My Last Ship of the Year - The Algosteel

I've been doing ships on this blog for a few years now.  So I try to make it a tradition to go out on New Years Eve so that I can catch my last ship of the year.  Because it is on New Years Eve, it is definitely my last ship of the year.

 And this year will be a first, as my last ship of the year also happened to be my first ship of the year.  Since I don't have the schedules memorized, this was completely by accident.  At least there wasn't the layer of ice like in those shots.

 The Algosteel is another classic Canadian Laker.  Based on the fact that her certificate has 3 more years left, she will probably last longer than the Algomarine but that is not certain either as Algoma has been using her as a salt boat in the winter.

 Salt is highly corrosive to the interior of the ship and doesn't help her long term survivability.  Fortunately, Algoma did some repairs to her, so she might actually last out her certificate.

 I seriously hope that she does because I would hate to see another ship scrapped.

 I was actually planning on following her to the Blue Water Bridge but she decided to stop at the fuel dock.  In this shot, she is doing about three knots.

 But that gave me the opportunity to get more shots than normal as my light was leaving me.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 The beam shot.

 The nice pink skies.

 A shot of her stack.  As you can see, she has quite a bit of rust on her hull.  I'm hoping that she gets a little love when she does finally go for layup.

 The moon high above.

And she slips into the fuel dock.  And this was my last picture of the year.

And Yet I Still Got a Train

Originally I was planning to go to Fostoria because I was thinking I wanted to see trains.  But I decided to go for boats.

 Little did I realize, I would still see a train.

 Every so often, this train pays a visit to the paper mill to either delivery supplies or pick up products.  It actually makes for a nice picture because it is fairly unusual to see a train this close.

 I tried an angle where I had the moon in the shot.

 As it was getting light, the light was just about perfect but it made for pretty long shadows, as evidenced by mine in the picture.

 A shot of the cab.

 The long view of the train.

 This is a shot that I couldn't get in Fostoria, as the train was stopped.

 And the train started to back into the plant.

 If only there were a plane in this shot, I would have had my trifecta.

And one more shot.

Algomarine on New Year's Eve Day

I was actually thinking about heading down to Fostoria to catch some trains because I didn't think there would be much passing on the River.

 Well it turned out that there wasn't going to be much passing on the river, but sometimes quality matters more than quantity.  Since I don't get to see the Algomarine all that often, I decided to go chase after her.

 My journey started at the Algonac State Park but I barely caught her there.  I wasn't to concerned about that because I pretty much had all day to follow her.  As you can see, it is starting to get cold and she has a bit of ice on her hull.

 A shot of her stern.  I think the Algoma stacks are probably my favorites.

 And she pulls away.

 I'll have to say that it was a pretty cold day today.  I was seeing ice form in some places and I figured I would get a picture of that.

 I caught her at a little park just south of Marine City.  It's one I've used in the past but not all that often.  It's actually not a bad place to get upbound shots.  It's not so great for downbound ships though.

 She is actually headed up to Thunder Bay and I'm not sure where after that.  She might be going up for her layup.

 A shot of her pilothouse.  It's kind of sad because it seems like the classic Canadian Lakers are getting scrapped left and right as the new builds come on line.  Apparently, the Algomarine has at least one year left in her as her certificate expires after next season.

 It will be a sad day indeed when these ships disappear from the Lakes.

 Then I decided to head to the little park just north of Marine City for a couple of shots.

 Another of her going.

 My next destination was St. Clair because that is one of the better spots along the river.

 After she made her turn to continue up the River.

 I kind of like the three quarters shot like this, mainly because it fills up the frame.

 A full beam shot.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 and deckhouse.

 and she continues on.

 Next up was the little park in Marysville.  This is another spot where you get a pretty long view of the ships.

 A shot of her stack.

 And finally, I took up my spot at the Blue Water Bridge.

 She makes her turn to leave the channel.

 A couple more three quarter shots.

 A shot with her framed by the Bridge.

 Another of her pilothouse.

 She continues into Lake Huron with the moon high above her.

And one more shot.