Day 1 – Final patrol of 2013 underway

A sign of winter – the Coast Guard buoy tender is swapping the summer aids to navigation out for winter buoys which are less likely to be grabbed by ice. Here she’s southbound near West Point.
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Final patrol of the Hudson in 2013 is underway. Keep it tuned here for photos and updates throughout Capt. John Lipscomb’s cold-weather journey from Troy to Brooklyn to end the 2013 patrol season.

A sign of winter – the Coast Guard buoy tender is swapping the summer aids to navigation out for winter buoys which are less likely to be grabbed by ice. Here she’s southbound near West Point.

Below, a train load of crude oil from N. Dakota bound for the refineries in NJ down the west shore CSX freight line. This is the same kind of rail car and same kind of crude oil that recently derailed, spilled and burned in both Lac-Megantic, Quebec: This very dangerous cargo (dangerous to both humans and the environment) is passing through Albany and then down through all the Hudson Valley communities along the west shore.

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