(OT) USS New York (OT)

Sorry about the off topic post today, folks but there really wasn't anything too interesting happening around the waterfront. I received the above picture in an e-mail from my buddy, Ron. Ron is a part time delivery captain. I used to own a 38' Marine Trader trawler. Ron delivered it from Florida to Nantucket. Here's a picture of her. I named her First Light-

Anyway, Here's the text that was included in the e-mail:

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USS New York

It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center .

It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite , LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there."

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up" "It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back."

The ship's motto? "Never Forget"

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A reader posted a question to me in the comments section of the blog last night. He wants to know the difference between a western rigged fishing boat and a eastern rigged fishing boat. An eastern rigged boat has the wheelhouse located in the stern. And a western rigged boat has it's wheelhouse a little forward of midships. You see a lot more western rigged boats here than eastern rigged boats. I like the lines of an old eastern rigged boat especially if she's made of wood.

Very quiet on the waterfront today. No boats (other than the Ruthie B) were in.

Today's High & Low Temps.

High 50.4
Low 42.6

Whale Bubble Net Feeding

I shot the above video of a whale bubble net feeding when I went out on Blair Perkin's boat, the Shearwater, back in July of 2005. The whale creates a tall circular net out of bubbles deep under the water as it exhales. It then goes up through the net where the bait fish are trapped with it's mouth wide open. When the whale gets to the surface, it swims off with it's mouth partially closed straining the sea water through it's baleen and eats the fish that were in the net.


Click here for an explanation of bubble net feeding


Three western rigged trawlers were in at the docks this morning. The United States and the Luso American 2 were at the Town Pier. There was another boat at the Dockmaster's Office. I did not catch her name. I'm not sure why these guys are coming in here late at night and leaving the next morning.

The Ruthie B is still in. It's going on two weeks since she's gone out and made a trip. I heard she got a new dredge a few days ago.

Five guys went out scalloping today. I spoke to one who fishes in Madaket and he told me he got two bushels after going hard at it all day long.

I'm going to add a new feature here at the end of the post. The daily high and low temperature.

Today's High & Low Temperatures:

High 51.4
Low 33.1

F/V Regulus

At some point during the night last night, a big western rigged stern trawler came in and tied up at Straight Wharf. I went down and had a look at her this morning. Her name is Regulus. Her homeport is Stonington, CT. This is one impressive ship! I figure she's around 90 feet. Don't let the net reel in her stern fool you. She's currently being used for sea scalloping. The owners of the boat run a tight ship. Nothing on her deck was out of order. Everything was neatly in it's place. These are all signs of a highliner. Here's a picture of her two 14' wide dredges-

And here's another shot of her-

I went down late this afternoon to have another look but she was long gone. If you look closely at the first picture, You will see a crown and a star on her bow. The name Regulus is Latin for little king. It is also the name of the brightest star in the constellation Leo. Just above the waterline there is some sort of insignia I have never seen on a boat before. Does anyone know what that stands for? If you do, please leave a comment in the comment section.

The Trunfo went back out sea scalloping late this morning. The Ruthie B is still here. They were doing gear work on her today.

Nobody was able to go bay scalloping today. The temperature never made it to 28 degrees before 10 am. The law is if the temp doesn't make it to 28 degrees by 10 am, nobody is allowed to go out and scallop. Salt water freezes at 28 degrees. The theory is if you bring up scallops from the water into the 28 degree air, the seed scallops would freeze and die. I think most of the guys welcomed the day off from their daily grind. Tomorrow they'll be right back at it as the temp is forecasted to be in the fifties.

A tug and barge loaded with gravel for Glowacki arrived last night and tied up at Steamboat Wharf.

And finally, check out the new weather forecast links I added in the sidebar. ------>

Richard Arnold

Kinda quiet around the waterfront today. I was going through an old photo album I have today and came across the above picture. I took it in June of 1995. The boat is an old eastern rigged dragger named Richard Arnold. I used to know her owner. His name is Dutra. He usually brings her here from P Town every Summer to fish for Fluke in the sound.

Work is going along well at the Children's Beach boat ramp. The old bulkhead between the beach and the parking lot was removed today. A trailer truck load of steel sheathing was delivered today. I hear they are going to use the sheathing to create a dam so they can pump the water out around the old ramp while they are working on it.

Work is also continuing on the GHYC. They are still working in front of Sayle's Seafood. The road is still open, though so you can access the fish market.

The Ruthie B is still tied to the dock where she's been for the last week and a half. The sea scalloper, Trunfo was in today. I wonder if they were able to get a trip in the past few days in all this wind.

Six guys went out bay scalloping today. Most of them fished on the north side of the harbor in the lee of Coatue to get out of the strong NNW wind we had all day.

Schooner

I was able to see the schooner early this morning that has been tied up at the Boat Basin the past two days. Click on the above picture of her to enlarge. She looked to be around 45 to 50 feet in length. Her hull and topsides were all freshly painted. It looked as if she was built in the 1940's. Check out the old pyramid shaped compass binnacle. There was no name on her stern. I'm glad I was able to see her before she left sometime this afternoon. I'll get the scoop from George Basset when I see him again. Does anyone have any information on her?



Click here for a description of a schooner


Here's a close up shot of the binnacle-


Work began on the new boat ramp at Children's Beach this morning. AGM Marine was not there but another outfit named Robert B. Our out of Harwich, MA was doing the work. I have seen the Our company here in the past doing projects around the waterfront. The area was blocked with a yellow containment boom. They are cutting up the wooden finger piers and removing them. Here's a picture of the operation I took late this afternoon-


7 guys went out scalloping today. Most of them were tucked up in the bends as the wind was strong out of the west. The price paid to the fishermen is holding at $17 per pound.

That is all for today.

Hauling Back

A lot of people ask me what is involved in hauling back a bay scallop dredge. A friend of mine went along with me scalloping one day a few years ago and shot the above clip. I hope this gives you an idea of how it is done. I tow eight dredges so the process is repeated eight times per tow. The file is pretty big and I did not compress it so it will take a while to load especially if you have dial-up.

So the consensus is to keep the current template for the blog. Sorry, Jo. ;^)
Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond in the comments section. For some reason, some of your comments are not making it through to the blog even though I publish every one of them. Hopefully this bug will be resolved in the future. Please continue to post your comments. I thank you for the feedback.

Heavy equipment was delivered to Children's Beach this afternoon. No work was done there for the new boat ramp today probably due to the weather. Most likely they will start the job tomorrow.

Two brave souls went out scalloping today. It wasn't a very nice day to fish but at least it was almost 60 degrees out on the water. I talked to one scalloper today and he said he doesn't see himself going much longer. He also told me that his old boat is starting to fall apart. He wants to buy a new boat but is not going to seeing that next scallop season looks as lean or leaner than this one.

At some point last night, a schooner came in and tied up at the Boat Basin where the dock master's office is located. Not sure where her homeport is. I'll look into it tomorrow.

The Ruthie B and the Trunfo are tied up at the Town Pier.

George Riethof was at the docks the other day and took some great shots that he wanted to share here. Thanks, George.

Click here for George's waterfront pictures