ship

Every Sunset Is An Opportunity To Reset.

September 17, 2020 — 30 Comments

F/13.0, 1/640, ISO 250.

San Francisco Sunset Brown Pelican

What do the Starship Enterprise and toilet paper have in common?

They both probe Uranus and wipe out Klingons.

Interesting Fact:   As sunrise and sunset are calculated from the leading and trailing edges of the Sun, respectively, and not the center, the duration of a daytime is slightly longer than nighttime (by about 10 minutes, as seen from temperate latitudes). Further, because the light from the Sun is refracted as it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, the Sun is still visible after it is geometrically below the horizon. Refraction also affects the apparent shape of the Sun when it is very close to the horizon. It makes things appear higher in the sky than they really are. Light from the bottom edge of the Sun’s disk is refracted more than light from the top, since refraction increases as the angle of elevation decreases. This raises the apparent position of the bottom edge more than the top, reducing the apparent height of the solar disk. Its width is unaltered, so the disk appears wider than it is high. (In reality, the Sun is almost exactly spherical.) The Sun also appears larger on the horizon, an optical illusion, similar to the moon illusion.  ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset#Historically )

Don’t Be Afraid To Rock The Boat

July 15, 2020 — 8 Comments

F/13.0, 1/640, ISO 200.

Jersey City Hudson River

What does a cheetah say when someone looks at it?

I’ve been spotted!

Interesting Fact: The land comprising what is now Jersey City was inhabited by the Lenape, a collection of tribes (later called Delaware Indian). In 1609, Henry Hudson, seeking an alternate route to East Asia, anchored his small vessel Halve Maen (English: Half Moon) at Sandy Hook, Harsimus Cove and Weehawken Cove, and elsewhere along what was later named the North River. After spending nine days surveying the area and meeting its inhabitants, he sailed as far north as Albany. By 1621, the Dutch West India Company was organized to manage this new territory and in June 1623, New Netherland became a Dutch province, with headquarters in New Amsterdam. Michael Reyniersz Pauw received a land grant as patroon on the condition that he would establish a settlement of not fewer than fifty persons within four years. He chose the west bank of the North River (Hudson River) and purchased the land from the Lenape. This grant is dated November 22, 1630 and is the earliest known conveyance for what are now Hoboken and Jersey City. Pauw, however, was an absentee landlord who neglected to populate the area and was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633.[39] That year, a house was built at Communipaw for Jan Evertsen Bout, superintendent of the colony, which had been named Pavonia (the Latinized form of Pauw’s name, which means peacock).[40] Shortly after, another house was built at Harsimus Cove and became the home of Cornelius Van Vorst, who had succeeded Bout as superintendent, and whose family would become influential in the development of the city. Relations with the Lenape deteriorated, in part because of the colonialist’s mismanagement and misunderstanding of the indigenous people, and led to series of raids and reprisals and the virtual destruction of the settlement on the west bank. During Kieft’s War, approximately eighty Lenapes were killed by the Dutch in a massacre at Pavonia on the night of February 25, 1643. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_City,_New_Jersey#History )

BON VOYAGE! The Rest Of Us Will Envying You While We Work.

November 3, 2017 — 4 Comments

F/11.0, 1/500, ISO 320.

New York City Skyline & Norwegian Cruise Line Ship

A very nervous first time crew member says to the skipper, “Do ships like this sink very often?”

“Not too often,” replied the skipper. “Usually it’s only once.”

Interesting Fact: The cruise line was founded as Norwegian Caribbean Line in 1966 by Knut Kloster and Ted Arison, with the 8,666-ton, 140m cruise ship/car ferry, Sunward,[5] which in 1966 operated as a car-ferry between Southampton UK and Gibraltar, for that one, short season only. Arison soon left to form Carnival Cruise Lines, while Kloster acquired additional ships for Caribbean service. Norwegian pioneered many firsts in the cruise industry like: the first Out Island Cruise, the first combined air-sea program (marketed as “Cloud 9 Cruises”) which combined low cost air fares with the cruise, first shipline to develop new ports in the Caribbean, like Ocho Rios in Jamaica. Like the original Sunward of 1966, Norwegians’s second ship, the Starward had the capability to carry automobiles through a well concealed stern door. Later, this area was turned into cabins and a two deck movie theater, which is now a casino. Norwegian was responsible for many of the cruise innovations that have now become standard throughout the industry. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Cruise_Line )

I Don’t Think Anyone Will Row Row Row That Boat Gently Down The Stream

November 12, 2015 — 26 Comments

Binghamton ferry

F/22.0, 159.0, ISO 64.

Day 316 / 365

What do you do with a sick boat?

Take it to the DOC!

Interesting Fact:

Binghamton was one of six identical screw-propelled double-ended ferryboats built by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry-dock Company at Newport News, Virginia in 1904-05 to designs by Gardner & Cox, naval architects. She was launched on February 20, 1905, with Miss Charlotte Emery, daughter of John M. Emery, the newly promoted superintendent of the Hoboken Ferry Company and Ferry Department of the DL&W, serving as her sponsor. Binghamton was completed a month later and left the Newport News yard on March 25 for the trip to Hoboken, New Jersey. She was placed in commission on April 3. Her Captain for the first crossing was Oren D. Relyea.

Her normal run was from the Hoboken Terminal to Barclay Street, a twelve-minute journey of approximately 1 and 3/4 miles, a trip made continuously nearly every day for more than sixty years (on occasion she substituted on the Hoboken – 23rd Street run). ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binghamton_(ferryboat) )

 

 

To All Soldiers “Thank You For Your Service!”

May 25, 2015 — 8 Comments

Memorial Day

F/5.6, 1/1600, ISO 400.

Day 145 / 365

Fleet Week New York, now in its 27th year, is the city’s time-honored celebration of the sea services. It is an unparalleled opportunity for the citizens of New York and the surrounding tri-state area to meet Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, as well as witness firsthand the latest capabilities of today’s maritime services. The weeklong celebration has been held nearly every year since 1984. ( http://www.fleetweeknewyork.com/fleetweeknewyork/ )

Interesting Fact: The holiday began after the Civil War, and at that time was known as “Decoration Day.” While it was originally founded to honor the soldiers who died in the Civil War, today, Memorial Day is a day to honor all of the Americans who have died in military service. ( http://www.quotery.com/lists/25-glorious-memorial-day-quotes/ )