Apollon but Out of Order

The next ship is out of order because I wanted to keep the pictures of the ship in order.

 It's amazing when I see the same saltie twice. It's even more amazing when I see the same saltie three times.  It seems like the runs for salties are so odd that I will rarely see them more than once.  I don't think I've ever seen the same saltie twice in one season.

 Well this makes the third time that I've seen the Apollon this season.  First I caught her in Port Huron.  Then I caught her in Duluth as she was continuing that particular journey.

 It looks like she got a fresh coat of paint between then and now.  She doesn't quite look like the beat up boat I saw earlier.

 I was playing around with video, so I didn't get my normal profile shot.

Surprisingly, she is a Greek registered vessel.  It seems like many of the salties are not registered in their home country.

The Closing of a Chapter

I wasn't planning on going out boatwatching last night since there wasn't anything moving.  It seemed like the James R. Barker was taking forever to load and she would have the likely candidate to go see.  I kept on an eye on AIS for that and as I was just about ready to give up, I saw that the Apollon was starting to move towards the harbor.  I was waffling a bit and then I decided to go see her.

 As I was getting closer to Canal Park, I saw a pair of tugboats waiting near the aquarium area.  I decided to stop my car to get a picture of one of them.  I think they were waiting to assist the Apollon in making the turn towards the rest of the harbor.

 A shot of the South Pier Light.

 My first connection with the Apollon was close to a month ago as she was passing Port Huron.  She ended up waiting just north of Port Huron for a pilot.  I saw her just outside of Duluth as I was flying in.  I think she was here for a week or so before that.  I can't imagine just sitting outside a port for that long.  Anyway, she is finally entering the proper port so that she can load grain and head back to Europe.

 She passes the South Pier light.

 I think I am going to miss this view of a ship when I get back home.  They look large in my normal haunts but they look massive here.

 A shot of her bow.

 And her pilothouse.

 She starts to make her way towards the Life Bridge.  I am also going to miss the sound of the horn with the passing of every ship.

 Looking up at her pilothouse.

 The long view as she approaches the bridge.

She starts to make her turn towards the dock with the help of the Great Lakes tugs.

So like the Apollon, I will be starting my journey towards home.  I've had a lot of fun during my stay in Duluth.  I will try to make it back up here at some point.  I'm not sure if I will get any pictures on the way home but if I do, I will post them here.

Indiana Harbor and Friends

I was thinking about heading up to Silver Bay, MN in order to catch a ship but after some thought and seeing a couple pictures from there, I decided that I would just stick in the area.  After a nice dinner at a local restaurant, I checked AIS and saw that the Indiana Harbor was starting to leave the harbor.  So I ended up back down at the Canal for another ship.

 A closeup shot of the North Pier Lighthouse.

 I think this is a merganser duck.  I kind of like the plume on top of his head.

 The Apollon is still waiting to dock.  I'm not sure if she's waiting for space or a pilot though.

 The Apollon was joined by the Federal Mattawa.  I think both ships are going to the grain docks but again I'm not sure.

 The Vista Star managed to emerge from behind the bridge.  She is one of the harbor tour boats and I am going to ride on one of them tomorrow morning.

 A group of people on the boat waving as they pass by.

 I can't pass up a shot of this lighthouse.

 The North Pier Light.

 And the giant 1000 footer comes into view.  Even at a distance she looks huge.

 The massive ship starts to make her turn towards the channel.  This is a maneuver I've seen several times back in my normal stomping grounds.

 The headshot.  I didn't think I would get one of these here.

 The ship starts to head towards the channel.  She gives the bridge a salute which the bridge returns.

 She starts to enter the channel.

 A shot of her bow as she passes under the bridge.

 A shot of her full length.

 These ships are massive and you don't realize just how big they are until you are right next to one.

 Another shot of her bow.

 And her pilothouse.

 And she passes by.  It is almost like a moving skyscraper.

 She passes both lighthouses.

 A shot as she moves into Lake Superior.

 She moves a little farther out.

 A shot of the pair of salties.

 Looking up at the lighthouse.

 Looking back towards the lift bridge.

 The giant ship passes her smaller cousins.

One more shot as she sails out to Lake Superior.   In 24 hours, she will be passing through the Poe Lock.  Roughly 25 hours after that, she will be passing the Blue Water Bridge and another hour past that, she will arrive at her destination of the St. Clair Power Plant.

A Brief Overview of Duluth

I just ended up doing a brief visit to the canal area of Duluth.  The plane trip was catching up to me at that point and there weren't any ships coming in.  I will give more details later.

 A Coast Guard boat coming into the Channel.  In the background is one of the Duluth lighthouses.

 And the boat passes by.

 The Lift Bridge.

 The Apollon.  She has actually been on this blog before.  I think I caught her as she was heading up. 

 A closeup shot of the Duluth Lighthouse.

the other Duluth light.

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.