The Alpena Makes an Appearance

The next ship is one that I wasn't sure if I would catch or not.

 When I checked AIS on Saturday, she was heading down to Cleveland and I wasn't sure if she would finish unloading cargo in time to catch her on Sunday.  It seems like it takes a while for cement to be unloaded.  I was actually thinking of heading down to Cleveland to catch her as she left.

When I checked AIS on Sunday morning, I saw that she had left Cleveland.  When I plotted her times, I saw that she would be on the St. Clair River sometime in the afternoon which meant that I had a chance to catch her.

 As it was, I caught up to her at a little park just south of Marine City.  It is actually a pretty decent park to catch upbound ships.  It's not so good for downbound ships (there is a bend in the river and you don't see downbound ships until they are right on top of you).

 I caught up to her again at the little park at the southern part of Port Huron.  It is actually a decent spot to catch ships but sometimes you get the chemical plants in the background.

 The Alpena is currently the oldest self powered freighter on the lakes.  She was built in 1943 and she is likely to stick around for a while.  Well, at least I hope she does.

 Mainly because she is a beautiful ship.

 She passes under the Blue Water Bridge as the sun is behind some of the weather clouds.

And she continues on to her destination of her namesake town.