A Nighttime Passage of the Cuyahoga

The Cuyahoga was the ship that I really wanted to catch.  She wasn't too far behind the G3 Marquis.

Unfortunately, it was darker at this point.  But again, a little fiddling with the settings helped.

I kind of like this one.  I never realized that a ship could be silhouetted by the background lights.  This is one of the reasons why a blackout was declared on the east coast during World War II. 

I really like this one for all the reflections in the water.

You can almost see the ship in this one.

And she continues past.

I think she was heading up from Detroit and I think she was heading to one of the Canadian stone docks.

I like the reflection of her port light in the water.

I'm not sure what the light to the right was.

Her pilothouse helped illuminate this picture.

I think this one may be my favorite.  It was fun taking these pictures but I think I might need to find a spot where I can get more light on the ships.

A Nighttime Passage of the G3 Marquis

This was the first ship I wanted to catch.  I hope that I would catch her passing by the Bridge but it was getting dark, so I headed a little further up the river to catch her sooner.

It was still pretty dark but my new camera has pretty decent low light capability.  I thought I would try it out.

You can see the ship silhouetted by Sarnia.

I was messing around with the settings to try and get the ship brighter.  This was about the best I could do.

I might have been picking up the lights from my side of the river.

I kind of like this shot.

I kind of like this shot. 

I really like this shot.  The ship is bright enough to see the lettering on the side.

Another one.

This one might be my favorite.

Stopping at the Point Aux Barques Lighthouse

I saw that there was a ship passing Port Huron that I thought I would be able to catch, so I took a trip around the thumb. 

As I was heading around the thumb, I decided to stop at the Point Aux Barques lighthouse.  I didn't have a ton of time, so I only took one picture.  I think it turned out pretty nicely.

Barely Catching the Herbert C. Jackson in Essexville

I saw that the Herbert C. Jackson was heading over to Essexville last week.  So I decided to head up to catch it.

I must have missed the part in Marine Traffic where it said that the sighting was X hours old.  Usually I don't mess up this badly when trying to track a ship.  I caught her as she was pulling into the dock.  I wasn't sure how long it would take to unload her, so I didn't stick around.  Despite all that and not really liking stern shots, this isn't too bad.  The clouds looked pretty cool.

A Stop at Elberta

So we made up to Elberta.

There is a little park just outside of Elberta where you can get a good view of the Frankfort entryway.  Back in the day, you might even catch a ferry like in the last port.  These days, there isn't that much shipping traffic.  The sun was starting to set.

Lake Michigan was a little on the angry side when we got up there.

I'm not sure what dunes these are but they look pretty cool.

I thought the skies would stay clear so that we could catch the comet here.  It would have been a nice spot.

The sun was still shining but clouds were starting to form in the skies.

Again, Lake Michigan was pretty angry.

the clouds did make for a cool effect though.

I kind of like the band of orange in the sky.

I think that was a coast guard boat passing by.

Both the channel marker and the lighthouse lit up.

Unfortunately, it started to really cloud up around the time the comet was supposed to appear, so I couldn't get pictures of that.  Maybe next time.

A Train in Manistee

As I was driving towards the ferry, I noticed this train.  After I took pictures of the ferry, I went back to get pictures of this train.

 I think it belongs to the Marquette Railroad which is a short line railroad that serves the west side of the state.

 It was kind of cool to see this train here.  I think back in the day there would have been more trains here as this served as a gathering point for trains heading over on the ferries.

It was stopped while I was there and I'm not sure where it was going.

The Ferry City of Milwaukee and US Coast Guard Cutter Acacia

After Grand Haven, I decided to head up to Frankfort, I was hoping to catch the comet there.  I ended up going through Manistee.  As I was going through, I remembered there was something I could get a picture of.

The ship in the front is the US Coast Guard Cutter Acacia.  She was built in 1944 by the Zenith Dredge Company in Duluth, Minnesota.  She served for 62 years on the Great Lakes as an ice breaker, fire fighting vessel, search and rescue vessel and buoy tender.   She was decommissioned in 2006 and currently is a museum ship in Manistee.

The City of Milwaukee was built by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company in 1930 for the Grand Truck Car Ferry Company.  She was used to transport rail cars between Milwaukee and Muskegon.  In 1978, she was bought by the Ann Arbor Railroad and was used between Elberta and Manitowoc.  She was retired in 1981 and now serves as a museum ship.  She is the last pre-1940s ship of this type to survive.

The Kaye E. Barker Leaves Grand Haven

It wasn't too long before the Barker appeared.

 She was backing out from the Verplanks dock where she was delivering stone.  I was able to see her there but I couldn't get any pictures because all the roads to where I would normally get them were closed due to flooding.

 I kind of like the way the flag was blowing in the breeze.  It kind of reminded me of an older picture that I took.

 the almost full stern view.

 And this picture shows all that is cool about the merchant marine.

 I think they use this boat when they are docked.  Someone will get in and help guide.

 I think this boat serves as a lifeboat.

 These are inflatable life rafts.  When they come in contact with water, they automatically inflate.  I think they have a direction finder in them to help in rescue efforts.

 A picture of her stack.

 A rear shot of her pilothouse.

 Her plimsoll lines.  These indicate the maximum loading amount.

 A shot of her deckhouse.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 One more shot of her pilothouse.

 A shot of her bow.

 A full shot as she backs out.

 Another shot of her pilothouse.  As you can see, it was raining as I took these pictures.

 A better shot as she backs out.

 I kind of like this one.

 I kind of like the clouds in the background of this one.

 It is a time consuming process to backing out.

 As you can see, there were few people on the pier.  That wasn't the case earlier.

 Probably my favorite picture of the bunch.

 She starts to pass the range light.

 I think she is out on Lake Michigan at this point.

 She prepares to turn for her next destination.  I think that was one of the stone ports.

I wasn't in the right spot to get further pictures after this headshot.  If I had gone to the other side I would have, but I wanted the longest time for frontal shots.