The Next Surprise Visitor, the Presque Isle

This was another upbound ship that I was not expecting.

 The Presque Isle was coming up from Conneaut, I think.

 She was heading up to Superior where she would probably pick up another loud of iron ore.

 While the Presque Isle is a tug/barge, she doesn't look like it.  In my mind, she looks like a really neat ship.  Especially with her self unloader.

 The beam shot.

And she continues her 2.5 day trek up to Superior.

Next Up...the Presque Isle

After grabbing breakfast, I found myself back at Mission Point.  After looking at Marine Traffic, I saw that this day was going to be pretty busy.  It was certainly the busiest day of my trip.

 Next up was a 1000 footer.  But this 1000 footer is different than the rest of them.

 You can't really tell but this 1000 footer is a tug/barge.  The tug is mated to the barge and they are basically a ship.

 And if you didn't know, you'd say she's a proper ship.

 A shot of her tug.

And she continues down the river.

The Presque Isle at Zug Island

I decided to go out boatwatching yesterday as well.  There was another ship coming down that I wanted to catch. 

 I decided to head to Del Ray because I thought the ship in question was going to place nearby.  That didn't end up being the case.  But I did catch a couple of pictures of the Presque Isle as she was unloading at Zug Island.

The Preseque Isle is the 1000 foot articulated tug/barge but she looks like a real ship, so I'll give her a pass.  She is unloading taconite.

Catching up with the Presque Isle

The next ship is another one that I haven't see in a while.

 It has been over a year since I last saw the Presque Isle.

 I'm not sure where she was heading from or to but it was pretty neat to see her.

 She is one of my favorite tug/barge ships because she actually looks like a proper ship.  I really like the way her boom is held.

 A shot of her bow.  It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that they finally painted her stripe.

 The almost beam shot.  As she is 1000 feet long, it is tough to get a beam shot of her.

 I can get a beam shot of her tug though.

She continues on her way.

Finding the Presque Isle

Next up is another ship that I haven't seen in a while.

 The Presque Isle is an integrated tug/barge.  That means her barge and tug were purpose built to be together.

 If I remember correctly, her bow was built in my hometown of Bay City.

 Even though she's a tug/barge, I think she's a nice looking vessel.  Especially since she looks like a proper ship.

 A shot of her bow.

 And her tug.

 I caught up to her at St. Clair again.  Since I don't get to see her that often, I wanted another set of pictures of her.

 Another shot of her bow.

 One of her crew members had a "Boat Watchers" flag made.  I think it's kind of cool.

 A beam shot of her.

 And another shot of her pilothouse.

And she continues up the river.  She was heading from Zug Island and going to Two Harbors where she will pick up taconite.

The Sunrise Presque Isle

As the Cort was making her way into the Locks, the Presque Isle was making her way out of the Locks to head towards the Lower Lakes.

 One thing nice about catching ships at either sunrise or sunset is that if you can catch them at the right angle relative to the sun, they look quite nice.  The sun was still starting to peek over the horizon but it gives the nice pinks in the superstructure.

 You can see her being supplied by the Ojibway.

 I headed down to Mission Point to catch her passing there.  She is pretty nice looking for being a tug/barge.  Most of the time, you can barely tell that is what she is.

 A shot of the tug portion.

 And she passes by.

And she heads down the St Marys River.

And Then There Was the Presque Isle

The next ship after the Philip R. Clake was the tug/barge Presque Isle.

 She's actually my favorite tug/barge because if you didn't know better, you would think she's a proper ship.  Plus her bow was built in my hometown.

 I didn't quite get a chance for a headshot with this ship either but pretty close.

 But I did get the nice three quarters shot.

 The wind was blowing well enough that the ship looked like she was flying.

 Still had the nice blue sky.

 The smoke from the stack was flying even more.

 A shot of the tug portion.  As I said, if you didn't know any better, you wouldn't think she was a tug/barge.

 She makes her way to the bridge.

One more shot.

The Presque Isle Makes an Appearance

And so, we were visited by another thousand footer.

 In this case, she was the integrated tug barge, Presque Isle.  She is the only thousand footer that is a tug/barge.

 Admittedly, you couldn't tell that from the front.  She looks like a normal ship from the front and a rather nice one at that.

 I for one welcome our new insect overlords.

 It's not until she gets closer that you notice she is notched for a tug but I'm fine with that.

I think she was headed down to Ohio to deliver iron ore.

There was one ship I was hoping to catch but sadly, she passed by in the middle of the night.