Saying Farewell to an Old Friend. Or So I Thought.

 I looked at AIS on Wednesday morning and I saw a familiar ship on her way down.  I had been meaning to catch her because it was a ship that I thought I heard was going to be retired at the end of the season.  She is a ship that has sort of a special place in my heart for reason which I explain shortly.

So for that reason, we flash back to one of the early posts on my blog.  My mom and I went up to the Soo Locks in June of 2009.  We went to a few other places but I wanted to go to the Locks because I haven't been there in a while.  I was able to catch the ship on the left as she was heading up into the Locks.  I watched her go through the Locks and then I followed her to the other side of the Locks. That's when I got this pictures.  As I looked at this picture, I realized that I could do this ship photography thing.

The ship on the left is the Atlantic Huron.  I don't get to see her much but when I do, it feels like it is something special.  The ship on the right is the Pineglen and she was scrapped a couple of years ago.  This picture led to years of photographing ships and because of that, the Atlantic Huron holds a place in my list of favorite ships.

I thought I heard that the Atlantic Huron was going to be scrapped at the end of the season.  I'm not sure where I saw that but I was pretty sure that I saw it.  As a result, I wanted to catch her but I could never quite get the timing right, when I saw that she was going to be passing on Wednesday, I headed down there.

I think she was heading down from Thunder Bay and was heading to the docks in Windsor.  Based on where she ended up, I think she was delivering grain.  She has actually been there since last Wednesday but so have a bunch of other ships.

From what I have read, it has been a banner year for grain deliveries which is part of the reason why I've seen so many ships that I don't normally see.

While overall deliveries on the Great Lakes have been down 6.6% from 2019, grain deliveries have increased 23%.  That was pretty close to offset the losses from coal and iron deliveries.

As a result, I think a number of ships that were laid up have been pressed into service.

Anyway, as I said, I thought the Atlantic Huron would be done at the end of this season.  And it might have been but they had some problems earlier in the season and put some money into fixing her.

I think if they were going to put money into fixing her, they wouldn't scrap her at the end of the season.

Anyway, despite being a rear decker, I think she is a pretty nice ship.

But with the amount of rust on her, she has certainly seen better days.

The amount of rust on her is a function of her being a Canadian vessel.  She will typically go through the Welland Canal which means she has more chances of rubbing with the walls.

I think she will also end up in the brackish waters of the mouth of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

I'm not sure how many more years she has left in service but that's another thing, Canadian ships don't serve nearly as long as their American counterparts.

It's not because the Canadian companies don't take care of their ships.  For the most part, American ships stay in the fresh water.  As a result, they aren't as prone to rusting as the salt water ships.

So anyways, while it was nice to find out that I didn't have to rush to see her.

It was nice to get down to the new Riverside Park even though the road to it is pretty rough.

She continues down the River and is about an hour from her destination.

It wasn't a very nice day.

But I think that is to be expected until about March.