Catching the Calumet

What I thought was going to be a day that was just planewatching, turned out quite differently.  As I checked MarineTraffic, I saw that the Calumet was making her way down to Grand Haven.  At the time I thought the Algosteel was going to be head into Grand Haven on Friday until I looked a little further north and saw that the Algosteel would also arrive in Grand Haven a little later in the day on Thursday.  So I headed over to Grand Haven.

 I knew that I would be cutting it pretty close to catching the Calumet coming past the lighthouse but I figured I had an even chance of catching her as she came down the River.  Well it turns out that I just missed (but not by much I think).  Fortunately the place where she unloads is not too far from this little park.

 It lets me get shots closer than I could otherwise get.

 Normally it takes about four hours (or so) for them to unload a ship here, so I thought that perhaps I could catch her going out.  It turns out that they were having problems with the self unloader, so they didn't leave until well after dark (and I left).

 Oh well, I took some other shots of the stack.

 I kind of like the look of these ships (Calumet, Manitiwoc and Robert S. Pierson).   They look sleek.

 A shot of the depth markers.

 A shot of her flag.  It was a little windy on Thursday.

 Her lifeboat.

 This was probably the best shot I could get under the circumstances.  I tried to see if there was a spot I could get her from the other side of the river, but no dice.

I got this picture of the flag I little later.  I kind of like the way it looked.