or . . . the final installment from the west side of the Atlantic . . . and I’ll use (what I imagine as) NASA times here, but I’ll modify it from “t-minus” to “U–as in underway” minus and plus.
So, at U minus 53 minutes, there’s a man-basket dangling off the portside.
U minus 48 . . . a crew boat arrives with the pilot.
U minus 37 . . .
the pilot boards Combi-Dock III,
U minus 9, the crew boat, Nicholas Miller, departs . . ., likely off to deliver three technicians departing Combi-Dock III.
Judging from when I first detected “under way – making way” from my vantage point, 1616, the photo below is U plus 11 minutes. Movement at first was barely perceptible, gauged by watching juxtaposition of Peking masts and background features.
U plus 13.
U plus 14. The traffic in the background will welcome me when I leave my station . . . A note on the flags here: the red one (below) is Hamburg’s flag, and the one high in the mast of Peking (next photo below) is that of Stiftung Hamburg Maritim (SHM).
And finally–I shifted my station about a mile to Camp Gateway, Staten Island . . .U plus 21.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
