Shipping News, No. 2: Update

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Shipping News, No. 2: Update
New York Harbor Region
Wednesday, January 5, 2000

See also: Shipping News; Shipping News: Update; Shipping News, No. 2.

Today noted continued brisk local tug and fuel/oil barge traffic, with a number of tugs towing their barges out of the harbor to coastal points north and south. Local interport traffic appears to be suddenly rejuvenated, with four separate interport container barges moving between Newark Bay's Ports Elizabeth and Newark and other nearby specialty ports (such as Red Hook in Brooklyn).

Inbound and outbound container ship traffic remains light; while four ships were tied up under the cranes of Port Newark, two of them had been transferred around the channel from Port Elizabeth. At this point today, two inbound containers and one outbound car carrier have been noted at Newark Bay.

The year's first fuel barge loading dispute has begun, with the supplier claiming an onload in December 1999 of over 100,000 gallons, and the loadee claiming a lesser amount equivalent to four feet of barge draft. (It may help for the disputants to first standardize their units of measure -- if they can.)

Considering the New York Harbor region as a chaotic system, the frequency of recent "incidents" integrated during the past three days presents itself:

1. Two vessel distress calls in the greater region in the past 3 days (cause and type of vessels unknown).
2. A 20' x 20' section of heavy wharf broken off during yesterday's gale, and sighted floating in a local channel in the night, disappears with the tide before it can be secured and towed away.
3. A local fueling depot runs out of fuel, causing a change in routine traffic (and/or delays) for a number of tugs/small tankers.
4. Three containers are strangely blown off a pier at Port Newark.
5. A small oil spill causes changes/delays for routine traffic.
6. A few ships anchored in the harbor have dragged their anchors during high winds, and have had to be repositioned.
7. Intermittent radio interference.

Perhaps this cacophony represents near-typical conditions in the waters in and around New York Harbor -- to be expected and managed whether in the pre- or post-rollover period.

The ominous question, however, is that of "event horizon."



-- Harbor Guy (HarborGuy@OnThe.Waterfront), January 05, 2000

Answers

Looks like some spamming fool wants to go for the brass ring in the Plug Pulling Olympics.

Sysops: please smoke that b*tch's connection!

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), January 05, 2000.


Harbor Guy:

Thanks for the updates! Would you mind educating me on what an "event horizon" is? My email is real.

Thanks again!

-- (Kurt.Borzel@gems8.gov.bc.ca), January 05, 2000.


Thanks, Harbor Guy- as always, a great post. Appreciate useful information in my attempt to keep up with the facts of the events as they unfold. It is confusing enough, and your posts are exemplary. Wish there were more of your quality instead of the out-of-control anonymous hatred that we are seeing. Please keep up the good work,if you can.

-- Swissrose (cellier@azstarnet.com), January 05, 2000.

Harbor Guy, I've been reading your posts and I have to tell you that I REALLY appreciate this straight-forward, no nonsence reporting of yours.

However, I do have a couple of questions. Is there an official schedule anywhere of ships that are due in to port, or due to leave during a given period, with which we might compare this information?

Also, am I correct in understanding that only ONE ship, a car carrier, has left the entire New York region today? Is this normal? I would have thought that with all the berths/wharfs whatever available that customary traffic would be significantly higher. But then I freely admit that I know nothing of this subject.

Thanks again! Claudia

-- CD (cdokeefe@firstva.com), January 05, 2000.


Kurt: It's a ten-dollar phrase meaning "the threshhold." Ron: There are four kinds of opponents on any popular, focused Net forum: 1. Obsessed persons; 2. Genuine trolls; 3. Persons hired by PR firms such as Hill & Knowlton et al.; 4. Persons who are "cybervolunteers" for political and activist organizations. Most of what I have seen on TBY2000 over the past days fit into categories 2 and 3.

-- Harbor Guy (HarborGuy@OnThe.Waterfront), January 05, 2000.


Correction: I meant categories 2, 3, and 4.

-- Harbor Guy (HarborGuy@OnThe.Waterfront), January 05, 2000.

Swissrose: Many thanks, glad it is of interest.

Claudia: No, it is not typical for one cargo ship in a day to be outbound from these ports, which is why the light traffic has been so noticeable these past days. As for schedules, they do exist somewhere, but not readily available for my perusal.



-- Harbor Guy (HarborGuy@OnThe.Waterfront), January 05, 2000.

REPORT FROM DOWNTOWN, ANYWHERE, USA... Saw 2 cars going faster than the speed limit(for no ascertained reason) then observed the wind blow 3 trees down on 2nd st... my son out of the blue asked me if I'd fed the dog...my car started with an estimated starter use time of 3 sec. instead of the usual 2.5...Just thought you all should know...Saw harborGuy sitting

-- wise1 (elmarco @sunvalley.net), January 05, 2000.

REPORT FROM DOWNTOWN, ANYWHERE, USA... Saw 2 cars going faster than the speed limit(for no ascertained reason) then observed the wind blow 3 trees down on 2nd st... my son out of the blue asked me if I'd fed the dog...my car started with an estimated starter use time of 3 sec. instead of the usual 2.5...Just thought you all should know...Saw harborGuy SITTING ON HIS ASS ALL GODDAMN DAY INSTEAD OF DOING THE JOB HE'S PAID TO DO...

-- wise1 (elmarco @sunvalley.net), January 05, 2000.

Harbor Guy,

I, too, have been appreciating your calm port in the storm. Please keep the reports coming. They are like snapshots from a foreign land, complete with narrator, to someone who's not experienced your vantage point. (Nice analysis of the opponents, BTW.)

-- (RUOK@yesiam.com), January 06, 2000.



Harbor Guy, I appreciate your posts, too. Mousehubbie is expecting containers to arrive from Europe at Newark any day now, and we are a little worried...

Please keep the reports coming so we can compare what you see to what we are told.

just a little hoousemouse...

-- housemouse (inlittlehole@nevermind.now), January 06, 2000.


Housemouse: They'd probably let you know if any delays were expected; but if so, please fill us in here.

-- Harbor Guy (HarborGuy@OnThe.Waterfront), January 06, 2000.

remeber, it takes days (weeks sometimes) for a ship to come from a foreign port - most only make 14-15 knots (18 mph or so).

Thus, IF (and we as yet don't know the overseas impact on production, shipping and manufactoring in individual companies - the electric power and phones systems seem intact - which is an essential start for all others) IF (to repeat) there were problems, it would a few days for those to impact the immediate supply stream at the first company. then perhaps a bit longer at this companies customers, then to the final point - IF (again a caution - failure is not assured, only possible) to the final factory that ships the product to the US.

Then, a week (Japan/Korea - west coast) or two weeks (to the east coast) before shipping recepits here actually would be delayed. Anything from air would of course have this shipping delay eliminated. But if ships themselves were failing - and could not restart/get started - then the impact would be later. On the US economy, an impact cannot be felt until the "rubber band" supply chain has actually broke. Stretching (as goods work their way through the cycle) has little impact.

Crude oil, as the observer has previously pointed out, does not come in or out of this port via tankers. Thus, his observations would have no relevence in that field.

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), January 06, 2000.


Robert: Yes to all you posted; and to clarify one of my previous points, supertankers do regularly anchor in the deep water outside New York Harbor (about 2 miles out, I believe), and smaller tankers and barges will head out there to load.

-- Harbor Guy (HarborGuy@OnThe.Waterfront), January 06, 2000.

Just a thought - it would be interesting to know the numbers of ships going through the Panama Canal right now and if the quantity has changed at all and if there are any slowdowns.

-- Laurane (familyties@rttinc.com), January 06, 2000.


You're asking an important question about the Panama canal - but it's irrelevent - right now.

The "Chinese" threat to the Panama Canal comes ONLY when / if they "need" to impose it: thus, in peacetime, there is absolutely no reason to impose any delays or restrictions on ship movements. In fact the ooposite: if traffic through the Canal is seen as threatened, thenless traffic will go through, and the Canal becomes less importatn. If traffic is maintained, then its loss (when that loss is imposed) is more important to the future needs of Red China.

The Panama Canal threat comes whenever China decieds it wants to put pressure (announced loudly or announced quietly - threats do NOT have to be publicized!) on any nation shipping through the canal that opposes ANY view or policy or overt military threat China has towards Korea, towards Jpana, towards Vietnam, or (most likely immediately) towards Tiawan.

It is only that the "threat of shutdown" COULD BE imposed that China's control becomes significant.

The Panama Canal is "insignificant" only in the minds of those Washington political analysts who support Red China, and who opposed the criminal investigations of those who sold it US nuclear secrets.

IF that "threat of shutdown" to further China's political goals did not exist, I'd not be opposed to their control of the Canal. But it is like Nazi Germany buying control of the trains and bridges inside France that supply the Maginot Line: Why assault the forts themselves if the forts can't get ammo and food?

The threat from a foreign power lies in the potential for CONTROL of future events, not in the immediate nature of the event itself.

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), January 06, 2000.


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