The Mackinac Bridge at Dusk and Night

So we got back to Mackinac in time for dinner but before eating dinner, I wanted some dusk shots of the Bridge.

 I kind of like the pinks in the tower.

 And of course as I was taking pictures, a ship passed and of course I had to take pictures.  Sadly, I only know that the ship's name is somethingborg.  I didn't look it up on AIS at the time.

 Another dusk shot.  Sadly, the more interesting clouds were in another direction.

 But this will do.

 I thought the moon looked pretty cool too.

 Not as happy with this shot though as the moon is overexposed.

 So I got a closeup of the moon.

 One more dusk shot before dinner.

 And before we left, we headed over to McGulpin Park.  I kind of wish I had my tripod with me as I'm not terribly pleased with this shot.  I'll have to try again at some point.

One more night shot from near Fort Michimillimac.  I had others with this but they were kind of blurry.

Oh well, it was a pretty nice day yesterday.  Wish I had more fall shots though but the colors weren't as intense as I had hoped.  Hoped my readers enjoyed though.

The Burns Harbor Passes DeTour

One of the advantages of boatwatching on the Detroit River is that you get to see almost every ship that passes on the Great Lakes.  However, there are a few ships that almost exclusively go between Gary and Duluth so they never pass Detroit.  There are a few others that are almost exclusive to Lake Michigan.  The Burns Harbor almost exclusively goes between Duluth and Indiana.

 She has appeared on this blog in the past though.  In this picture, she tries to remain hidden just a little longer.

 I will have to admit that DeTour is a pretty nice spot for boatwatching though.

 Gives you a nice clean background.

 And if you get on the right side of the ferry dock, you can get a different type of shot.

 And she presses on.

 Another shot with the ferry in the foreground.

 She slowly works her way past Drummond Island.

 Which gives me a chance for a slightly clean shot.

 And a closeup of her superstructure.

 A couple more shots before I moved on.

And she moves on as I start to move on.

The Roger Blough Passes DeTour

Anybody who has followed this blog for any length of time knows that my favorite ship is the Roger Blough.  Like I said in my opening post for yesterday's pictures, I was thinking of heading to Sleeping Bear Dunes until I saw that the Blough was going through the Soo Locks.  The time from the Soo Locks to DeTour is roughly 6 hours, so I figured I had plenty of time to catch her as she passes DeTour.

 One of these days, I would love to follow her from Duluth to her destination in either Gary or Conneaut, Ohio.  If I remember correctly, it is roughly a two and a half day journey.  Given the fact that a car is faster than a ship, I could probably catch a hotel somewhere and still catch up to her.

 I have not gotten pictures of the Blough at DeTour though.  So I'm getting close to being able to put together pictures of her from the Soo to Detroit though.

 I will have to admit that Drummond Island makes a pretty nice backdrop for a ship.

 It's not too populated, so not too much to distract from the ship.

 And the lighting was perfect yesterday, so I got some nice reflections in the water.

 As I was taking the pictures, I noticed that she shot off a flare.  You can kind of see it in the left hand side of the picture.

 And she continues on her merry way.

 Past the stone docks on Drummond.

 And out into the main channel.

 After taking pictures of another ship (those are in the next post).  We ended up heading back home but I noticed her out in the channel, so I had to stop to take a few more pictures.

 Gives me pictures of the Blough in a different setting.  One of the things that surprise people about the Great Lakes is that you have ships like this that sail on them.

 The other thing that suprises people about the Great Lakes is the fact that you have just a horizon with nothing behind it.  I've heard people say that if the Great Lakes had salt in them, they'd be considered seas.

 But they don't, which is fine by me.  And we see the Blough sail off towards Gary.

After we had dinner, we ended up going to McGulpin Point and I caught a glimpse of these lights.  So this is my first night shot of the Blough.

Random Shots Around DeTour

So I had a little time to kill before the Blough would make her appearance, so I took a few shots around the area.

 The Drummond Islander III makes her normal trip over to Drummond Island.  I think she makes a trip every half hour or so.  Probably less in the winter.

 The BBC Austria.  It looks like she may be offloading some parts.

 I'm not sure what this belonged to at one time, but it looks like it may have once been a ship of some sort.

 I did like the textures and appearance of it though.

 I think this may have been part of the bow at one time.

 This certainly looks like the braces for the deck.

 Of course, time isn't friendly to wood or iron.

 But it makes for a cool picture.

 After taking pictures of the Blough passing DeTour, I had to get pictures of her from another spot.  This is a shot of the beach there.  I think the rocks may be dolomite, but I'm not sure.

 There were some mushrooms that looked like they may be from a Star Trek set or something.

 More rocks.

 I kind of liked the way the sun was hitting this rock.

 And this reminds me of some drawings that my mom has done.

My mom pointed these trees out to me.  They do make a kind of neat texture though.

The Lewis J. Kuber at Drummond Island

So we arrived at DeTour and the light was just about perfect.  There was no Roger Blough yet because she was in the kind of AIS dead area.  There was however this ship.

 She is no stranger to this blog but it has been almost a year since I've seen her.

 Last time I saw her she was sporting a red hull.  Now she is wearing the grey and white of Lower Lakes Towing.

I kind of liked her old colors.