A Saltie Convention

Yesterday I decided to head up to Port Huron for a little boatwatching.  I saw that the Paul R. Tregurtha would be heading down.  I also saw a few other ships hanging out just outside of Port Huron.  Apparently they were waiting for the situation on Lake Superior to normalize before heading up.

 The first ship I saw as I was heading into town was the Apollon.  She is operated by Seastar Chartering Limited out of Athens, Greece.  She was born in 1996 as the Spring Laker but I'm not sure what company.  Based on her shape, I would have to say Federal Navigation since she looks like other ships I've seen from that company.

 A nearly 20 year old ship is ancient for salties.  And she shows signs of her age but she still doesn't look quite as rusty as some of the Algoma ships.

 If you look at the back, that's a Greek flag.  I don't think I've seen many of those in these parts.

 Next up is the slightly younger Orla which is run by Polsteam out of Poland.  She was built in 1999.

 Another shot of Apollon as she heads up the St. Clair River.

 I headed over to the beach near Fort Gratiot to try and get another shot of Orla.  She is heading out to join the Saltie Convention.

 There were at least 11 ships hanging out north of the Blue Water Bridge.  Like I said, I think they were waiting out the crazyness on Lake Superior.  Allegedly, it wont be until June that all of the ice is gone.  Based on Marine Traffic, it looks like stuff is getting closer to a state of normalcy though.

A shot of the Orla apporaching the saltie convention.