Brooklyn Heights Blog

Seen from the Promenade this morning, what appears to be a huge yacht lies anchored near the mouth of the Hudson. Perhaps the owner didn’t get the memo that displays of conspicuous consumption are passé.

Update: mystery solved. The yacht is Le Grand Bleu, owned by Russian oil billionaire Eugene Shvidler. Russian billionaires were exempt from the conspicuous consumption memo, provided Putin said “Da.” (Thanks to Ulrich and Kent at NYCMaritime for the info.)

Continuing the tradition of foreign warships docking at Pier 7 (see here, here, and here), at the foot of Atlantic Avenue, the Japanese Coast Guard’s large patrol vessel Kojima (LP-21) is berthed there now.

Has the reputation of Atlantic Avenue’s bars spread throughout the navies of the world?

A free ferry service from Fulton Ferry Landing, at the foot of Old Fulton Street, to Governors Island, will begin this Saturday, June 6, at 11:00 A.M. State Senator Daniel Squadron and other community leaders will be present for the inaugural ceremony. The ferry will run only on Saturdays when events are scheduled on Governor’s Island. It will also stop at Battery Park, in Manhattan. This Saturday, it will depart Fulton Landing every hour at fifteen minutes past the hour, beginning at 11:15 A.M. with the last departure at 4:15 P.M. Departures from Governors Island will be every hour on the hour, beginning at 12:00 noon with the last departure at 6:00 P.M. The Schedule may vary from week to week; updates will be posted at the Governors Island website.

Update: Reader Neighborhood Observer checked the Governors Island website this morning, discovered that the schedule for this Saturday has been changed, and added a helpful note concerning bikes:

Saturday: departures every 20 min starting at 11:20 A until 5 P; returns every 20 min starting at 11:30 A until 5:50 P. … BTW - bikes are allowed on the Ferry and there are 5 miles of bike paths on GI.

Thanks, N.O.

Second update: A reader has kindly informed me that “Governors Island” has no apostrophe. I’ve amended the post accordingly.

Germany’s naval might is on display at Pier 7, near the foot of Atlantic Avenue. As seen from the Promenade today are the Deutsche Marine combat support ship Frankfurt-am-Main on the north side of the pier, and the frigate Sachsen, whose conning tower can be seen in front of the legs of the distant Red Hook Container Port gantry, on the south side. More photos after the jump. Read more »

Setting out on my walk this morning, I saw from the Promenade a warship docked at Pier 7, near the foot of Atlantic Avenue. The Tricolor flying from the jackstaff at her stern and “D620″ on her bow identify her as the frigate Forbin of the Marine Nationale. Perhaps the crew of the Monge, which visited here last November, recommended to their compatriots on Forbin the joys of playing bocce at Floyd.

The Growler submarine made its way back from its dry dock at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum this afternoon via the East River near Brooklyn Heights.  BHB Newshound “BP” snapped this photo.  New Yorkology has more.

The French missile tracking ship Monge, named for the 18th-19th century mathematician Gaspard Monge, is docked at Pier 7 near Columbia Street just south of Atlantic Avenue. Need to brush up on conversational French? Drop in to Montero’s or other Atlantic Avenue watering holes this weekend.

According to the Mayor’s Office, the NYC Waterfalls brought $69 million in revenue to the city—greater than the initial estimate of $55 million—and 1.4 million people came to see them.  So they say.

“People didn’t buy tickets or pass through a turnstile to experience the Waterfalls, but this exhibition brought people to areas of the City they might not otherwise ever have visited,” said the Mayor, whose statistics also indicated that 23% of the viewers, including 44,500 New Yorkers, saw the Waterfalls on what was their first trip to the Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn waterfronts.

The numbers are from Audience Research & Analysis, who conducted visitor surveys at seven vantage points, as well as from figures reported by ferry boat operators.  Also accounted for were the hundreds of thousands who saw the Waterfalls as part of their daily routines.

On the cyberspace end of things, 512,000 people visited the nycwaterfalls.org website; more than 6,000 photos were posted on flickr.com, 1,200 posts were made by individual and professional bloggers, and more than 200 YouTube videos of the installations were posted.

Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2 ended her forty one years of service to New York this past Thursday, departing on her final trans-Atlantic voyage en route to retirement as a floating hotel in Dubai. Here she is, as seen from the overlook near the foot of Cranberry Street, passing the Statue of Liberty for the last time.

Intrepid was moved from the Staten Island pier where she has been undergoing repair work to her permanent berth on the West Side of Manhattan today. Here she is, as seen from the Promenade at about 12:20 P.M., with the Statue of Liberty appearing to stand on her flight deck. The sailing vessel passing just astern of Intrepid is Pride of Baltimore II (see here).

WABC-TV

WABC-TV reports that a crane aboard a ship passing below the Brooklyn Bridge struck the bottom of the historic overpass this morning sometime around 7:30am.  The DOT is reporting there is no structural damage.

Taken from the wheelhouse of the tugboat Cornell on Saturday, July 26. For the full story, see here.