An Evening With the Blough

It was a nice and sunny evening tonight and I was thinking that I would get airplane pictures at Metro Airport against tonight.  That is until I checked AIS and saw the that Roger Blough was passing through my neck of the woods.  Not only was she passing through my neck of the woods but it was at a time where I had a chance to catch her.

 Traffic wasn't too bad tonight and I didn't get hung up in too many places.  That was nice because I didn't have that much wiggle room to catch her where I really wanted to catch her.  I did her her say hello to someone up the river a bit but I still had about a 10 minute window.

 It's always cool to catch when she is heading downbound because she is loaded.  It seems like she may be a little heavier loaded this year than normal but then again, I think water levels on the Lakes are up.  This is good for the shipping companies because it means they can carry more cargo which is more efficient for them.

 For some reason, the Blough reminds me of a snapping turtle waiting to strike.

 I think she is one of the meanest looking boats on the Lakes but then again, she was named after a pretty mean person.

 I'd have to say the lighting was just about perfect.

 A shot of her pilothouse.  You can see the toll that the shipping seasons can take on her paint.  She has quite a few lock rashes and spots where she's had to go through the ice.

 Her profile.

 A shot of her deckhouse.

 Hatch crane.

 As you look at her depth lines, she is pretty well loaded.  This means that roughly 28 feet of her hull is underwater.  That's almost three stories worth.

 When fully loaded, she can carry almost 44,000 tons of taconite.  This will translate to roughly 29,000 tons of steel which is almost 15,000 cars worth of steel.

And that is pretty impressive.  Especially as she continues to Conneaut, Ohio.