Missing the AlgoCanada but Catching the Morro Bay

 When I checked Marine Traffic, I saw that the AlgoCanada was heading over to Green Bay.  I decided to go catch her at Port Huron.  When I got to Port Huron, I saw that she had stopped for something.  I'm guessing either fuel or it's going to get ugly tonight.  Either way, I didn't catch her.

But sometimes life throws you some sugar to go with the lemons.

As I was figuring out what to do, I saw that the Morro Bay was heading up.

I think she is normally stationed in Cleveland.

Accoring to her destination, she was heading up to the St. Marys River.

I think there is quite a bit of ice up there, so she is needed there more.

The head shot and I loved the way she was pushing the waves.

She makes the turn for the channel.

the Hollyhock in the background.

It was a little on the cold side though.

And she's about to pass.

The beam shot.

And she continues on to Lake Huron.

The Morro Bay Passes By

 Next up is one of the icebreaking tugs.

While the Detroit River was pretty clear of ice, I'm not sure if Lake St. Clair or the St. Clair River are clear of ice.

At any rate, the Katmai Bay returned to her normal home port of Sault Ste Marie to start breaking ice up there.

The Morro Bay came down here and I think eventually she will head back to her home port of Cleveland.

It was nice to see her because it's been a while since I have.

Not that she is terribly different from the other cutters.

I kind of like the shots of downbound ships.

You can see a little hint of smoke coming from her stack.

The smoke is a little clearer.

The beam shot.

She continues on and I think she was going to be docking in Detroit.

Catching the Morro Bay

After I finished catching the train, I decided to take a look at Marine Traffic to see if there was anything stirring in the area.  Sure enough, there was, so I decided to head down to Detroit.

 I thought that I was going to catch the Samuel Risley but she was waiting at the head of Belle Isle for a ship that was heading outbound.  I was a little disappointed at that since that was the reason I went down.

 When I saw the Morro Bay heading out of her dock in Detroit, I was happy because I figured it was almost as good as catching the Risley.

 It didn't look like she was needed in this area but maybe there was some ice bunched up in other parts of the Detroit River.

 She gets out in the channel.

 And starts pouring on some smoke.

 I still don't think there was much ice here but she was definitely doing some work.

 I could hear chunks of ice hitting the hull.

 And she passes by.

One more shot before moving on.

The Morro Bay Breaking Ice on the Detroit River

So after I finished watching the halftime show yesterday, I decided to take a look at AIS because I saw that there might be a ship heading down.  And sure enough there was and if I left at that time, I would have enough time to catch it.

 The ship in question will be coming up but it was being escorted by the Samuel Risley and this tug, the Morro Bay.  As you can see from the picture, there was quite a bit of ice on the Detroit River which is unusual because it doesn't seem like the Detroit River freezes over.

 I'd imagine under normal circumstances that would be the case but we had sub-zero temperatures last week and they helped accelerate the freezing.  It was in the 40's yesterday though.

 The Risley didn't continue down but the Morro Bay did.  I don't think the ice was that thick.

 It was pretty neat watching this guy in action because you could hear the ice being broke.

 Plus these are pretty neat looking boats.

 But she was making light work of the ice.

 A little smoke as she pours on the engines.  She might have hit some thicker ice.

And she continued down the river.  I think the ship she was escorting wasn't going that far down the river because I saw her docked in Windsor on AIS.

US Coast Guard Cutter Morro Bay

As I was reaching the end of Belle Isle, I saw this cutter heading down the River.

 The cutter in question is the Morro Bay.  She was built in 1981 and is the sixth Bay Class Cutter.  I didn't quite have the shutter speed for this picture though, so you can see a little motion blur.  I wanted to say it was so I could depict the cold.

 She is normally homeported in New London, CT but is currently serving on the Lakes because I think one of the other cutters is undergoing maintenance.

I still think these are pretty cool looking boats.

Looks Like We Got Ourselves a Convoy

One of the reasons why I headed down to Belle Isle was that I was hoping to catch a shot of the whole convoy as it worked its way into the Detroit River.

Fortunately, I was had just enough light to do so.  The front ship is the Neah Bay (I think), which is a Coast Guard cutter.  She was followed by the Kaministiqua who was followed by the Philip R. Clarke.  In the rear of this shot is the Kaye Barker.  If it were not cloudy, I probably would have had enough light.  But it was still a cool shot.