Sunday, January 6, 2013

The Walter J. McCarthy at the Soo Locks

Of course, there was my main purpose for going to the Soo.  I was hoping to catch a ship.  And had I not went down the river to chase the Cutter, I would have missed her.  Despite my app that lets me track ships, the cell network in the Soo is still pretty spotty, so I don't always know what's coming around.
 But as I was heading down the river, I saw her making her way upbound.  Fortunately, I was able to find a park to get this picture but this is one of those times that I wish I had a wider lens.  Oh well, the picture still gives you an idea of what 1000 feet looks like.
 The McCarthy has been on this page before, so I wont bore you with the details of her history and stuff but there is one tidbit I found out.  The blue just above her boom is in commeration of her relationship to Detroit Edison.  I think she's carried coal for them for quite a while.
 If you ever want a clue to how cold and windy it gets on the Lakes, here you go.  I can't imagine having to scrape this off on occasion.
 Another view of that.
 And one more before she makes her way into the lock.
 Without the obersvation platform, I kind of had to improvise and the locks aren't particularly photograph friendly without the platform.
 But I think I managed fairly well.
 Another idea of the scale of one of these ships.  You consider that the Adminstration building is three stories and the pilothouse still almost dwarfs it.
 A shot as she heads into the lock.
And one more shot just to give you an idea of the desolation of this time of year.

Like I said, the Poe Lock will be closing in a little over a week.  It was kind of cool to see both ends of the locks this year.  I hope to do it again next year. 

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