The Queen of the Lakes

One of the ships that drew me up to Port Huron was the Paul R. Tregurtha.  It seems like I always keep missing her and I wanted to make sure that didn't happen this time.  As I was watching her from the Marine Center, I saw that she was slowing down.  I thought that meant that she was stopping for fuel and that would mean that I would miss her again.  It turns out she was slowing down to allow the Salarium to pass.

 That was a good thing, because that gave me a chance to head over to the Blue Water Bridge to catch her.  I'm not sure if I'm still having issues with my big lens or I was getting some motion blur.  The picture is not as clear as I would like.

 One of the things I like about shooting in Port Huron is that I get chances to get some head on shots.  Here she is starting to make her turn to enter the channel.

 She passes by the Lightship.

 And starts to turn a little more....

 And a little more....

 And the view you wouldn't want to see if you were in a smaller boat.

 Slowly she approaches the Bridge.

 And she starts to appear larger.

 And this shot will show you why she is considered as the Queen of the Lakes.  At 1014' feet long, she is currently the largest boat on the Lakes.  She took that title in 1981 with her construction and has retained it since.  It is likely that she will retain that title.

 In case the last picture didnt' convince you, how about this one?

 A shot of her bow. 

 A shot of her pilothouse.  It's hard to believe that this would dwarf many buildings.  If you stood her on end, she would dwarf the Ren Cen.

 She slowly works her way out to Lake Huron.

 As you can see, the weather wasn't the greatest.

I leave you with one more picture of her.