the “Boke”
Hoboken Terminal, NJ.
My boss took me there on a survey job one snowy day, several years ago. The ferry slips were not ready yet, and were still being painted. One could see the grandness of the architecture. Billowy sheets of plastic were hung over the openings, and we had to drive in and out of the curtains to do the surveys, like stagehands hopping on and off the grand stage. It was so silent, snow falling into the river, no one there to see any of the beauty that day but us.
Thank you, JD, for the push to finish this drawing. Thx, Frankie for the ‘Boke’ tip!
to city hall, all!
New York City Council, Committee on Waterfronts • Oversight hearing open to the public
Friday, March 28, 10 am, City Hall, Committee Room
resources to contact:
marine surveyor, Charlie Deroko
hydrographic surveyor, Bill Benson
sailing barge, Vermont Sail Project / historic ships coalition, Mary Hasbritt, founding director; with Maggie Flanagan / working harbor committee, John Doswell, executive director /community: Waterways Reskilling, Wellbeing Farm
do you like your TWIC card?
Evaluation time! How are you liking it?
good things about having a TWIC:
• you feel like VIP breezing past long lines to get into Fleet Week at PST pier 90. You get to keep your metal water canteen and knife.
(if you do not have a TWIC, please do not bring nice water bottles or knives to see warships. The trash cans outside were full of caught contraband and it was a sad sight.)
• finally have something to hang on the Fleet Week swag ribbon.
• theoretically can attend barbecue on girlfriend’s tanker at Atlantic Basin (sorry I missed it, Carolina.)
bad things about the TWIC:
• though issued by Lockheed Martin, no airport security personnel will recognize what it is. (It has been pointed out that because of errant airplane activity, all working mariners are required to have TWICs, but not airport personnel nor pilots.)
• actually, no one who has requested ID from me knows what it is. Or worse, they got the nerve not to card me anymore.
• it does not grant you access to public restrooms or the concession stands on Liberty Island, even though you are on a survey boat that had a full security sweep with two policemen and a police dog before you began the job, and you were surveying their piers all morning for 4 hours, expertly dodging (boss did) the ferries laden with tourists going to the Statue of Liberty. The officer saw us making our long, slow runs all morning. When we docked to let me off (no head on the boat), he barred my way, saying I could not disembark because I did not pass through a metal detector.
• it does not grant you permission to go where commercial vessels with non-TWIC’d folks get to go. During the Fleet Week 2010 parade of ships, ferries and taxis were permitted to cross the line. One hard working harbor tug requested permission of the USCG patrol boat to transit alongside the parade on the east side to watch. Permission was denied, and the tug had to take the stern of the last coast guard boat in the procession, thereby missing the whole show.
Aren’t you glad you have a TWIC?
Before I sound like a total ingrate, many thanks, Hydrographic Surveys, for paying the $132.50 fee for my TWIC.
towmasters
tugster
Bowsprite 
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