Historic Landmark on the Hudson River

Category: Keepers Log

  • Migrations and stockpiling

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    In nature, there are two broad strategies for coping with winter scarcity: seek warmer climate or stock up on supplies. Yesterday, marked the autumnal equinox. I motored the supply barge up the creek to load five barrels of kerosene. On the way, I counted two monarch butterflies on the wind on their way to Mexico.…

  • Tugboat Roundup

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    On their way to the Waterford Tugboat Roundout, the Tug Cornell and the Steam Launch Hestia passed by the lighthouse. The Hestia paused on its way upriver to drop off some passengers at the lighthouse dock. The steamboat operator tooted the whistle when arriving and departing, to the delight of those of us standing on…

  • Between the Thunderstorms

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    The annual Between the Tides Music Festival at the lighthouse was renamed the “Between the Thunderstorms” party on account of the rain. After 15 years of sunny weather during the annual festival, the lucky streak was broken and the rain poured down on the event. The diehards braved the rain. The handful of musicians who…

  • Question for the keeper: what's that?

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    The tug Glen Cove pushed a barge downriver carrying two massive A-frame structures of corrugated sheet metal. A peek through the binoculars revealed that the A-frames housed four large cylindrical mechanisms. My guess: cooling towers. A quick Google Search took me to the tugster blog for the answer: cooling towers built upriver in Coeymans, NY…

  • Lighthouse at Willis Avenue

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    For a fleeting moment, the lighthouse was on Willis Avenue. Then, the avenue kept on moving down the river. The replacement for the Willis Avenue Bridge is on it’s way to the Harlem River today. The massive steel structure was built at Coeymans, NY. Now, three tugs are towing it down the Hudson River with…

  • Ice Sailing on Tivoli Bay

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    A contingent of ice boaters enjoyed stiff breezes and sunshine on Sunday afternoon. A half-dozen antique “stern-steerer” ice boats graced the solid ice on South Tivoli Bay. Many of the ice boats are over 100 years old. Dock Shuter (aka Captain Dangerous) loaned me Floater, so I took my friend Tesha sailing at the end…

  • Shuga

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    The word for the day is “shuga”: spongy white ice lumps formed in churning water. A return to freezing temperatures and a wave-churning north wind combined to form shuga, which covered the shore this morning like acres of snow cones.

  • Winter flood

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    A rainstorm quickly brought the Esopus Creek to flood-stage. The frozen ground could not soak up the rain, so it swelled the creeks. The weather system also brought a storm surge up the Hudson River. Flood water + storm surge = stranded at the lighthouse. The water level rose over the dock, as shown in…

  • New ice

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    Overnight temperatures in the single digits. A sheen of new ice coated the navigation channel. The first barge of the day pushed through the thin layer, breaking and churning ice under its bow as it went. I heard the barge as it approached, crunching through the ice. I went to my bedroom window and opened…

  • Ice Season

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    Around 7:30 AM, the Coast Guard cutter Wire got underway for daily ice breaking operations. The Wire is a 65-foot, 500-horsepower ice breaking tug that is capable of breaking through 18-inch thick ice. This section of river is mostly drifting brash ice, which are chunks of broken ice refrozen into irregular conglomerate masses. With overnight…