Waking up to the Edgar Speer

As I looked at AIS last night, I saw that this morning was going to be a fairly busy morning.  It would have been even busier had I gotten up earlier.  As it was, I got up about as early as I could.  What I didn't realize was how cold it was going to be.

 It was cold enough last night and this morning, that there was a light layer of ice on her bow.

 I'm not sure where she was heading from but I believe it would have been either Two Harbors or Duluth, Minnesota.  In either case, she would have picked up a load of taconite pellets.

 Taconite pellets are the purified form of iron ore that is carried on many Great Lakes Ships.

 She will be carrying her cargo to Conneaut, Ohio where it will in turn be transferred to the steel mills in Pittsburgh.

 I am hoping that shipping traffic will pick up this year after the United States placed some fairly punitive tariffs on Chinese steel.  It was determined that they were dumping steel on the market and driving steel prices way down.

 This of course led to an easing of steel production here which in turn led to a slow down of shipping at the end of last season.

 Given that fact, that I am seeing most of the ships out, that slow down may be easing.

 Which is a good thing because every is happy.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 At any rate, she will continue down the St. Clair River and through Lake St. Clair.  She will then work her way past Detroit and the Detroit River where she will enter Lake Erie.

In roughly five hours after this post, she will be in Conneaut.