Katherine Walker and the Rites of Spring

The 2 buoy, a lighted red tower, flashing 2.5 seconds marks the east side of the channel just above the GW Bridge at  W 181 Street.

If you click on the thumbnail and look carefully below a branch, in a straight line below the bow of the light fuel barge seen here on  a January afternoon with my low res waterproof camera, you' ll see the snow and ice encrusted 2 buoy doing icebreaker duty as the river shoves those floes down river at 3.3 knots (not the 2.0 predicted peak in Eldridge's Pilot Guide)  I know because in the still waters of the Morris Canal my North River 2 does 5.2 kts.  And I have spent many hours making 1.9 kts. northbound against the ebb tide.

  The other two shots are the Katherine Walker (CG buoy tender) setting the newly painted replacement buoy, and backing away using both bow and stern thrusters. 

Volvo: Drag Race Mid-way to the Cape

14 days out of Qingdao the fleet is 20 South 179 West. They just split tacks passing Fiji and are about 400 miles above the north Island of New Zealand. They are cruising at 14 knots, at magnetic headings between 179 - 185 to the real wind in the 40's where they'll catch the westerlies and head east to Cape Horn at 54 South.

Only 46 nm separates Ericsson 4 in the lead from Green Dragon in 5th, with the leader 8,105 nm from Rio.

No crises, no broken boats, just great sailing at highway speed.

Here's the 2D map

And an aerial shot of Puma passing Fiji - with the lead.