The Lovely Kaye E. Barker Passes Marine City

I was hoping to catch the Blue Angels at the Selfridge Open House today but by the time we got there, the traffic was horrendous and we didn't really feel like dealing with it.  I looked at what was on the river today and saw that it wouldn't be too bad of a day for boatwatching.  Yes, it was only two ships but they were two ships that I liked, so it was off to Marine City.

 The first ship that I saw was the Kaye E. Barker.  She was heading down from Marquette with a load of iron ore.  This is her normal run, I think.  Or mostly normal run anyway.

 She's a lovely boat in my opinion.  Given that they just gave her new engines a couple years ago, I expect she will stick around for a while.  It seems like Interlake does a better job taking care of their ships.

 She's heading down to the Steel Plant on the Rouge River with a load of taconite.  Basically all the higher percentage iron ore was mined so what is left is a lower purity iron ore.   This iron ore is purified and pelletized with ceramic.  This makes it easier to carry.

 So as long as there is iron ore to mine, there will be these ships.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 The clouds look a little nicer than they did last night.

A shot of her deckhouse.