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Image courtesy of NYCharities.org

On Sunday, August 31 is the 16th Annual Great North River Tugboat Race & Competition held at Pier 84 on the Hudson River.  I know last year this event was a big hit and we look forward to it again this year.  Below is a description of the event from nyc.gov.

Tugboats from all of the tug and towing companies in New York Harbor, as well as historic tugboats, will motor into Pier 84 for the Great North River Tugboat Race and Challenge. The event kicks off with a parade of tugboats from Pier 84 to the race start line near the 79th Street Basin.

The tugboats will then race one nautical mile back to Pier 84. Awards will be presented to each class of boats, broken down by total horsepower. Following the race there will be a bow to bow pushing contest and a line throwing contest, in which deck hands will attempt to lasso a bollard and tie off in the fastest time possible. There will also be a contest to determine the best decorated tug.

Spectators can purchase tickets to view all the festivities from fireboat John J. Harvey, which will depart from Pier 83 and will offer the closest viewing of the action. Free viewing is also available at Pier 84.

For more information on this and other fun events, visit the Working Harbor Committee website HERE.

Although originally from the NYC area, gCaptain works out of California so we are sorry to say we won’t be able to make it, but if any readers out there do attend, we would love to from you.  Email us at tips@gCaptain.com

Also see our coverage from last year’s race HERE.

Photo by AurelioZen

NewYorkology tells us of the first / last ever meeting of its three grand ships;

Cunard’s one-time-only royal rendezvous of its three queens — the QE2, QM2 and recently christened Queen Victoria — will be celebrated at 7 p.m. on January 13 with a harbor fireworks show as the three grand cruise liners meet near the Statue of Liberty.

The QE2 and Queen Victoria will arrive in tandem (likely pre-sunrise) from Southampton, England. During the day, the QE2 will be docked at Manhattan’s Pier 92 and the Queen Victoria nearby at Pier 88. The Queen Mary 2 will arrive separately (also early morning,) and dock in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

All three have bridge cams (Queen Victoria, QM2 and QE2) and Cruise Critic Ben Lyons is blogging the voyage.

UPDATE:

Henny Ray Abrams/Associated Press

The New York Times has reported on the festivities. They write:

In the annals of maritime history, the Queens’ sailing was momentous. It was the first time in the 168-year history of the Cunard Line, the owner of the liners, that it had three ships named after British queens in the same port at the same time. The company arranged the ships’ schedules so that they departed from New York City ports simultaneously.

The Queens’ meeting, witnessed by thousands on shore and on board, will also be their last, company officials said.

“They are not programmed to meet in any other port,” Cunard’s president, Carol Marlow, said during an afternoon news conference at Pier 88 in Manhattan, with the docked Queen Victoria visible in background. “This is a spine-tingling time.”

The Queen Elizabeth 2, Cunard’s longest-serving ship, left Manhattan for its 26th and final around-the-world journey — a farewell tour that will usher in its retirement in November, when the liner will become a floating hotel in Dubai. The Queen Victoria, which came into service last month, embarked on its maiden world cruise. And the Queen Mary 2, the largest trans-Atlantic liner ever built, weighing about 151,400 gross tons, sailed to the Caribbean from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.

Click HERE to continue reading.