Views From the Staten Island Ferry – Sunday April 26, 2009

BY THEODORE W. SCULL

Staten Island Ferry John F. Kennedy approaches slip at Whitehall Street Manhattan.

New Department of Environmental Protection sludge boat Red Hook is passing
between Lower Manhattan and Governors Island en route to the sanitation plant on Wards Island.

Ferryboat Guy V. Molinari en route the Manhattan with Queen Mary 2 docked at Red Hook in the background.

Royal Caribbean's 137,308-ton Explorer of the Seas docked at Cape Liberty, Bayonne, New Jersey

Evergreen's Ever Deluxe is well loaded with containers as she makes her way from Port Newark through Upper New York Bay.

Ferryboat John F. Kennedy leaves St. George for Whitehall Street Manhattan with Queen Mary 2 docked at Red Hook in the background.

The Explorer of the Seas with the Statue of Liberty and Robins Reef lighthouse in the background has left Bayonne
for a Caribbean cruise with San Juan the first port of call.

Explorer of the Seas with the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank (now One Hanson Place) tower in the background.

Cunard's 148,528-ton Queen Mary 2 has left Red Hook, Brooklyn and is rounding Buoy 27
to make her way into the main channel. She sailed about 45 minutes after her scheduled departure time of 5pm.

Happily, Queen Mary 2 will pass FB JFK on the starboard side.

Queen Mary 2 is now directly bow on.

The starboard to starboard side passage is now assured.

One of the ferry's gate posts on the vehicle deck frames Queen Mary 2.

Queen Mary 2 looms large in passing.

The forward superstructure gives Queen Mary 2 an impressive ocean liner appearance.

What an impressive sight she is in passing.

After running through the vehicle deck's side cabin to the ferryboat's stern, Queen Mary 2
is now headed to the Verrazano-Narrow Bridge with the Staten Island side tower rising in the distance.

Queen Mary 2 is Southampton-bound on a six-night North Atlantic crossing.

A look back to the New York-end pilothouse after disembarking from the
Ferryboat John F. Kennedy, now in her 44th year of service.