And a New Ship

Even though I only caught three ships today, the fact that one of them was new made it all worth it.

 The new ship in question was the Algoma Tanker, the Algoma Hansa.  This is a sister ship to the Algosea, which has appeared on this blog in the past.

 She was built in 2011 and served under Algoma's International Division until this year when she was added to the Lakes.  She is actually a pretty nice looking ship but I think most of the Algotankers look nice.

 For this particular voyage, she loaded in Thunder Bay on Friday and was actually headed to Sarnia.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 An almost shot of her stern.

And she continues on her way a little further down the river.

A Handful of Things on the River

Just some pictures of things along the river.

 The Hollyhock calls Port Huron her home.  Pretty soon she will be busy breaking ice.

 The Huron Lightship.  One of these days, I'll have to take a tour of her.

 A tugboat.

 The fishing tug from yesterday.

As I was taking pictures of one of the ships, this passed by.

Next Up..the CSL Tadoussac

Following behind the Algowood was this ship.

 The ship in question was the CSL Tadoussac, the classic laker owned by Canada Steamship Lines.  She left Duluth at roughly 5:30 on Friday morning.  I'm not sure what she was carrying though.

 She slowly approaches the Blue Water Bridge from Lake Huron.

 A closer shot of her from my 500mm lens.

 And my location gave me a small opportunity to get a head shot.

 She turns towards the channel.

 The almost straight show partially framed by the Blue Water Bridge.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 And a lovely shot of her profile.

 And her deckhouse.

 And she continues down the river.

 For this one, I decided to head down to Marysville to catch some more pictures of her.

 The three quarters shot.

 A shot of her pilothouse.  I was also trying to get a picture of her unusual wake.  The saddle tanks affected her wake a bit.

 Her profile.

 Here you can see the waves that her saddle tanks cause.

She continues on her way.  She is heading to Nanticoke.

The Algowood Passes by Port Huron

So I decided to head back up to Port Huron today.  If I had gotten up sooner, I could have caught a couple more ships but this was pretty good considering that one of them was a new ship.

 The first ship that I caught was the Algowood.  I came pretty close to missing her.  I've caught her before, so that wouldn't have been a big loss and if I had just missed her,  I could have caught her further down the river.

 She departed from Thunder Bay, Ontario at 1:00P.M. on Friday with a load of grain.  Thunder Bay is at the northern part of Lake Superior and is almost due north of Isle Royale.  I think it is almost the same distance as Duluth.

 This picture was taken at almost 1:00 P.M. today which means that it takes two days to get from Thunder Bay to Port Huron.  I guess that gives you an idea of just how vast the Great Lakes are.

 A closer shot of her.  I'm not a huge fan of the rear pilothouse ships but some of them do look nice.

 And she continues on past the bridge.

 She gives me a nice profile.

 A closer shot of her pilothouse.

 The river was a little calmer today, which gave me some better reflections.

And she continues on her way to Baie Comeau which is almost at the end of the St. Lawrence Seaway.  I think it will take her another couple of days to get there.

Five Shots from the River

These are the pictures that don't fit elsewhere.

 A seagull prepares for takeoff.

 And hits flight.

 The tug Manitou in her dock.

 Another seagull in flight.

This power plant was built on land that originally housed a lumber mill.  Construction on the plant started in 1914 and was completed in 1922 and could generate 300 MW of power.  The plant was idled from 1988 to 1992 and recommissioned in 1992.  In 2002, it was idled again.  In 2012, it was officially decommissioned.  Currently, it is undergoing demolition.

A Victorious Tug and Her Charge

So my last ship of the day was another tug/barge.  She was about 45 minutes behind the Ken Boothe Sr.  I was hoping that I would catch the Algorail today but she was doing about 3/4's of her normal speed as she headed down Lake Huron.  I don't think she hit Port Huron until 6 or so and that was too late.

 So my last vessel of the day was the tug Victory and her charge, the James L. Kuber.  I think they are another of the nicer looking tug barge combinations.

 They start to make the turn to head out into Lake Huron.

 One thing I like about this spot is that it gives you a chance for a head shot.  As you can see, I also had a slight shot of the Hollyhock.

 She continues on her merry way.

 Framed by the Blue Water Bridge.

 And she slowly pulls away from the Bridge.

 A shot of the tug Victory.

 And a side shot of the tug.

 She starts to head off into Lake Huron.

And one more shot.  By this time, the wind was really picking up and it was actually pretty cold.  Again, the thermometer said low 40's, but it felt much colder than that.