Vermont hipster renting out Far Rockaway boat as hotel

Miss Heather recently dropped this bomb on me.

Ziggy Stardust? $850 per night? Seriously? Trying to capitalize on the death of a real artist? I'm sure this fellow is one of those classic AirBnB users who are "working class people just trying to make ends meet".

The deposit is more than the nightly rental fee. There's a $200 cleaning fee?

This chooch rents out cabins in Vermont...and a boat in Far Rockaway?

He ran an illegal restaurant which was shut down, so he branched out into the illegal hotel business.

Ah, so it's part of the Boatel (which was shut down) marina. What a surprise!

I wonder how much tax this chap is paying.

Junk in Flushing Bay

From the Queens Chronicle:

Ever since a January windstorm apparently left two abandoned barges adrift on Flushing Bay, environmental advocates and Flushing residents have been asking why nothing has been done to clean up the mess.

Riverkeeper, a nonprofit New York City clean water advocate, has been on top of the incident since the barges first made their presence in Flushing Bay. Their concerns are twofold — not only is it unappealing for residents but it also is harming the environment. Styrofoam has begun to fall off the barges and spreading around the bay. Private property owners alongside the shore have seen debris land.

In January, Riverkeeper contacted the NYPD, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and city Department of Environmental Conservation, informing all of them of the issues. But while there have been responses, nothing has been done.

The condition of the barges has continued to decline over the last couple of months. Steel plating is breaking off and one of the barges broke in half.
Normally, when vessels break in half, both parts sink. But according to James Lipscomb, captain of the Hudson Riverkeeper, these barges have an unusual design called positive flotation. This, he said, makes the barges unsinkable.

Lipscomb and area residents cannot confirm but believe the barges were secured on the east side of Flushing Bay, attached to commercial property, and broke loose during the January storm and drifted to their current location.

Thar she blows!

From the Times Ledger:

Whale and dolphin sightings in the Rockaways have increased over the last five years, making American Princess watch and adventure cruises that launching from Riis Landing in Breezy Point the new popular pastime.

Tom Paladino, owner and captain of American Princess Cruises, said the abundance of sightings is due to cleaner waters and an increased food chain.

“There is definitely an increase in bait food called bunker [menhaden] along with sand eels and the mammals go where the food is,” Paladino said. “A possible contributing factor can also be warmer waters and climate change.”

The most common species of whales and dolphins, which have been spotted in the Rockaways, Long Island and the Jersey shore, have been humpback and fin whales and bottlenose and common dolphins, according to Paladino.

“I have been giving four-hour tours for the last seven years to view these mammals in the wild, but the last few weeks there have been multiple whale and dolphin sightings every day and the boat has been packed — it’s amazing,” Paladino said. “Last week there were humpback whales breaching and putting on a terrific show during all our tours and dolphins have been spotted in groups.”

The cruises are scheduled Wednesdays through Sundays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

No one responsible for abandoned boats

From the Queens Courier:

The origin of an abandoned boat on the College Point shoreline in Flushing Bay is a mystery but like the bay’s water, which government agency is responsible for abandoned vessels is murky.

According to the Coast Guard and other organizations, there is no agency that’s responsible for such unworthy sea vessels that aren’t obstructing waterways.

“It just appeared here one day and we’ve been salvaging it for parts ever since,” said a construction worker, who didn’t want his name revealed because he didn’t know whether it was illegal to take parts of the boat. He said that the boat has been in the bay for five years. While the decrepit boat shell doesn’t bother the construciton worker, he wonders why the city hasn’t done anything about it.

“If someone abandons their car, the government is going to tow it, right? So why do different rules apply here?” he said.

The anchor was dropped decades ago

I could swear that this boat has been in this yard at 59-95 Grand Avenue since I was a kid. Luckily, a nifty tool called CityMap allows one to check his or her sometimes shaky memory against reality.

This is a screenshot of a 1996 aerial shot. And sure enough, there's the boat.

By the way, a boat parked in the front yard is a zoning violation. Still, I'd rather see a quirky old boat overgrown with weeds on an oversized lot than see it filled with Fedders houses.

Hipster boat vacated by FDNY

From Eyewitness News:

A boat in Brooklyn was vacated by firefighters Friday after a tip that people were illegally on board.

FDNY searched the boat and found evidence that people were living on the boat, and using it as a work space.

Firefighters went to the boat at around 11:30 a.m. after receiving the tip. They found 10 people on board at the time.

The boat, docked near Morgan Avenue and Stagg Street in Bushwick, has been deemed a hazard and vacated.

An area was carved into the hull of the boat and separated into nine bedrooms.

Artists and sculptures were using the boat as a work space. There were paint cans, gasoline canisters, and candles on board.

There was also a hot tub and an area on the deck being used as a pool.

Water and electricity were running to the boat from a nearby, vacant lot.

The boat was not registered with the Coast Guard.

I wonder if they realize the history of the spot they're inhabiting...

Now how does this happen?

Dog rescued in Jamaica Bay

From the NY Times:

New York City got a reprieve from the monstrous heat on Monday, but it was apparently still not cool enough for an 8-month German shepherd named Charlie.

The dog dove into Jamaica Bay off Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, for a dip about 7:35 p.m. Monday, but strong current quickly carried him away, the police said.

Charlie was eventually picked up by the police, who were on the harbor doing a routine patrol by boat.

"Queens" ferry in 1910

Click photo for larger version.

Fishing in Jamaica Bay

I like how the reporter and newscasters act like this is something that no one knew about and haven't been doing for centuries...

Catching them red-handed

From Forbes:

At 3:15 in the morning, Jamie Powers and Kevin Thomas, environmental conservation officers for New York state, ease their 31-foot boat into the inky waters of Jamaica Bay, which bisects the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The city's lights project ethereally across the starry, cloudless sky. There isn't a hint of wind in the air. "Can't ask for a better night," says Powers. "They'll be out there I bet."

"Out there" is Breezy Point, the westernmost part of the Rockaway peninsula in Queens, a fish-rich stretch of water that's the unofficial separation of the Atlantic from the harbor of New York. "They" are the poachers who haunt those waters, men who catch more than the legal limit of fish--striped bass, sea bass, fluke and blackfish (tautog)--then sell them on the black market.

The illegal fish eventually end up in Chinatown, the Fulton Fish Market, various city mom-and-pop seafood stores and even on the plates of high-end Manhattan restaurants. Worse still, some of those fish are full of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which at worst, cause cancer and at best wreck humans' immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems.

The lobster rig, owned by Louis Benitto, the man at the helm, docks in a marina in Brooklyn's Gerritsen Creek. As the boats pull up to the dock, an Asian man wearing a yellow-and-white rain coat crouches on a knoll, staring out at the boats. "That's the buyer," says Thomas. The DEC officers know him only as Sammy. He's the conduit to the legitimate and illegitimate markets, Thomas believes. If Sammy is surprised to see the police boat, he hides it well--he doesn't move a muscle. Perhaps he knows that Powers and Thomas have nothing on him this morning. Sammy can just claim he was there to buy the 24 legal fish.

"Off the hook" is an appropriate name...

This boat has been parked on Cypress Avenue near DeKalb Avenue for almost a week.
It's bad enough when cars are parked up on the sidewalk, but now we're dealing with boats, too?

Oh deer, he must be cold!

From SI Live:

Need proof that deer swim to Staten Island from New Jersey?

Frank Masseria says he's got it — a grainy 50-second video shot from his small charter fishing boat, the "Vitamin Sea," early Saturday morning of two Bambis plying the chilly 56-degree waters of the Arthur Kill like mini motorboats before clambering ashore in Tottenville.

Deer swimming across the Arthur Kill to Staten Island

Sailboater docks in Newtown Creek

From the Daily News:

It's one of the most polluted waterways in New York - a fetid stew of oil, sewage and sludge.

But Newtown Creek is paradise for Max Mulhern.

The 47-year-old London-based sculptor is spending part of his U.S. vacation docked at the notorious waterway separating Brooklyn and Queens as part of a quirky family boat trip.

"I like to stay off the beaten path," Mulhern said on Thursday aboard his 40-foot sailboat. "It leads to much more interesting encounters."

Keeping his boat tethered to a crumbling cement wall in an industrial section of Long Island City has another key perk: he's staying in the city rent-free.

Reports of pollution don't faze Mulhern. Neither does the fact that Newtown Creek is best known as the site of one of the nation's worst oil spills.

"You wouldn't want to raise small children nearby, but it's certainly not too dangerous to go down, have an ice cream and watch the water go by," Mulhern said.

"I wouldn't use that water for anything other than to have my boat float. But there are signs of life, so that's a positive thing."

Inside the College Point Yacht Club

From the NY Times:

The yacht club lies behind an unmarked entrance off Powell’s Cove Boulevard at the northern end of 126th Street near La Guardia Airport and the city’s jail complex on Rikers Island. The club’s neighbor to the west is an unsightly expanse of craggy piers. To the east is the Tallman Island sewage plant; members live with the smell.

The clubhouse is an old barge that was run aground years ago. At the end of a gravel and asphalt yard is a tiki bar and a grill made from half an oil drum. The floating docks jutting out into the river provide 112 boat slips.

There are no fancy regattas, tennis courts or swimming pools. The club, which 12 men started in 1950 by erecting a shack, is more blue-collar than blue blazer.

Many of the 88 members are retired civil servants and tradesmen who fix up used motorboats and spend weekends chasing bluefish and drinking Budweiser. The bar is open to the public, but is usually filled with raucous members comparing pensions and overtime pay and making fall hunting dates.

All hail Captain Dave!

From the Daily News:

Two heroic boat captains pulled six fisherman from the icy waters of Jamaica Bay early Sunday morning after a boat capsized, leaving the terrified group floating alone in the dark.

The captains, Dave Paris of the "Capt. Dave II" and Salvatore "Captain Cody" Catapano made the dramatic rescue around 1 a.m. today.

Six people from the toppled 16-foot boat were stranded in the water. Paris -- who saved a man from a deadly boat accident two years ago -- set his sights on three of the victims, who had drifted farthest away from the shore.

He tossed lines and buoys to the stranded trio and pulled them in.

"We got those three, and then went back to their boat and picked up another one," Paris said. "A tugboat got the other two."

Catapano went after the other two victims, whom he identified as Lisa Shaver, 24, and her boyfriend Anthony Dattolo, 26.

And 6 mothers are very grateful this Mothers Day.