Snow Day on the North River

 A late winter storm is blowing through, with 5 inches of snow on the first pass.  Mid-day highs in low 20's and wind 20 NNW.

The river is ice-free and the highways clear.  Light fuel barges seek shelter in the North River anchorage in the lee of the Palisades.  The Little Red Lighthouse  stands watch under the GW Bridge at Ft. Washington Point.

Just to the left of the tower and above the roadway you can make out the seawall and docks of North Hudson Yacht Club (where I used to keep North River 1 and 2) and Von Dohln's marina next door.  Nautical havens saved by stubbornness (Von Dohln) and developer's distress (N. Hudson Y.C. - the guys sold the 100 y.o. club's land for $250k each, and now run it like a private boatyard, waiting for the shovel that Reaganomics promised but did not deliver before the bubble burst).

City Island Nautical Museum

A fire closed the doors of the City Island Nautical Museum on Fordham Street, down the block from City Island Diner, and just before Barron's Boatyard, where my North River 2 winters and is cared for.

But now the Museum has reopened.  In the old PS 17 are rooms of City Island memorabilia, mementoes of the days when the Rosenfelds of City Island made the iconic photographs that the Times website features, that decorate countless hotels, restaurants, and apartment walls.  The Rosenfeld Collection  - a million images - is at Mystic Seaport.

My City Island roots go back to our adoration for the Vim, the 12 meter that challenged for the right to defend the America's Cup in 1957.  Originally built for Vanderbilt by Harold Nevins on City Island, it was bought by Ed Matthews the owner of the stevedoring company my grandfather worked for on the Brooklyn docks.  Their manager Sven Pedersen was in charge of the boat. Vim was skippered by Bus Mosbacher - who went on take the helm of Ted Turner's Courageous (also built on City Island).

The Museum is open 1 -5 on Saturday and Sunday.

So here's the City Island Nautical Museum's website

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.

Bowsprite: Sketches and Accents on Marine Channel 13

Bowsprite paints water colors and listens and watches the traffic in New York Harbor.  As the pictures here show and the dialog below demonstates, she has a good eye and ear.  The pictures are the John J. Harvey (heroes of 9/11/2001), the W.O.Decker (So. St. Seaport historic tug), and the Bremerhavn (container ship).  So check out Bowsprite - a New York harbor sketchbook

(Indian accent, proper and polite): “British Lines, to the Dela rosa…British Lines, Dela Rosa.“
(American accent): “Dela Rosa.”
(Indian accent): “Uh, what are your intentions, sir? are you angry?”
(American): “Yes, we’re anchoring.”
(Indian accent): “Oh, well, could you please give us some room?”
(American): “Will do.”
(Indian): “Thank you, sir…”

Beautiful accents…”dulcet” is how Towmasters describes the lyrical southern and cajun accents.

It’s not just voices one hears. One midnight, a captain announced his plans to go to sea. In the background was a quick whiff of Jimi Hendrix.

Another time, some poor captain shared his wheelhouse with some very noisy machinery, so that whenever he spoke on the radio, he seemed to be accompanied by a bagpipe quartet.

Breaking ice up river

Meanwhile, back on the Hudson river, up north there's plenty of ice.

Here are 12 Bridge's shots, taken from the tug Cornell on icebreaking and other duties.

Tugster - NY Harbor man

The Sixth Borough is the harbor, says the blogger who calls himself Tugster. 

I have taken a lot of pictures of tugs and barges - from North River 2 mostly -  but  Tugster has made it an avocation.  

Based in Staten Island he is well situated for his observations.  His interest reminds me of the days when the Times daily showed scheduled sailings and arrivals of steamships, and described their cargo.

The bridge is the Bayonne Bridge,and the Coast Guard ship is the buoy tender Ida Lewis.

The first and last of these shots are mine, the others are Tugster's.  I expect to come back to his site.  It's got lots of good shots - like the salt depot, barges, and cranes that I'll probably do as a post.

So check out TUGSTER

1000 Days - day 658 knockdown - audio

Reid Stowe really is an original.  Behind his airy ruminations is one hell of a sailor and worker.  One could hope that after rounding Cape Horn - in a nightmarish gale - easy street would be right around the corner.  Hope yes. But little ease so far.

Here's the audio discussing his day 658 South Atlantic Knockdown

The picture shows he survived another close call.Here's the homepage for his current ruminations.

Volvo:Qingdao to Rio 6 days out, 30 to go

The fleet (5 of 8 remain) is a few hundred miles north of the Coral Sea angling toward Cape Horn, with an average speed of 16 - 19 knots with 2o knots of wind and six foot swells. Highway speed. Next stop Rio. DTF 9,842 nm for Ericsson 4, the leader.

Here's the data page

And here's the home page.

Vendee: Samantha finishes, Rich struggles

Samantha Davies finished in 95 days (11 after Michel Desjoyeaux).  

The other female sailor - Dee Caffari - finished on February 16 - 99 days round the world, single-handed.

On February 20, day 103, Rich  Wilson has about2,300 miles to go, and is looking at bad weather and relentless pounding into headwinds without end.

Here's the coverage of Samantha's celebration.

Here's the current wrap up.