Archive for the ‘Tugboat’ Category
Surf and turf
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My Pal Val and I met up, after I flew in from Pittsburgh. She picked me up at LaGuardia airport, and we rode on the NYC Ferry from Astoria to Manhattan’s Pier 11. We then marched over to the Staten Island Ferry and were soon on… Staten Island… now you’re caught up.
I was absolutely famished, with the last caloric installation having occurred some 400 miles west of NYC, in Pittsburgh at about two in the morning. There’s only so far that a homemade egg sandwich is going to carry you, so we decided to grab some eats while in St. George.
That’s the predicate of how I ended up ordering a $20 Wagyu Beef burger at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. It was a good burger, but no burger is worth $20 except to a weary traveler in need of a hot shot of fat and protein to fill his empty fuel tank.
Good news about this spot were the views, which were spectacular.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was nice seeing the familiar ‘color way’ heraldries of NYC’s tug fleets again. Val and I finished our luncheon, and headed back into the terminal to catch a big orange boat back to Manhattan. Along the way, we spotted multiple tugs waiting their turn at dock.
My day was at roughly at the median point, and after landing in Manhattan, Val and I would be splitting up. She needed to catch a ferry back to Astoria to fetch her car, and I would be plunging right up the middle of Manhattan Island on the subway towards Midtown.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A couple of last shots of the maritime world were gathered, and I adjusted the intricate web of straps arranged about the torso. I was carrying a week’s worth of clothes in addition to my camera bag, and the camera itself was in my hand. My usual formula for this sort of ‘heavy carry’ looks like an old timey soldier’s setup – the camera and the clothes bag straps arranged in an X shape across my chest, with the knapsack/camera bag shoulder straps locking the two other straps into place while I was moving about.
We arrived back on Manhattan Island, and Val and I bid each other adieu.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I didn’t necessarily miss the subway all these months, and my only thoughts about the subject while sitting in that wheelchair were ‘glad I don’t have to deal with the subway right now.’
One decided to get off the Subway at Herald Square, and walk from 34th to 42nd in order to get to Grand Central Terminal. At least it used to be a terminal, before the LIRR opened up down below.
Does that reclassify the place as a station/terminal now? The terms are specific. For most of its existence, the last stop on Metro North (a public passenger service, nationalized from private rail companies by the noted Liberal and Socialist President Richard Nixon) was here, hence terminal.
Saying that, 7 train subway service has been passing through here for quite a long stretch, but that didn’t make it a ‘station.’ It’s all very confusing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Leaving ‘the system,’ I stepped back into the sunlight after riding the R to the 34th street hellmont, which is just a slight bit better experience than the one at 42nd street. I had swapped lenses while on the subway, and reentered the street level milieu with a 16mm wide angle prime on the camera. I wanted to ‘take it all in.’
The plan from this point involved getting to Grand Central and catching a Metro North train up to my buddy’s house in Cold Spring, upstate. That’s where I’d be spending the night, and given that I’d been awake for something like fourteen hours at this point, I was growing pretty fatigued.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My toes were pointed in the correct direction, and thereby I followed them. Grand Central was a 15-20 minute walk away (I’m moving a LOT slower than I used to, although the ankle was not at all getting in my way, my legs are still somewhat atrophied from the long recovery period) and I was intent on getting upstate and out of the City as quickly as possible.
More tomorrow.
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Working the harbor
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In a lot of ways, I spent my time on a recent NYC visit reminding myself of who I actually am – or at least who I was. My activities on this visit weren’t consciously planned that way, but given the far flung nature of my activities in NYC, it was hard not to reminisce.
That’s the Manhattan Bridge above, and I served the City of Greater New York as a Parade Marshall for its centennial. I’ve also done hundreds of ‘on microphone’ narrations about that bridge on boat tours while passing under it. –
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Mexican Navy ship which allided with the Brooklyn Bridge.
If both objects are moving it’s a ‘collision,’ whereas if one object is moving it’s an ‘allision.’ A few people asked me, after the incident, what all the sailors were doing up in the masts. Here’s some shots from 2012’s ‘Op Sail,’ where you can see other tall ship sailors performing similar ‘parade duties.’
As a note: annoyingly, Flickr has altered their code in the last few weeks, which has caused a number of images on older posts to lose their previews. Not sure what to do about that at the moment, and I really do not want to dive into recoding 16 years worth of daily posts to start fixing links.
Hopefully, they’ll resolve this on the server end, but that’s why a bunch of previews are ‘404ing’ at the moment on older posts. Sigh… the future kind of sucks, doesn’t it?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The NYC ferry docked at Pier 11, and my Pal Val and I began heading towards the big orange boat. It had been about 12 hours at this point, relative to waking up at 1 in the morning back in Pittsburgh. Fatigue was definitely setting in, as was the desire for luncheon.
It was nice to smell salt in the air again, although I was frankly overwhelmed by the sewerage smell several times. My environmental adaptations have faded in my absence from ‘Home Sweet Hell.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The big orange boat left its dock at Whitehall and started the thirty minutes long journey to St. George on… Staten Island…
Along the way, I was busy with the camera, spotting tugs and getting shots of the maritime show on hand. I’ve always been amazed at how seldom most New Yorkers take advantage of the ferries – if nothing else – just for a change of scenery and to get out on the water for cheap.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nearing Staten Island, and the Kill Van Kull (aka tugboat alley) was busily spitting shipping out into the main sections of the lower harbor, from Port Elizabeth Newark at Newark Bay.
Funny thing is that I haven’t thought about this sort of thing much, or at all, in the last 2.5 years. It was when I was sitting in that damned wheelchair after breaking my ankle that I began longing to see this again.
I alluded to this the other day, but this visit ‘home’ was a surprisingly emotional experience for me. Normally, I suppress and ignore my ‘feelings,’ as being over emotional in daily life is how you make stupid mistakes and often costly errors, while offending others. I realize that this is exactly the opposite of what mental health professionals advise, but it works for me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m like a mafioso in terms of ‘never let anyone know what you’re going to do or say next,’ and one of my little mottos is ‘do what you say, say what you do.’ What that means is that people who know me in real life are often puzzled by my seemingly random decision making process and pivots, and they are often treated to long polemics about my personal rules, and subjected to apologetic confessionals about when I break one of those rules – usually due to expedience.
The tyranny of ‘the now’ rules over most days.
Back tomorrow with more from NYC.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Archive #011
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Progress continues here in Pittsburgh, as far the recovery from the broken left ankle injury goes. To wit, this is the first of these archive posts that I didn’t have to throw together in a panic on the morning it was meant to publish. What that also means that is that my thought processes are recovering, and the sensory ‘noise’ introduced by the pain transmitting up from the ankle and foot is beginning to fall off a bit. This is being written on Saturday the 19th, btw.
Back in 2009, I was walking over the Pulaski Bridge – spanning the fabulous Newtown Creek – when the bridge opened for maritime traffic, as described in this posting from October 21 of that year. I find this sort of thing exciting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m hoping to be able to drive again fairly soon. What’s been holding me back is the physical reality of getting down the same flight of stairs that I broke my ankle on, then out the door to the driveway, and finally getting into the car without killing myself or incurring any new injuries. It’s a palaver, every little thing is. Taking a dump requires ten minutes of planning and careful execution just to get into position on the porcelain.
October 21 in 2012 is when this post was published, which discussed a random tugboat that I encountered while out on NY Harbor.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The last time I experienced the lack of purpose I do now was during COVID, but at least then I was able to go out at night and walk the deserted sidewalks of the concrete devastations in LIC. No walkie for me for a long while, with long walks not being possible on an even longer timeline. I might have to switch over to bike riding!
This 2020 post ruminated upon getting what you want and not having to act like some boring and ideological ass to achieve it.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Western Maryland Yard, in West Virginia
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Patomac River flows through Maryland’s Cumberland, providing a border between it and neighboring Ridgeley in West Virginia. Driving along a local street between the two municipalities, the Google Maps navigation app on my phone was continually announcing ‘Welcome to Maryland’ followed by ‘Welcome to West Virginia’ and then ‘Welcome to Maryland’ again.
One of the things I wanted to get a shot or three of on this day trip was the rail yard used by the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, which is found on the West Virginia side of the river.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were a couple of people working, and I got these shots by focusing through a hole in the fencelines. I’m planning on buying a ticket to ride alomg with them on one of the regularly scheduled ‘heritage rides’ they offer, when their summer schedule starts up again. The historic trains roll between Cumberland and Frostburg in Maryland, and the tracks travel through the rolling hills of the Laurel Highlands. Should be a cool experience, I think, and maybe a few pretty pictures.
Adventure, excitement… a Jedi craves not these things. I, of course, am no Jedi. If anything, I lean a bit towards Sith, or at least I wear a lot of black clothes. Emperor Palpatine seems like a nice happy guy, as he’s always laughing. That’s the sort of bloke whom I’d like to hang out with, happy people who laugh a lot, and can coincidentally shoot lightning out of their fingertips. Besides, the Jedi are kind of preachy.
I know… nerd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I soon packed up my camera gear and got ‘road lunch’ at McDonald’s.
One then stopped off at a gas station and topped off the car’s gas tank, not because I was empty but instead because I was curious to see what sort of actual gas consumption the Mobile Oppression Platform had incurred over the course of roughly 130 miles of driving (mostly highway). Three and a bit gallons, as it turned out, and according to the car’s diagnostics – I was rolling about at 40.8 mpg. Gotta hand it the engineers of the Toyota Hybrid engine department, that’s better than advertised.
Back next week with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
CSX Cumberland apertif
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, I found a point of view location for the CSX Terminal in Maryland’s city of Cumberland. Take that, jabronies.
One realizes that this quest of mine sounds fairly obsessive, and I haven’t been able to get close at all to what I really want shots of (the roundhouse), but… darn it… this is the closest I’ve managed to get to the facility and I was glad of it.
This whole ‘train thing’ has been a real learning experience, I tell you, but I’m not done yet. Learning, learning, learning.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is my second or third day trip to this area, which is about a two hour drive, and what I’d consider to be the southeastern corner of the Pittsburgh metroplex. A significant section of the journey takes place on the modern incarnation of the ‘National Road’ – Route 40, which dates back to 1812, and travels through the Laurel Highlands. If you’re interested in seeing an absolutely gorgeous section of the eastern United States – put the Laurel Highland on your list.
Cumberland is high on my ‘to explore’ list, and I’ll definitely be trying to pay the place a good amount of attention while waving the camera around.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An oddly painted track maintenance unit was spotted at the Cumberland Terminal, all decked out in the sort of urban camouflage pattern which the military favors. Can’t imagine why you’d paint equipment like this in such a manner, but there you go. Normally these sorts of things are brightly painted so you can’t ‘not notice’ them.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 