Upper Bay News

In Washington state, Tidewater Transportation and Terminals inaugurated a $12.5 million ethanol unloading and storage site in Pasco to serve the Columbia and Snake River regions.On Tuesday, August 27, more than 60 area notables, members of the business community, and terminal personnel gathered mid-afternoon for a ribbon cutting ceremony and celebration of the company’s state-of-the-art, onsite ethanol unloading and storage facility in Pasco.The facility consists of a 24-hour ethanol unit train railcar unloading rack with 24 new unloading stations and associated rail spurs. In addition, two 65,000-barrel steel tanks were built in order to provide reliable operating storage when an ethanol unit train arrives.

The potential exists for unanticipated delays affecting ship movements and/or the control of vessels with little or no warning within the Port of New York and New Jersey from Tuesday, May 20, through Wednesday, May 28, 2008. "The Coast Guard encourages every boater to enjoy the Parade of Ships during Fleet Week, but we want them to be safe and respect the established safety zones," said Lt. j.g. Nasif Gordon, a Coast Guard Sector New York waterways management officer. Vessels shall not cross the parade route while naval vessels are in parade formation. All vessel traffic in the Hudson River shall transit to the west of the parade column…

The Coast Guard is investigating a collision between a 623-foot freighter and a 216-foot dredge in the upper bay of New York Harbor about one mile north of Staten Island, N.Y., around 9 a.m. today. The freighter Osprey I, carrying scrap metal, collided with the dredge Delaware Bay while traveling outbound for sea. The Delaware Bay is currently dredging the channel for a federal project contracted by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Coast Guard Sector New York Vessel Traffic Service received notification from both vessels after the collision. A rescue crew in a 33-foot Coast Guard Station New York boat was dispatched immediately and was on scene within minutes. The Osprey I sustained a 25-30 foot by 3 foot breach of the hull, 5 foot above the waterline along its right side.

It's been a year since MarineNews linked the dual tugmeets of the first week of September, one in New York City, the other upstate, at Waterford. Coupled, they make an interesting study, for their differences as much as their similarities. The tugs of New York City come in all sizes, but are typically large. Just as New York is a city of (many) skyscrapers, so it's a city of (many) monster tugboats, as harbor craft go. Waterford, a few miles north of Albany, is the gateway to the Erie Canal - is actually on the canal. While New York State's canals have renewed potential for commercial service, they're known most widely as recreational attractions for people who drive (many) large and pricey boats.

How much water has flowed under the bridge since 1938? Well, for starters, the bridge itself - in this case, the Verrazano-Narrows - wasn't even built yet. We had no PCs, no CDs, no LPs, not even TVs in 1938. Manhattan's shore ended at West Street, which bristled with steamboats and their docks. Hundreds of daily arrivals brought people and cars and horse-drawn wagons across the North River, from the Garden State and the terminals of powerful railroads. Containerization, like cartridgization and cassetization, were yet to be thought of, and so were containerports. So was the strip of the Kill known as gasoline alley, and events it would sponsor - the Exxon/Mobil blast a year and a half ago…

If you want to call yourself a taxi in New York, you've got things to live up to. Take tradition. A New York taxi always beat everybody to the punch. It was the first away when the light changed, weaving through otherwise orderly rows of cars and trucks, just in time to beat the next light. The ride not only was fast, it looked fast. The driver, all the while, dispensed worldly wisdom on any theme, and if you asked, could name the best oyster bar in the entire city. He spoke New Yorkese - an "R," (if pronounced at all) could be a "W" or a "V" - but it was English. Etched in his mind was the map of the five boroughs, and all their one-way streets. He was friendly, considerate, and caring - waited until you were indoors when he dropped you off, before cruising away for the next fare.

When was the last time 15 ocean ships docked almost all at once in New York, and undocked again, and sometimes redocked in-between, all in a week? In the near-400 years since the Dutch first arrived, there have been events even larger. But not many of them lately. Lately, large get-togethers of harbor craft in the most visible parts of the port - upper bay and lower North River - usually surround festive celebrations like the Tug Races and their accompanying games, great entertainment for young and old. But more stirring to watch than tugs at play are tugs at work. Barges go up and down the rivers regularly, but shipdocking, the lively part of tugboating, is concealed from the public eye off the remote corners of Staten Island and the containerports of Newark Bay.

What do you get when you spend 19 hours at a Fourth of July party onboard a tugboat in NY harbor? A sunburn, welts from hurled bagels, about 12,000 calories and some incredibly good memories, Don Sutherland found. Officially it's Independence Day, but everyone calls it the Fourth of July. Its inalienable rights accrue to the common man, whose life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness necessitate keeping things simple. And is any form of theater simpler than a fireworks dispay? No plot to keep up with, no dialog to follow, just plenty of action. America feasts during many of its holidays, but with varying complication - where Thanksgiving is an elaboration of side dishes and stuffings and sauces, July Fourth is plain barbecue. Sauces? What do you call mustard and ketchup?

The Coast Guard, along with state and local rescue teams, is searching for survivors after an apparent collision involving three vessels that occurred in the Elk River, off the Chesapeake Bay in northern Maryland, early this morning. The vessels A/V Kastner, Buchanan 14, and Swift, were involved in an apparent collision on Monday morning. The tugboat Swift apparently sank while the A/V Kastner and tug Buchanan reportedly went aground. Rescue crews transported two injured crewmembers to Union Hospital in Cecil County, Md., and one injured crewmember was flown to the Shock and Trauma Center in Baltimore. The extent of the injuries is unknown. Two others apparently made it to shore in good condition.

New York was hardly unique for developing ferry services, but this city of islands was one of the most prolific. At their height, more than 60 routes linked Manhattan, New Jersey, and the four other boroughs. Before there were skyscrapers, before there were subways, the city was famous for its ferrryboats, woven together by them - who could imagine getting around without them? City planners could. After the Civil War, New York entered a bridge-building boom that lasted a century. From the Brooklyn Bridge to the Verrazano, New York erected wonders famous to every tourist. Dozens more, less fabled, are known better to mariners. Open 24/7…