My First Ship of the Season

I'm not sure what the official day the opening of the Seaway is.  Usually, the Welland Canal is opened before the Soo Locks but this year it was different.  The Soo Locks opened on March 25 and this year marked the first time they didn't have a ship chomping at the bit to get out.  The first ship through the Welland Canal was a week after that.  The first ship that went through the Soo Locks was the Cason Callaway which went through on Friday.  There is a group of ships waiting around Drummond Island to go upbound but they may have to wait for the downbound ships.

What does all of this mean?  Well, the shipping season is a mess right now and it wont be cleared up until we get a nice string of warm days.  Evidently, Gary has had to curtail operations until it can get some iron and that's not a light thing.  I would imagine some of the other steel mills on the Lakes will be doing the same thing until shipping gets a little more consistent.  It would be  a daunting task to replace all that lost cargo with trains.  Keep in mind that even one of the smaller ships is the equivalent of about 300 rail cars.  This could have some longer term economic impact but we will see.

 But all of that is moot as I start watching my first ship of the season.  I kind of wish it were one of the ships mulling around the Soo right now as those are some of my favorites but this one will do.

 She is the Peter R. Cresswell.  She is operated by Algoma Central.  She has appeared on this blog before.

 She mostly deals with cement but I think she can carry other things.

 As I was taking a picture of her, a helicopter decided to make an appearance.  This picture almost gives me my trifecta.  Will have to photoshop a train in here.

 She starts to make her turn to enter the Detroit River.

 Which of course gives me the opportunity for a head shot.

 She's made her turn for the River and starts to move forward.  It seems like she was moving a little slower than normal yesterday.

 But that's okay...gave me an opportunity for more pictures.

 The undistracted view of her.

 A shot with one of the channel markers.

 A shot as she enters the River further.

 The almost straight on shot.

 And she passes by.

 As she was heading down the river, the helicopter decided to appear again.

 And she works her way past the Coast Guard station.

 Then I decided to head to the other side of the island to get some other pictures of her.

 I love the blue of the Detroit River.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 I wanted a little bit of foreground.

 The straight out shot.

One more of her pilothouse.