As the Hudson River begins to melt the Coast Guard buoy tender 'Katherine Walker' heads north towards Albany, N.Y. The Katherine Walker is a 175-foot buoy tender, homeported in Bayonne, N.J. Its major mission includes the servicing of aids to navigation throughout New York Harbor, Western Long Island Sound, the Hudson and East Rivers, as well as other waters along the Connecticut, New York and New Jersey coastlines. During a five-day patrol up the Hudson River, the ship serviced 18 seasonal aids to navigation, the last of 53 buoys that the crew restores every spring.