I have spent numerous hours since the rollover monitoring marine frequencies in the New York Harbor region, and while it would be illegal to transcribe or relay the content of any broadcast heard on a private, commercial, or government agency frequency, I will provide my current opinion on the (*apparently* good) current state of shipping in this region. I would like to ask that any other individuals who live near any ports also contribute information on shipping status to compare and contrast notes, as we will likely get zero analytical information in the coming days from the mass media. (Note: Since we are not at war nor in a period of national crisis, I see no problem with posting general information on publicly viewable commercial shipping in the New York Harbor region. After all, Communist Chinese-owned corporations lease 20 percent of the office space in the World Trade Center, and they surely have a better view of things in the harbor than me, after all.)

To begin, shipping traffic in the New York Harbor region (for my purposes, the New York Harbor region includes New York Harbor, Long Island Sound, the lower Hudson River, East River, Newark Bay [NJ], Raritan River [NJ]) *appears* to be unaffected by the Century Date Change (CDC), or Y2K. (Yes, I placed asterisks around that word for a reason, as will be discussed below.)

Tugboat and barge traffic was relatively quiet from the afternoon of December 31 to early morning January 1, but then exploded in activity on the afternoon of January 1. Fuel / oil barges have been constantly delivered to waterfront tank farms, filled with product, and then removed from berth to be delivered by tugboats to those places where fuel / oil barges are delivered. Loading of fuel / oil product has been successfully occurring at petro facilities operated by the usual suspects.

With respect to cargo (container ship) traffic, I visually noted a total of two ships leaving Ports Elizabeth and Newark (in Newark Bay) on both December 31 and January 1, then no further inbound / outbound traffic viewed / heard by me. (Ports Elizabeth and Newark combined represent the busiest port facilities on the Eastern Seaboard, and are a major engine of the NY Metro area economy. These are owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey -- the same tentacled, quasi-public behemoth that grubs all the exorbitant bridge and tunnel toll money, and leases that office space to the PRC / CCP.)

On January 2, I noted five ships leaving Newark Bay for sea, and two ships entering Newark Bay. The two ships that entered were owned by major shipping firms. Nevertheless, this is extremely noticeable, light daily inbound traffic for these ports.

Which raises the question, why such light traffic? The possibilities are: 1. Shipping firms scheduled light inbound port traffic during the rollover period, hence the dearth of inbound ships; 2. The U.S. Coast Guard is on the job in the waters outside New York Harbor checking the Y2K compliance of inbound container ships, creating a (necessary) delay in inbound shipping; 3. A number of container ships were not Y2K compliant, and are either steaming in circles at sea or wound up on the rocks near the coast of Easter Island (okay, probably not number 3).

A fourth possibility comes to mind. As I recall, the Westergaard site ran a series of columns by a shipping / port consultant who detailed a number of potential problems that could occur in the shipping industry following the rollover. One example I readily recall is potential problems with the electronic transfer of authorization papers and signatures for approval of berthing and offloading.

What's happening in shipping following the rollover? The only thing I know at this point is that the ships aren't coming in.

I look forward to intelligent (non-troll) comments. I leave now to consult my charts because, at 9:53 PM EST, the U.S. Coast Guard declared on frequency 156.800 MHz (a public marine safety and information channel) a "prohibited entry zone" 15 nautical miles south of Nantucket Island.

-- Harbor Guy (HarborGuy@OnThe.Waterfront), January 03, 2000

Answers

I know exactly nothing about shipping. However here the other night I saw and reported that a Ukrainian cargo ship sank in the black sea. I have heard nothing else on it here on the web or in our local rag sheet. They print this type of stuff. Absolutely nothing about it on TV or in news print. I saw it on an AP report on that "top of the news" article that comes with your AOL pop up screen.

-- Notforlong (Fsur439@aol.com), January 03, 2000.

Thanks for the info Harbor Guy. Finally a signal and no noise.

-- PA Engineer (PA Engineer@longtimelurker.com), January 03, 2000.

Harbor Guy, thank you very much for the input. I have been very interested in shipping since I read that the Coast Guard stopped about 150 ships during a Y2K test run last summer. It makes sense to me that traffic would be light during rollover weekend. I'd bet that ships are kept offshore until they can prove their navigability.

I am on the West Coast and I have not heard anything about local ports.

-- Margaret J (janssm@aol.com), January 03, 2000.

Glad to have provided some interesting personal observations. If I recall from past reading, if a ship proved to be Y2K noncompliant, the U.S. Coast Guard would have the ship towed in dead if necessary to get the cargo off. We're currently in wait-and-see mode regarding shipping and our ports.

-- Harbor Guy (HarborGuy@OnThe.Waterfront), January 03, 2000.

Harbor Guy, much appreciated as there is a dearth of worthwhile news. Someone posted a thread about the threshold of news and it has to be a disaster before the media will run with it.

Thanks again for your input.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), January 03, 2000.

You're welcome, Guy. As of 9:30 AM EST, one loaded container ship has entered Newark Bay. Something is surely up -- whether it is the Coasties on the job, light scheduled traffic, or digital things unspeakable. Perhaps one of the stenographers from The New York Times will transcribe a press release from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to enlighten us :-)

-- Harbor Guy (HarborGuy@OnThe.Waterfront), January 03, 2000.

Hey Harbor Guy,

What is a normal day of traffic for Newark Bay?

Have you checked out other holidays' traffic? Like last year around the New Year?

Thanks for the post.

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), January 03, 2000.

Hey nothere,

You know, the exact average daily traffic into and out of Newark Bay would be a good statistic to have, so maybe our $50 million federal Information Copordination Center bunkerites could round the data up for us.

Here's a quick stat: one cargo crane offloads one container every 30 seconds; and there are more cargo cranes at the piers of Ports Elizabeth and Newark than you can count on four hands.

Maybe it's time to break out the high-end radio gear.

-- Harbor Guy (HarborGuy@OnThe.Waterfront), January 03, 2000.

Thanks Harbor Guy!

It is still early, but this topic may be well worth attention for a while. Another topic of similar interest may be:

Where are the Freight Trains

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), January 03, 2000.