The Wilfred Sykes on the St. Clair River

At the beginning of the week, I saw that the Wilfred Sykes was heading down Lake Huron.  She was making a delivery to Sombra which is across the river from Marine City.  Then she was supposed to pick up a load of iron fines in Dearborn.  Well apparently, she had issues in Sombra and had to go down to Toledo to do some repairs.   It took a couple of days for her to complete her repairs and then she headed up to Dearborn under cover of darkness.  That ended up working out for me because her loading time meant that I would get a chance to see her.

 She ended up leaving Dearborn at 3:30 in the morning or there abouts.  When  I saw that, I didn't think I would catch her because I thought she would be well past Port Huron when daylight came up.  I don't know if she made a fuel stop somewhere but she slowed up a little bit.

 I finally caught up to her at Marysville.  I even had enough time to get the shots that I wanted from there.  I'm kind of glad there is still some color in the background.

 She makes her turn in the river which makes her running straight to the spot I was getting pictures from.

 And then she starts to pass.  I thought that maybe she would give a salute since there were a few well wishers on the fishing dock but she was silent.

 A seagull takes off nearby.  I will have to say she is a nice looking boat and it looks like they take care of her. 

 Which is amazing because it seems like she is always on the go from the start to shipping season until she layups.

 The beam shot.

 And one more shot of her from Marysville.

 I then decided to head up to Port Huron to catch her passing there.  I'm not sure which spot I like better though.  I think Port Huron gives me better angles.

 She passes one of the channel buoys.

 And the Port Huron tower.  I kind of wish I could have gotten some shots as she left Detroit but I think if that were the case, I would not have gotten shots of her in Port Huron since I had a basketball game today.

 The headshot.

 Although I think I like the quarter shot better.

 And she continues to work her way up the St. Clair River.  At this point, she gave a nice salute for the folks assembled to see her.  It's amazing because it seems like she always attracts a crowd.

 She passes the Casino.

 And under the Blue Water Bridges.

 One more shot of that.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 And almost beam shot.

 A shot of her stack.

 A Michigan flag flying proudly in the breeze.  And the breeze was pretty stiff today.

 I thought it was kind of cool that they had Christmas decorations up.

And she makes her way to Lake Huron.  She will be delivering the iron fines to Indiana Harbor.  Based on my calculations, she wont be there until Monday at some time.  I was kind of hoping I could have caught her in Grand Haven tomorrow.

It was nice to see her on this side of the state.  I think she was last over this way about 10 years ago.   She normally makes her runs on Lake Michigan.  Hopefully, she wont remain a stranger over this way.