The Great Republic on a Friday Night

 I decided to head up to Port Huron on Friday night.  I saw that I had a chance to catch at least three ships and possibly more depending on the how the light held out.

I wasn't sure if the weather was going to cooperate for me though.  It was looking pretty cloudy and it was threatening to rain.  Fortunately, the weather held out for me when I got to Port Huron.

In fact, it ended up being pretty nice.  There was a slight breeze off the lake that cooled things down a little bit but it wasn't too bad that I couldn't fly the drone.

The first ship was the Great Republic which currently belongs to the Great Lakes Fleet.  Prior to that, she was the American Republic and was owned by American Steampship.

She was one of the ships designed with the Cuyahoga River in mind.  She has both bow and stern thrusters giving her remarkable maneuverability.  And that helps in the Cuyahoga River. 

Although I don't think she goes down the Cuyahoga as much as she used to but there are plenty of other places on the Great Lakes that require that kind of maneuverability.

At any rate, she was heading down to Marine City where she would be delivering stone.

After that, she would be heading down to Detroit where she would deliver the rest of her stone.

I'm not sure where she would be heading after that.  It seems like stone has been a load that has been carried quite a bit this season.

The bow shot.

Then I switched over to the drone.  I think I am getting the hang of this more and more.  I like this shot well enough.

But I think I like this shot more.

I think the water is clear enough that you can actually see under it for a little bit.

A side shot.

And she continues down the river.

You can see some of the maneuvering that ships have to do on this part of the river.

I never realized that there was another tight turn after this.

A nice scene of the rest of the park.

There is a big enough view in the back that the crew can see pretty well if they are backing out as well.

That is typical on the Cuyahoga River.

 One more shot before the next ship.