooked on one horn of the cleat? That's no good! People do it, and make a habit of it for a whole career and never get in trouble, but it isn't right. If one of these lines should fail, the boat will slide until the other lines just falls off the cleat, and then we're just hanging on that stern line. the problem with that is two-fold.

As we're making way through the water, we are cramming loads of water between the scow and the boat. These lines are under tremendous strain holding the two vessels together. Now all of a sudden we have nothing there, what happens? The two vessels get pushed apart by this wedge of water, and the only thing holding it all together is the stern line. First of all, we've lost control of the scow. We have no means of steering it. We could put the rudder hard over, bringing the boat back to the scow and doing a big circle until the deckhand gets a couple of lines out - but we need a lot of sea room to get that done. What if there's another boat, or a rock, or some other hazard there? The other problem - and it's a much greater problem - is that as the two vessels separate, they get sideways to the flow of water. They open up like a V. The scow goes one way, the boat goes the other, and now the boat is getting towed by the scow, instead of the other way around. If the scow starts towing the boat sideways, it leans the boat over. we call this getting tripped. The boat leans way over, water gets all over the deck and into any openings, doors, vents, etc..... and starts flooding the boat. Many tugs are lost in this manner. Tugs are built very low to the water, there isn't a lot of freeboard, or reserve buoyancy. You get a little flooding, and it doesn't take much before it's all over.

So why do guys do this the wrong way? It's faster. It's easier than teaching the deckhand about leading the two parts around one end of the cleat and dropping the bight on the other, or even educating them about terms like "the bight" or the "bitter end" versus the "standing part". It's a little easier to get the line off when they are like this too. Take a look at the next post for the right way to do it.

The right way

2011-10-05T05:58:00.001-07:00

So here's the same make up - scow style - but done right. The bright blue line is leading forward, it's the towing line. It does most of the work - that is it does all the forward pulling. The older dingy line leading aft does all the work when backing, or operating astern.

The right thing about all this is that both lines have a solid purchase on the cleat. We refer to it as a "fore and aft" lead, although it's called different things in different places. If one of theses lines should fail, the other line stays firmly on the cleat. It will be a little slack as the boat slides fore or aft, but I've still got a solid hold on the scow - albeit a little sloppy - until we get a new line out. This is basic good seamanship, pure and simple. Do it right, don't take short cuts, no matter how many times you might get away with it. It's only going to take one time to ruin a perfectly good day, or get someone killed, or even just get you doing a bunch of unpleasant paperwork.

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2011-07-02T00:02:00.000-07:00

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2011-06-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

Catherine Turecamo working the stern of the NYK KAI at Port Elixabeth
Laura K Moran on the bow
Chicago Bridge at Port Elizabeth
Chicago Bridge with tugs alongside

This is what we get for scenery these days on the Brian. No big orange ferries, or joggers on the East River. Watching the boats work the ships has got me thinking about my time doing ship assist, in Boston, and for about a year in Philadelphia too.

I liked it because it made me become a better boat handler. The pilot is always expecting a quick response, so one learns how to get it done efficiently. Trying to stay in front of a ship coming out of Chelsea Creek while the deckhand is trying to retrieve your line on the fantail requires finesse and attention to detail for sure. I remember when the craziest, scariest thing was trying to hold the boat in place above the Chelsea St. bridge while waiting for the ship to come through so you could get a line up on the starboard bow. On one side is the channel where the ship is coming, on the other side is the wall of a pump house, where you are trying not to get pushed into. As the ship is coming at you it's pushing a whole bunch of water, which is trying to blow you out of the way. After a while it becomes routine, bump it in and out of gear, hold the boat almost in the way of the ship as it comes, then allow the bow wave to push you aside as you're steering into the ship to land without pushing him around too much.

That was after getting the bare basics down pat. The captain would let you run around light tug, then when he thought you were ready, he'd show you how to come alongside a moving ship. The first time I did that, I came in too hard and knocked everything all over the wheel house. There's some things to know there too, like in anything. I was taught to let the point on the ship, your landing place, to pass you - or at least let it come abeam of you. Then you have to match the boat's speed to the ship. The rest is fairly easy, but it takes a little practice, bring the boat in FLAT alongside the ship. My mistake was that I angled in and landed the shoulder on it, like a lineman laying a block lol. Turn the rudder a little toward the ship, bring the boat in some. Then shift the rudder the other way to flatten out. Keep repeating that a few times till you lay it up alongside gentle as can be. Once your in there, put a little rudder against the ship to keep you pinned without pushing the guy around. Easy as cake.

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2011-06-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

Capt. Ed transferring a load of elusive New York Harbor ball fish. Although they are somewhat elusive, there is no bag limit.
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Craig Golden "Goldie" on thhe Megan Ann

2011-05-30T11:49:00.001-07:00

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I'm baaack!

2011-05-29T22:27:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written anything. I spent the whole home hitch putting together my new apartment and selling my boat. the apartment isn't quite all there yet, but it is all mine, and that's something - no room mates - just me. The boat had to go, and I'm not happy about that. In the micro economics that is my life it was the right thing to do, between the recent move, and a weird tax bill that came out of nowhere. So I let it go to a guy at work who was looking for the same kind of boat and it freed up a couple of thousand dollars that was sorely needed. So now I'm looking at the next one and my thoughts turn to power boats, but upon further reflection I think I need to stick with the sailboats. I mean, even the most economical powerboats are about eight to ten bucks an hour to run, and with the amount of boating I do this just isn't sustainable.

Stay tuned for some sort of tug related post , real soon.

Hey Bill. thanks for following. We need to get together soon.

On the downstroke

2011-05-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

Over the hump, or as My friend Bill would say, "on the down stroke now". Yesterday we were one week into the hitch with one week to go. We've been back on dredge detail this trip, and that makes for some long watches. There's just something about traveling around the harbor that makes the time go by a little faster. Doing dredge work, at least here in Newark Bay, there's a lot of sitting at the dock waiting for something to happen.

Either there is ship traffic that we need to move a dredge off station, or we need to swap out scows, or help the big boat make up for the dump run. When none of that is going on, it's "stand by to stand by". The deckhands have been doing a little painting, I've been keeping the chahrts and logs up to date, and other than that it's a lot of time for reading and catching up with our friends on thhe other boats at the dock.

No pics for today, we've got a real slow connection so there's no sense aggravating my self trying to put something up.

As the wheel turns...................................

2011-05-02T14:08:00.000-07:00

We took this loaded scow off the dredge F.J. Belisimo thhis afternoon and took it up to Berth 22 to await the Atlantic Salvor. which would tow it to sea for disposal
I wonder if this guy drew the short straw for this assignment, or was it a reward?
John, of the Megan Ann and Claude passing time
Atlantic Concert inbound for Port Elizebeth
There's always something that needs painting on a tug.

Willis Ave. Bridge

2011-04-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting job; This is the tug Herbert Brake with the Willis Ave. Bridge on a scow. It is heading into the canal at Claremont to be cut up for scrap. The captain on the Herbie is Pat Folan, who is an awesome boatman and a great photographer too. Here is his website with tons of pictures of boats and stuff http://www.pelicanpassage.com/

Back to work!

2011-04-29T01:20:00.001-07:00

Dredging in Port Elizabeth, getting ready to flip a scow end for end alongside dredge Delaware Bay.
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Viking Starliner

2011-04-15T17:16:00.000-07:00

This is the boat we went to Montauk to look at. Some time this week or next, we'll be bringing it up to Boston. Dad had this boat in Boston for a few years, then it went back to New York for a year. Now he has an opportunity to get again for his business in Boston. She was built in 1963 by Blount in Warren Rhode Island. 97 feet, gross tonnage 99, with a capacity of around 300 people. She has 3 Detroit Diesel engines. I think they are 12-71's but I'm not sure. The center one also runs a bow thruster, which really comes in handy with this boat beacause the old fashioned manual steering is a real bear to handle in a hurry.

I had never been that far out Long Island before. It's a nice place, reminds me of Cape Cod a lot. I'm going to put it on my list of places to go when I have more time to poke around a little.

Port jefferson NY

2011-04-14T17:52:00.001-07:00

Waiting for the 8 pm boat at Port Jefferson. Its going to be a long day, stood watch 0001 to 0600, got a little sleep before noon crew change - then drove out to Montauk to look over a boat - won't see home until about midnight.
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Vissy Paper

2011-04-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

This is one of our regular stops on the Brian Nicholas. Often you'll see tugs laying on the caissons to the right of the building as they wait for their oil barges just across the river. We're looking at it from the north. A loaded scow has just been secured there by The Thomas Witte. In this picture we can't see the south side, but what happens is that as the scows get unloaded inside the shed they get shifted to the south through the building to a dock outside where they wait for a tug to take them away. The barge alongside the Brian is a little 90' deck barge that was being used to do some dock construction there.

I have a short video of the approach and the make-up and departure that I will post when I get home.

Tools of the trade

2011-04-11T22:00:00.003-07:00

These are a few of the tools that get a lot of use on a tugboat when the weather turns nice. On the left is a needle gun, used to remove loose paint and rust in preparation for fresh paint. the middle tool is a grinder with a wire wheel attachment for cleaning up the surface after the heavy stuff is knocked off. The next one is a grinder with a plain old grinding wheel on it, for those pesky things like old welds, remnants of brackets that have been cut off over the years, fasteners protruding through from the other side of the bulkhead ( that's what we call walls on boats), and other such imperfection that need removing.

Not long after stepping aboard a tug, one becomes intimately familiar with these tools and their use - and the mind numbing rattle of that needle gun doing its thing.

Time to do something about this

2011-04-11T22:00:00.001-07:00

This little job has been overlooked for years, and while it's out of the way and covered up by all sorts of equipment, it is time to do something about it.

Mary Alice

2011-04-11T21:59:00.003-07:00

When I took a little break from chipping, I came out of my corner and the Mary was alongside transferring some water to us here at Berth 5. I don't know who that is at the rail of the Mary, but that's Mark Browning in the foreground messing around with the water hose.

I'll do a post about the Mary at some point in the future, she's a great boat. I was mate on her for a while before I decided to try a career change last year.

ready for some paint

2011-04-11T21:59:00.001-07:00

This is that nasty white bulkhead all cleaned up and ready for some paint. The next step will be some sort of rust converter, or coroseal, or some such product, then a coat of primer, then a nice coat of Donjon blue

Tug Paul Andrew

2011-04-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

Here is the Paul Andrew standing by in Port Elizabeth N.J. The captain on board is Ed Holden, who has been working on tugs ever since he was a kid. His father was a tug captain, as were his uncles - the whole family! His brother runs a tug too I believe.

The Paul is on the small side, at 68 feet, with 1200 horsepower; Despite her small size, she's quite a work horse, and among the best kept boats I have ever seen. Because of the clean burning modern Cummins diesels, she is often used as a dredge tender, keeping the N.O.X. emissions down, which is a consideration on Army Corps of Engineer dredging contracts these days. I've been told that Donjon has a competitive edge because one of our dredges and this boat meet this environmental challenge pretty readily. When I was a mate on the Mary Alice, we had orders not to spend too much time standing by alongside the dredge Delaware Bay unless absolutely necessary because we didn't have the same low low emissions as the Paul did. She was built in 1968 as the Miss Holly by Breaux's Bay Craft of Loreauville, Louisiana. She was previously operated by S.C. Loveland Co. of Philadelphia PA. and is a very well traveled boat.

An interesting thing about Tug Boats - at least to me anyways - is how durable they are. 1968, 43 years old, and still going strong. This is not uncommon at all, with regular maintenance and up grades, these boats go on and on. My current boat, the Brian Nicholas was built in '66. Most of the boats I have worked on are about this old in fact. How many trucks on the road are that old? Not too many, that's for sure. A quick Google search reveals that the average age of a tug in the U.S. is 38 yrs. old.

Pulaski Bridge Newtown Creek

2011-04-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

This Bridge spans Newtown Creek in Brooklyn/Queens our dock is up past that black/red barge you can just barely make out on the left. You can see the man on the scow to the left, wearing the orange coat (just to the left and underneath the left hand bridge abutment). He's there to keep an eye on that left or port side. As we go through, I can't really see anything to my left. I need someone up there to let me know what's going on. With two scows wide like this, there's about 25 feet of clearance on the port side and about 10 feet on my side. Although it's hard to damage at slow speeds like this, it is considered bad form to hit the bridge fendering. On our left side right before the bridge is a small fleet of sailboats, what I like to think of as a floating trailer park (my kind of place!) so I'm favoring the right hand side. Sometimes there is an oil barge just on the other side of the bridge on the right side, and this can make things interesting as you're trying to stay off of that and not hit that barge further up on the left. the first couple of times I did this, it was really challenging, worrying about hitting the sailboats, or the bridge, but after a few times it becomes routine. The thing of it is to have a good man out on your blind side and to go slow enough to have time to maneuver, yet fast enough to have steerage - you need some water moving past the rudders in order for the boat to do what you want. Once we got up to the dock, we had to swap these two barges out with two loaded ones. It goes something like this: Drop the left side one off behind the first one at the dock, then slide up and grab the one in front of that, while holding onto the one we have on the nose. Then we take those two and slide them further up alongside another one sitting at the dock, leave them there and slide back to the first two, put a line on them and move them down to the spot we just opened up. Then we flip that first load back alongside the empty so that they're two wide with the empty to the dock and the load outside of it. then we go back to the other set, flip that empty into the slot we took the load out of, take that second load and put alongside the first load, put them back in push gear and get underway with both of them. That whole thing takes about 30 minutes or so, than another hour and a half or two hours back to Claremont.

From time to time, I'll be posting photos and short posts from my phone, then coming back to elaborate on them later, just so's we're all on the same page here :~)

I think I have a video of an inbound transit to this dock at home. If so, I'll post it when I get a chance.

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2011-04-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

Two scrappies in push gear. The taller one is set aft so as to see around iot better.
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Test post

2011-04-09T01:43:00.000-07:00

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Statue of Liberty

2011-04-08T23:21:00.000-07:00

I took this Friday during the D.O.S. run.

Friday! oh wait...........just another day here at work

2011-04-08T01:19:00.000-07:00

Oh well, it's 0430 Friday morning. We've got some down time so here I am trying to post some pics, but they are too big. I guess I need to look into this a little bit, huh? I was doing some uploading a few months ago and I used up our data allowance on the air card so I don't want to get into that situation again, the tech guy here will shut us down until next month.

Thursday was another great day at work. We were dispatches to the Dept of Sanitation paper run, which is maybe my all time favorite job here at Donjon. I keep saying I could do this run daily until I retire, but I'd probably get bored with it sooner or later. What it is is recyclable paper which gets loaded unto a scow at 59th street Manhattan, on the Hudson river, and gets taken down to Vissy Paper which is located on the Western shore of Staten Island in the Arthur Kill. It's about 18 miles or so from one dock to the other, and almost always there's a return trip with a light scow.

From 59th street it's a nice ride down along the Manhattan Riverfront, past the Intepid Sea Air and Space Museum, the passenger ship terminal, the Chelsea Piers, and that spectacular New York skyline. Then we jog over to the New Jersey side of the river and pass Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, as we head down towards Constable Hook and turn west into the Kill Van Kull. This where things get real industrial. From here on out it's mostly oil terminals and other kinds of industrial waterfront all the way to our destination.

This took up all of my afternoon watch, which runs from noon to 6 pm. Then it was a quick dinner then off to bed. I had to be up again at midnight for my next six hour watch, but I just tossed and turned until at least 9 - I kept trying to read myself to sleep, but it just wasn't happening. As you can imagine, I wasn't too happy to get woken up at 12, but that's the way it goes. usually there's a couple of those kinds of lost sleep nights every hitch. Such is the life of a boatman here in the big city.............

2011-04-07T02:56:00.000-07:00

One week down, one to go.

This is a light scrap scow on Gate Lines as we're heading into the Hutchinson River. This configuration of tow involves using two lines from the main bitt on the aft deck up to the scow and keeping the scow right up close behind the tug. We do this when the scow is too high to see over or around, and when we have to bring it through narrow passes where there is no room for the boat to be alongside the tow. In this case, we had to maneuver through two bridges which only afforded about 6 0r 8 feet on either side of the scow. Being up close and using two lines from our pivot point to the corners of the barge ensures that the barge stays right behind the boat as we go through these narrow passages.

Geese are a common sight around the docks, they get used to a free meal now and then from the boats.

Finally, back to some real tug boating! I guess it's all real tug boating, but since before Christmas we had been dredge tending in Newark Bay, never getting more than about 2 miles from our home dock.
When we showed up for our hitch last Thursday, we were sent over to Claremont to do shifting work among the scrap scows there. this was because the tug that usually does it was in drydock.

As with many things, I really started to enjoy it once we got into the thick of it. It is a bit more intense than some of the other work I've done around here, in that a typical day will consist of a dozen or more more moves within the yard. It's close quarters, one part of the yard has a narrow, shallow canal - and other parts involve sliding the scows in between other pieces of equipment and this requires both deckhands to be up on the scow to handle lines and give steering directions. Because of this, we were "off watches" - working a regular 10 hour day and getting our rest at night like normal workaday folks. I am not really too fond of that arrangement, as I've grown accustomed to watching the world go by 6 hrs. at a time while at work.

So we did that until Tuesday, then we got back on the scrap runs. This is great because it gets us out and about in the harbor. the first run was from Claremont up to the the Bronx river, where we exchanged a light (empty) scow for a loaded one. Boy was it great to be out in the bay again, up through the East River and Hell Gate to Hunts Point and then back down to Claremont. The running joke for the past few months was whether or not we could find these places, or know what to do once we got there.

Things are humming along here on the Brian, we've been suffering some crew problems, which isn't all that uncommon in the business, but we're soldiering on.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Almost ready for some paint!

I think tomorrow I'll be ready to get some paint on the decks finally. Strangely enough, I'm really enjoying this work. It's been three days now of scrape, sand, and vacuum. I'm beginning to see now why some people become so attached to their boats. I'm generally not a real go getter when it comes to maintenance, I much prefer to run boats and leave that stuff to the deck hands, but this past few days has instilled a pride of ownership and a sense of accomplishment. Like I might have said in an earlier post, I'm totally psyched to have a decent looking boat this season. I've got just a little more prepping to do to in the A.M. I thought I was all done today, but there are some areas that looked okay from one angle, but closer inspection shows that they aren't quite ready yet. I'm really focusing on trying to get it as faired and smooth as I can before I rush the paint. To think, I was trying to sell the boat this winter. I think I'm beginning to embrace the "go small, go now" philosophy. Smaller sails, smaller docking fees, smaller upkeep, I'm digging it!

I've been following some cruising blogs, which are very inspirational and entertaining.http://svgeminidreams.blogspot.com and http://weehappy.com/

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

More sanding/scraping/chipping

I got in another good day of sanding and prep work for painting the deck and coach roof. I think one more day of prep, and I'll be ready to paint! That deck was some nasty! I can't wait to see that first coat of primer go on.

Moving day tomorrow - the Uncle Buck era is over, on to the next chapter.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Catching up

I spent some time down at the boat yard yesterday, where I was reacquainted with the "rule of threes". This states that any project one does on a boat is going to cost three times as much and take three times as long as originally thought. I thought I was going to do a little sanding on my decks, and then open up a gallon of paint and go to town. What actually happened though is another matter. I spent five hours sanding and scraping, and sanding and scraping some more. I'm about a quarter of the way through the prep work before I will be ready to put some paint on. There is a lot of stubborn, chipped paint on the decks. It almost looks like somebody just slapped some paint on the thing without worrying too much about proper surface preparation. I'm going to need to get a wire wheel to get at some of it. there are a bunch of nooks and crannies around the toe rail that I can't get at with the sander, and hand sanding and scraping it would just take way too long and not really get at the heart of the matter. I hope I can get this little project done before the 31st, when I have to go back to work for 2 weeks! I am totally psyched to have a decent looking boat this summer.

On the work front, my new license came back from the NMC. It was waiting in my mail when I got home. It isn't a big piece of paper anymore, it is all contained in a little passport-sized book now. The MMD is in there too, so I don't have to keep track of a license (how were we supposed t0 keep them in good shape in a sea bag anyways) and a separate ID card. It's all one thing now, and goes right next to my passport, hardly takes up any room, and I stuffed them in a zip-loc baggie to keep them dry. So now I can leave this big clunky binder at home, I need to figure out a workable solution for my radio operators license though. Why does that have to be a big 8"x11" paper instead of a wallet sized card?

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The Mexican Fisherman

The Mexican Fisherman

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."

The American then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."

The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you will run your ever-expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied, "15 to 20 years."

"But what then?" asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions?...Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

-- Author Unknown

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Virginia C II

You live on a boat?

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New boat, same old job

more on living aboard.....

Inbound Newtown creek

Shifting scows at Long Island City scrap dock

Outbound Newtown Creek with two loaded scrappies

Living aboard

New Year Resolution

assisting the Caitlin Ann with the Chesapeake 1000.jpg

The wrong way

The right way

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Craig Golden "Goldie" on thhe Megan Ann

I'm baaack!

On the downstroke

As the wheel turns...................................

Willis Ave. Bridge

Back to work!

Viking Starliner

Port jefferson NY

Vissy Paper

Tools of the trade

Time to do something about this

Mary Alice

ready for some paint

Tug Paul Andrew

Pulaski Bridge Newtown Creek

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Test post

Statue of Liberty

Friday! oh wait...........just another day here at work

One week down, one to go.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Almost ready for some paint!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

More sanding/scraping/chipping

Monday, March 21, 2011

Catching up

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The Mexican Fisherman

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