A Day's Work for Katherine Walker

Buoy tending at the GWB - replacing the ice buoy with the lighted tower in the morning, heading home at 18:00.

Buoys of Summer

Yesterday's snow day and today's bright skies have me thinking of summer. The Katherine Walker reminded me of a day two summers ago when Nancy and I took the Parker to Rockland, ran into Jeff en famille on High Idle, had lunch, and headed home via Muscle Ridge Channel. A story with a storm.

But it was the buoys on the seawall that the Katherine Walker dropping the summer buoy in at West 181 and the River brought to mind.

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.