A Tug in the Mist

As I was getting ready to leave, I saw a group of tugboats docked by the dock where I usually catch the Sykes.  The mist over the water was kicking up a little more, so I decided to get a picture.

Sadly, by the time I grabbed my camera, it wasn't quite as much but still pretty cool.  The tug is the John Henry belonging to the King Company out of Holland, MI.  I think they may be doing dredge work.

Catching Up With the Sykes

As I was starting my journey, I saw a post on Facebook that the Wilfred Sykes was heading into Grand Haven.  I didn't think I'd have a chance to see her coming in, but I was pretty sure that I would see her leaving.

 As it turned out, she ended up staying outside the harbor for a while because it was pretty windy.  She arrived near Grand Rapids before I started to take pictures of the Clarke and she waited about 6 hours before entering.

 The winds were dying down, so she started to enter the Grand River.

 I believe this particular journey started with her loading the last load of iron ore from the Escanaba docks.  The mine that was feeding Escanaba closed earlier, so CN decided to close the docks there.

 She then headed down to Indiana Harbor where she deliver the ore to the steel mill there.

 She is one of the few ships that seems to carry a backload (at least part way).  Typically she will pick up a load of iron slag for the dock in Grand Haven.  Most ships will return to their port in ballast.

 This probably helps her company make money.

 A shot of her stack.

 It was in the low 70's when I left Detroit, by the time I got to Grand Haven it was in the high 40's.  As you can see from the flag, there was still a pretty stiff breeze making it feel even colder.

 She continues down the river.

I thought she was going to the dock across the river where I could get decent pictures.  It turns out that she was headed to the other dock.  Oh well, the fog made for a decent picture.

A Stop at Gerald Ford Airport

I decided to head over to the other side of the state to catch a ship that was coming into Grand Haven.  It looked like she was waiting for the winds to die down a bit.  As I was approaching Grand Rapids, I saw what appeared to be a Blackhawk Helicopter flying over, so I decided to stop at the airport in the hopes of catching her.  After figuring out where the air park was, I missed it.  But it looked like there were a couple of planes coming in.

 This MD-88 had just arrived from Minneapolis-St Paul and she was getting ready to head back there.

 I think it's kind of nice that Grand Rapids has this little air park.  It would be nice if Metro would build one but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

 An Embrear 170 coming from Chicago O'Hare.

 This particular one belongs to SkyWest.

A Hawker 400XT coming in for a landing.

This is a Lear Jet 45 that is owned by the Pere Marquette Group.

And this is a Pilatus PC-12.

And this Southwest 737 was coming in from Chicago Midway Airport.

And with that, I continued on to Grand Haven.

The Philip R. Clarke Downbound at Belle Isle

The last time that I saw the Philip R. Clarke was on Christmas Eve.  I think she was going into layup at that point. 

 When I saw that she was coming down, I had to catch her.  She's a pretty ship but it's starting to look like she needs a little loving.

 As I said in the last post, it started to rain.  As I was taking pictures of the Clarke, it started to rain harder.

 At that point, I figured I wasn't going to get any wetter, so I might as well get some pictures.  Plus it was still fairly warm.

 I believe she was heading to Fairport, Ohio and she was coming from Stoneport, MI. 

 So I guess that means that she had a load of stone.  By this time, the rain really picked up.  If you look closely, you can see the splashes of the raindrops in the water.

 Her profile.

And she continues down the Detroit River.

Stopping at the Livingstone Lighthouse

In between planes, I saw that the Philip R. Clarke was making her way down past Detroit.  She's another one I haven't seen in a while, so I decided to go catch her.  That meant heading over to Belle Isle.

 I decided that I would go near to the end of the island to catch the Clarke.  Since I had a little time, I decided to get some closer pictures of the Livingstone Lighthouse.

 It's a nice lighthouse but it started to rain while I was back here.

 But I think weather makes for more interesting pictures.  I kind of liked the way the sky look.

I really liked the sky for this one.

Chasing the Dream(liner)

I decided to take yesterday and today off because I wanted to catch the Royal Jordanian 787 that flies into Detroit Metro on Mondays and Thursdays.

 This is a Boeing 717 that belongs to Delta Airlines.  I'm not sure where it was coming from because I can't find it on FlightAware.

 I think this is a Cessna Citation.

 A SkyWest CRJ-200 arriving from Buffalo and wearing the Delta Express Livery.

 And this CRJ-200 is wearing Air Canada Express colors.  It was arriving from Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Ontario.

 Here we have an Airbus A321 arriving from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  I kind of like the A321 because it sort of resembles the 757 but not quite.  In a sea of white planes, it's kind of nice to see some color.

 A Republic Embrear 175 coming in from Philadelphia, PA.

This one is a Skywest plane in United Express colors arriving from Chicago O'Hare Airport.

 And this one was coming in from LaGuardia.

 My biggest surprise was the 747 that was coming in from Seoul.  I like catching 747s.

 Especially when I keep hearing that Delta is going to retire them.

 Jordanian 267 Heavy arriving form Montreal.  Well, it has a layover in Montreal after flying from Amman, Jordan.  The flight from Montreal is about an hour and a half.  The flight between Amman and Montreal is a bit longer.

 Recently Delta announced that it was cancelling the 787 order that was placed by Northwest.  Northwest was supposed to the North American launch partner but the development issues and subsequent Northwest-Delta merger put the damper on that.  I was hoping that Delta would go through with it because it would mean more opportunities to catch a 787 but I guess it doesn't fit into their plans.

 A Southwest 737 flying in from Atlanta.

 I was going to leave right after the 787 but I saw that there would be three 757s in succession.  Since this is by far my favorite commercial aircraft, I had to stick around.  The first one was arriving from Fort Myers, Florida.

 The next one was flying in from Fort Lauderdale.

 And the 757-300 that was arriving from Orlando.

 A CRJ-200 coming from Toronto.

 I think this Southwest plane was coming from Midway Airport.

 An Airbus 319.

I saw that this Airbus A319 was coming in from Charlotte.  Normally I don't wait around for an A319 but I was thinking it could possibly be one of American's Heritage Units.  It turns out that it wasn't.