Otter and Sea Bear, Morris Canal

After being trapped by ice in Morris Canal (Liberty Harbor, Jersey City, NJ) the tug Sea Bear came to our rescue by breaking a path to the center of the Hudson where we could follow one of our own boats back home to Weehawken, NJ. That's the lower end of New York City in the background. -- For those interested, an Otter is a 65', triple engined, jet propelled ferry capable of carrying 99 passengers with a 2 man crew and making way up to 30 knots/hour. The problem with ice and jet boats is two-fold: a) Slush enters your cooling strainers and clogs the filters stopping the flow of water and causing engines to overheat. You cannot let your engines overheat! b) When you start getting into a lot of small ice, or large sheets, ice under the water intake slows the flow through the jets and as momentum slows and ice builds at the bow, you simply lose the power necessary to keep pushing through. The boat can also be elevated just enough to lose power from the jets. Reversing (dropping the buckets) often helps as the buckets push and block the ice in your path and blow 'clean' water under the intakes. Once you get stuck however, it'll usually take a boat with wheels (propellers) to break the ice around you, creating enough 'clean' water to break you free. This shot was make at about 1/4 sec. wide open, following the Sea Bear at a distance of 10-20 feet doing approximately 10+ knots. Special thanks to super deckhand Joao Gomes for standing by, ready to pull back on those throttles.

 

Comments Welcome.

Caption in review area, comments welcome.

very beautiful & original image!

excellent! great shot.

You get the sense of being there straightaway with this image. I love the sense of being in the cabin looking through the window and seeing the tug boat and the icy waters surrounding the boat. Technically, I only have one comment, the skyline that you have would be better if it came down by 25%. Superb.......RVB

Dennis, nice shot. I always want to be right up front when traveling in big machines but that usually proves inaccessible. How'd ya get in the wheel house?

Call me Ishmael...er, rather, call me Captain Dennis.

Beautiful shot, wouldn't change a thing! Love the framing and lighting

You're the captain?! I sensed more than a cursory knowledge of jet propelled ferries as soon as you dropped the term "cooling strainers" and referred to props as "wheels". Somehow I thought you were a passenger with a lot of passages logged on board and had developed a close personal relationship with the crew.

Excellent choice of lens and arrangements of elements. Thanks for sharing.

This is a very unusual view and the movement around the front boat is amazing. I think I would like this even more without the foreground window frames - how about a shot with just the boat and the skyline?

You nailed this one! Really cool! Love the skyline of the city as your backdrop. Looks like a chase scene. I love it!

Like it a lot.