Catching Up With the Michipicoten

 Next up is one of the ships I like to catch and so far our times have not lined up.

I was happy to see that the Michipicoten was coming down.  Lately, it has been at times when I am either working or it is dark.  Either way, I couldn't catch her.

The Michipicoten was in "Grosse Point Blank" when she was owned by Interlake and was known as the Elton Hoyt II.

She got her new name when her current owners bought her and changed her to Canadian flagged.

I think one of the changes was that they made her a diesel.

But at her heart she is an American laker.

With the uncertainty of the Cuyahoga after her fire, that makes her part of a dying breed.

But it seems like, they take care of her (unlike so many of their other ships).

So I hope that means she will be around for a while.

She passes the bridge.

Her beam shot.

She continues to her destination.

Which is actually not that far.

Her Canadian flag flying proudly in the breeze.

She had her destination listed as "Detroit" which I took to mean that she was heading to one of the stone docks on the Rouge River.

A tug and barge passing behind her.

I thought that meant that she was heading to the stone dock on one side of the Jefferson Avenue Bridge, so that's where I headed.

But she was making a move to pass through the bridge.

Which is okay because it gives a nice view.

Even if the day wasn't so nice.

This is one of my favorite places to catch a ship.

Mainly because they are so close.

You can almost reach out and touch them.

A shot of her pilothouse.

She passes through the Bridge.

Her stack.

And a shot of her Canadian flag as she docks just on the other side of the Bridge.

The Michipicoten Makes an Appearance

 So I was deciding on pictures today.  I couldn't spend too much time out that as we were doing a Thanksgiving dinner.  I looked at Marine Traffic and saw that a ship was passing that I wanted to catch.

I like to catch the Michipicoten.  It nothing else for her unique name.  She is named after an island in Lake Superior.

In a prior life, she was the Elton Hoyt, Jr.  Also in that life, she appears in the opening credits for "Grosse Point Blank".  It was pretty cool.

That makes her one of a handful of Great Lakes ships that have appeared in movies.

Of that handful, she is probably the best looking.

She was heading from a stone dock that is on the eastern side of Windsor and almost right across the Detroit River from Belle Isle.

I think I have caught her leaving that dock before.

I'm not sure where she was before that.

But she is heading up to Superior and should be there by Saturday.

She gets closer to the bow shot.

I kind of like this shot.

The bow shot.  This is one of the reasons why I like shooting up in Port Huron.   This is one of the few places where I can get this angle and it is close enough that I don't have to crop it.

And she makes the turn for the channel.

It was a pretty nice day and was almost 50 in Port Huron.  Given how we've had snow at this time before, it was probably more than I could ask for.

Speaking of snow, I think we are supposed to get some on Sunday.  I hope not.  I'm not really ready for it.

Anyway, enough about that.  I kind of like this shot.

I didn't take my drone with me.

Which is fine because I wouldn't get this shot with it.

The almost beam shot.

And the beam shot.

She heads out into Lake Huron.

One more shot.

And the Main Attraction

 So last night as I was checking for possible ships, I saw that the Arthur Anderson was heading down.  I also saw that the Sykes was in Toledo, so I expected that she would be passing sometime in the day.  I also saw that the Michipicoten was heading down.

The Anderson ended up passing too early for me to catch her.  The Sykes was taking a long time to unload.  I thought I would catch both on the return trip.

The Michipicoten was passing at the right time, I so I figured I would go down and catch her.  Little did I realize that I would get a bonus of two other ships.

Her heading was listed as Windsor, so I thought that she was heading to the dock where the Anderson was at.  Because of that, I thought she would be using the anchorage in front of Belle Isle.

I then remembered that there is a stone dock on the other side of Windsor that is almost right across from Belle Isle.  I still wasn't sure if she was heading there or not.

I realized she was turning around.

But I thought maybe she was going to back into the anchorage.

It was kind of cool to watch though.

It's amazing watching the helmsmen handle these ships.

I started to realize that she was in fact heading to the other dock.

I wish that I had realized that sooner because there was another spot where I could have gotten better pictures.

Not that these weren't bad though.

I kind of like the lighting on this one.  Just wish I were a little closer.

As for the Anderson and Sykes.   The Anderson spent all day unloading and it wasn't until dark that she started to pass.  It was the same with the Sykes, so I ended up missing both.