Mexican tall ship hits Brooklyn Bridge

[bsangs]

We had passed by her on our way up the East River yesterday morning, and were awestruck by her beauty. She was safely docked near the bridge at that point. What a nightmare for those people and the lost souls. Seems like it lost power, plus the winds have been crazy here since yesterday afternoon, though the city creates a buffer in that area, so not sure if winds played a roll.

 

[southofvictor]

Just saw this on the news. Tragic.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

There are quite a few videos on YT now. I'm amazed at the speed she was being driven back at. That big flag was catching a lot of wind.

 

[bsangs]

Look quite a bit different on the trip back down the river yesterday.

 

[bsangs]

There are quite a few videos on YT now. I'm amazed at the speed she was being driven back at. That big flag was catching a lot of wind.

We were experience gusts of over 30 knots on our mooring ball in City Island at that time, about 10 miles away. (And docking back in our marina last night with gusts near 25 was quite the adventure.)

 

[Angel D.]

Its been ruff , wind and current here is no joke. My 3 strand 3/4 nylon bow line snap yesterday. All is fine at least. Time to oreder some snubbers. The wiplash is too much and im very exposed here.

I keep wondering why the tall ship allowed themself to drift that fast and that far. Perhaps they were anable to deploy their ground tacke ?

There were sailors at the mast , perhaps they tought of gaining control with the sails. I been there and it does not work. Too many tall buldings.
I got lucky and tie up to a barge and work my engine back to life. Turns out I had a compression ring on an injector worn out and the lift pump was starting to die.
A copper washer did the trick for the injector and the pump was fine at low rpms.When at down town sails were deployed and went well from there.
The truth is that I was close to just drop my anchor and call a security to alert trafic.

Ofcourse if your engine is to stall , will do so at Hell Gate , East River NY.

Fortunately it was not long past slack.

Never a dull moment , be safe guys !

 

[bsangs]

Ofcourse if your engine is to stall , will do so at Hell Gate , East River NY.

Fortunately it was not long past slack.

Never a dull moment , be safe guys !

Every time I traverse Hell Gate I say a little prayer to the engine gods, "Please, just not here."

Marina neighbor ran out of gas just below Hell Gate last year. Dropped anchor and called Tow Boat. Anchor is still in the East River, as it snagged one of the many cables connecting Manhattan to Roosevelt Island/Brooklyn and couldn't be retrieved.

 

[Angel D.]

I should have try that prayer , every little bit helps.

 

[Pete the Cat]

In watching the video of the incident, it appeared to me the the engine was engaged with some significant power--in reverse! I could be wrong. But look at the wake. Seems like a real cluster tragedy. And there was a tug right there doing essentially nothing. There is more than one story here.

 

[bsangs]

In watching the video of the incident, it appeared to me the the engine was engaged with some significant power--in reverse! I could be wrong. But look at the wake. Seems like a real cluster tragedy. And there was a tug right there doing essentially nothing. There is more than one story here.

With the winds and the current it might seem like that. I don't have my Eldridge in front of me right now, but we went up the river that morning around 9 am, almost three hours after low water at The Battery, to get the best current. This event happened around 8:30 pm, so the current would be strong going the same direction we did that morning, which is toward the Brooklyn Bridge. And with winds gusting strongly out of the West at the time - 25+ knots in some areas - plus all that canvas on the boat, well, that could be why it was going so fast in reverse. (If the engine was actually in reverse though, then someone is in a lot of trouble. And yeah, that tug was useless.)

 

[peaman]

I have no idea what sort of mechanical propulsion the Mexican ship has, but this incident reminds me of another one several years ago involving Schooner Roseway in Maine's Camden harbor. The big schooner had completed a day sail and was coming in to dock in the popular crowded harbor. She was drifting slowly forward, approaching the dock, and then when she should have stopped, the boat instead suddenly lurched forward and crashed into a converted lobster boat like an egg shell. Upon investigation, a diver went to check the prop. Before long, the diver had amassed on the dock a two-foot high pile of multi-colored line of the type used for lobster traps. Clearly, the line had accumulated on the prop and had prevented the feathering prop from fully transitioning from forward to reverse position, so that in reverse drive, it acted as an opposite handed prop.