Wooden Chips
Linus Gelber
Given the tricky and constant currents at the base of Manhattan Island, docking the Staten Island Ferry is less a matter of gentle tick-tack maneuvers - although a couple of the captains are really gifted at easing the massive boats in to their slips - than it is a process of slowing down, pointing at the gate, and then slamming the vast ferries home, battering the bulwharks against the pilings on either side.
Each ferry gate is constructed as a kind of funnel, lined with an elastic cushion of boards and huge tree-trunk logs on either side. The side structures are designed to bend and yield under the immense impact of the arriving boats, absorbing their inertial energy and springing back slowly.
To give you an idea of the scale, I'm riding the Sen. John J. Marchi out to Staten Island. The Marchi has a maximum capacity of 4,440 passengers and 30 cars. She measures 310' feet in length and is 70' wide, with a 13.5' draft, and weighs 3,200 tons. They're pretty big boats.
The ongoing and evolving Utata Thursday Walk project is a straightforward one - take the camera, go for a walk. See what comes of it.
This image is from my fourth Thursday outing - the sixth one overall, but I've sat a couple out. I generally do them on Fridays, but I've been off work for the last couple of weeks, so Thursday is fine. Technically it's supposed to happen before noon, but I've made an executive decision that sunrise is when I get out of the house, so.
Today is haircut day, and Danielle in Staten Island is my Sole Licensed Practitioner (accept no substitutes). She's overseen my hair from the foot-long ponytail days, through the uh-oh Mousse Period, up to the "that's not a bald spot back there, is it?" panics of the Modern Era. I don't get out there often, but I always enjoy the trip.
See the rest of my Thursday Walk images in the Getting the Hang of Thursdays set.
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