What on earth

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is Erin Elizabeth doing up close to CMT Hoffman?

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As is often the case these days, it involves salt.

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And the salt comes from

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Princess Margo, who brought it from

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Ras [port] Gargoub, a Mediterranean port on the NW coast of Egypt, not far from Sallum, Egypt, on the border with Libya. Where then does the salt come from? How about Siwa Oasis?

All photos, any errors, WVD, who loves to go down rabbit holes, or in this case, unexpected oases.

Many previous posts on salt can be found here, including 17 with the title salt.

Here were 3 and 2 and 1 of this series. Contrast these photos with the ones in this set by Jim Ash from 27 years earlier in the Hutchinson River.

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I took these photos of Patricia E. Poling and Crystal Cutler yesterday afternoon on a very windy Jamaica Bay. See the flag pointing straight toward the far shore.

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Manhattan looks diminished from this perspective.

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I recall when Crystal first arrived in the boro in 2010, back when I could have posted her as the newest hull in the boro. Where does the time go?!

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In that wind, I imagined the challenge of lining up early to pass through the Broad Channel Bridge.

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All photos, any errors, WVD.

Here’s another post in the Hutchinson, and one in Jamaica Bay on another windy day.

Name that tug . . . in Bayonne exactly two years ago? Answer at the end of the post. I’ve not yet seen it with paint, although I know which non-sixth boro port it works in.

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Also exactly two years ago today, this cargo was departing the East River. Know the destination?

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And the here are from two days ago, Wednesday. To start, your eyes here will go to . . .

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the statue, but if you scroll back up and focus on the upper left side, you’ll see a sign of spring, the same one as below.

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Coming across the river from NJ at this point was this boat, one that seems hard to identify from this angle.

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Aptly named, that’s Little C.

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Ditto, from this angle, even Buchanan 12 looks minimal, although thousands of tons [or is it tens of thousands?] of aggregate are being carefully guided down to the anchorage.

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Lacking a rail bridge down here, a floating bridge is in service, with Marjorie B. here and usually doing the push these days.

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Since the boro contains islands, trucks carrying materials, here for construction, themselves need to be carried on deck barges, in this case a Hughes barge pushed by Susan Miller.

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See two trucks there?

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All photos, any errors, WVD.

That first tug image shows Suzanne McAllister. And the Concorde was moved back to its exhibit space on the Hudson after some work. Miss Madeline is doing the work here, and shows up again in this post from March 15, 2024.

Previous sixth boro details post can be found here.

Yesterday’s post illustrates what Hornbeck does these days. But a decade and a half ago, Hornbeck Offshore operated a lot of tugboats. This post–images all from 2013 or earlier–features images from that time. Stapleton Service still works in the boro as Michael Miller.

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Atlantic Service is laid up, so far as I know.

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Liberty Service, as is true for many formerly HOS boats, now operates for Genesis Marine. This tugboat is now Genesis Liberty.

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Bay Ridge Service is now Bosco, currently passing the mouth of the Mississippi.

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Patriot Service, now Genesis Patriot, is near Amelia LA.

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Spartan Service, now flagged Mexican as Champayan, appears to have been in Tampico for over a year.

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My favorite four Hornbeck boats are all Genesis now: Superior Service is Genesis Vision;

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Michigan Service is now Genesis Vigilant,

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Erie Service is now Genesis Vigilant,

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Huron Service in summer 2011, and in

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September 2013, soon after the sale from HOS to Genesis Energy. She’s now Genesis Victory, currently on the Delaware River.

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All photos, any errors, WVD.

I did posts focused solely in Hornbeck previously, this one in the boro and this one outside.

Click on the image to see this Eastern Shipbuilding Group vessel called Bravante VI delivered almost exactly 12 years ago for a client in Brasil. More on the Bravante Group here.

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Now check for similarities and differences with the vessel below, HOS Rocinante registered in New Orleans but currently docked at GMD Brooklyn.

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I took these photos Monday.

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CSOV here refers to construction service operations vessel.

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The two hulls —Bravante and HOS Rocinante–are the same vessel. In between the two names was a third, HOS Rosehill. This configuration is designed to make the vessel as versatile as possible.

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Here’s more on Uptime W2W systems.

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More on Hornbeck here and here.

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Back when I started this blog, HOS had a very different presence in the sixth boro. I’ll post those photos one of these days soon when I have a chance to go to the archives.

All photos here, any errors, WVD.

Going back four years, here are the previous installments of NRT 9.

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I’m not sure where Brinn Courtney was headed the other day, but today she’s southbound on the Chesapeake.

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Less than an hour later, I saw this Stasinos boat heading my way, and I just imagined it was Brinn Courtney.

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But, obviously, I was wrong.

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James Charles was heading south.

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As of this morning, she’s in New Haven.

All photos, any errors, WVD.

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These days Caroline M is a very busy tugboat in the boro, usually moving scrap.

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Helen is also very busy, here moving several thousand tons of salt.

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Helen heads upriver, while Caroline M moves down toward Claremont.

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CMT’s flagship might be Erin Elizabeth. Her arrival in the boro can be traced back to this very post, as another CMT tug–Mackenzie Rose–towed her here aboard a barge. A post dedicated to some history of Mackenzie Rose can be found here, including an image when she was painted her original livery . . . green. Remember that name?

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Back seven years ago, I had the privilege of documenting Daisy Mae from inside, here easing through the icy harbor about a month ago. Daisy Mae first appeared here in this post from an equally icy image by Paul Strubeck here, from over eight years ago.

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CMT Otter and her fleetmate CMT Pike did some high-profile jobs across the central part of NY state, like these tanks and this new bridge for Buffalo. Speaking of CMT and bridges, this post profiled a job about a year and a half ago moving a bridge over the Meadowlands. And one last look at high-profile jobs, recall this one from with an HRSG coming down the Hudson.

The first CMT I recall was this one, currently laid up and unseen [by me] for quite some time.

All photos as credited. Any errors, WVD, who did part a of this series here.

Here are previous installments of this title.

Stephen Reinauer appeared here in March 2016, including a “blurry” photo from the 2006 Hudson River tugboat race. Blurry or not, that scene made a big impact on me two decades ago.

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I write this this morning, an overcast late winter’s day that feels like spring. In the right morning conditions, you really see the impact of light directionality on photos, above and below, taken a couple minutes apart.

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And here the same tugboat a few days ago, March 2026 bound for the gate and the Sound.

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and then the afternoon sun broke through the clouds over that part of the river

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Jason crawled out of the Kills on an overcast day last week,

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passing all the scene-setting sights.

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Happy have a day. All photos, any errors, even of syntax, WVD.

I need to add a hat tip to the WordPress “happiness engineers” a month ago or so who found/corrected the code issue that was causing pre-2010 blog photos to disappear. Because of that rectification, thrilling blog experiences like the one referred to in Whatzit 1 are newly available. If you’ve never read that post, which I see at this moment on “top posts”, have a read.

Steel may still be in the boro. From launch in 2008 until 2013, she was called Rocket.

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Eva Tokyo has left the boro; she’s been known by that name since launch in 2019.

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ONE Mackinac was Mackinac Bridge before the creation of ONE, Ocean Network Express.

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Mr. Goldie has been in the boro before, then called Delta Trident.

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Prospect Park has been here before as well, then known as Gulf Venture.

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Prospect Park photo thanks to Tony A. All others, WVD.

The last time this duo appeared on tugster was almost a year ago here. They’re a local unit, working the Lower Bay for sand, a trade I’d love to learn more about. I’m going to wander onto thin ice here, but I believe what the unit does is not dredging per se; rather, it’s sand harvesting or mining under the trade name North American Aggregates. Sandmaster used to engage in this trade until it was sold and has since worked in several locations in the Caribbean.

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Alexandra turns 50 this year.

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She’s worked with barge Eleanor since 2018. Again, the unit never needs to travel far, given the supply of sand under local waters.

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Yesterday I caught Alexandra light, possibly heading back to GMD to pick up Eleanor and head back to the mines.

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From my angle, I could not get a close-up of the sophisticated companionway mounted forward on her starboard side, better seen above than below.

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All photos, any errors, WVD.

Weeks does have dredges such as Magdalen and Douglas B. Mackie/Ellis Island. as well as many other units.

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