By Vladimir Brezina
Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Orange.
As we travel around New York Harbor in our kayaks, we see quite a bit of orange. Orange is, of course, the premier color for high visibility, and many warning signs, buoys, floating booms, parts of barges and ships, are bright orange.
But there is just one large boat in the harbor—actually, a whole fleet of them—that, from bow to stern, top to bottom, is entirely orange: the Staten Island Ferry.
White seems to be the most common color for ferries everywhere, and most other ferries in New York Harbor are white. Originally, the Staten Island Ferries were white, too. But in 1926 the color was changed, indeed to make the ferries more visible in fog and snow, to reddish-maroon, and then later to the present “municipal orange.” Today, the orange Staten Island Ferries are iconic—almost as iconic as the Statue of Liberty.
After a couple of close encounters, Johna is especially wary of the Staten Island Ferry. It’s hard to avoid it. We have to cross its path, sometimes twice, on almost every trip through the harbor. It moves fast and it always seems to be where we don’t want it to be.
And so, we are always scanning the water for that big orange boat.
Sometimes, we come upon it docked, with passengers still getting on, so we know we have at least a few minutes to sneak past and get safely out of its way before it departs.
Sometimes it’s too late—we have to wait. But it gives us a chance to admire the beast close up.
And sometimes, we have to rub our eyes and look again. A Staten Island Ferry coming down the East River? “A planet might as well leave its orbit.”
Fortunately, Johna has not developed a fear of other kinds of oranges…
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 
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Reminds me when as a kid, my parents would take us into the city on The Staten Island Ferry, minus the car.
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I used to take it too when I first came to New York. I haven’t been on it now for many years, unfortunately. Perhaps something will come up on Staten Island for which we have to take the ferry, as opposed to the kayak… :-)
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The boat is certainly eye-catching in orange :)
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We can see it coming straight for us from across the entire harbor! ;-)
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Guess that is why it is in orange :)
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I guess that must be it ;-)
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Great for the post….had no idea it would be painted orange…Love seeing things like this…with some ionformation about it…thanks!
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Yes, quite apart from the safety considerations, painting it orange back in the 1920s (or whenever it was) turned out to be an inspired bit of tourist PR for the New York City of decades hence :-)
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Seriously, Vlad… the ferry is *that* orange?
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It is indeed. I was actually thinking these photos didn’t show it in its full orange glory. Sometimes, when the sun strikes it, it just glows.
But actually, it could be more orange still. It isn’t, for instance, fluorescent blaze orange. And the paint is a bit faded and dirty on some of the boats…
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What a huge orange ferry! :)
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Biggest ferry in the harbor, by far! :-)
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No that is a boat you won’t miss! A serious case of orange. :)
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It must have been a brave city employee who first decided to paint the boats entirely orange :-)
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Reblogged this on Hadel.
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Thanks!
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I would be so scared…
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We haven’t been run over yet! :-)
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Pingback: Travel theme: Orange | northumbrian : light
Wonderful images for the challenge. :)
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Thank you!! :-)
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Really a good choice for the challenge. The waves in the last pictures look very big. And a bit scary to me, at least if you are going by kayak?
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Almost all the bigger waves in the harbor are boat wakes, as I believe these were. But there are much bigger waves still out on the ocean, where we also paddle, so wakes are usually not a problem :-)
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Aha. I didn’t know the word ‘wakes’ before. Useful!
I suppose you are well trained after all excursions on the water. But it still looks a bit hazardous to move among the huge vessels :-)
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See here :-)
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I’ve often wondered… do you find you have to straighten a lot of your photos?
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The ones taken from my kayak, reasonably often. Basically, I now pay little attention to keeping the horizon straight, a thankless task in waves anyway. I shoot a larger frame than I need and straighten everything afterward. For details see here.
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That’s what I figured. Even on land, Rich always seems to be a degree or two out… maybe his head isn’t on straight!
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Beautiful Fall color here. My son is a boat captain in Alaska. I do not know If I ever mentioned that to you.
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You, you didn’t. What kind of boats?
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They are like small cruise boats that go out in the pacific up the Ketchikan coastal area and fish for pretty big cool fish.
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:-)
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