Monday, May 31, 2021

Watching the Ojibway Sail By

 The next ship is the ship I wanted to catch.

She was about a half hour behind the Tregurtha and that gave me plenty of time to catch her.  The only problem is that it was a kind of a warm night and this is where the heat haze was less pronounce.
The Ojibway was heading down from Thunder Bay and she was carrying a load of grain.
She was heading to Sorel, Quebec which is about about 50 miles to the northeast of Quebec on the St. Lawrence River.
I think Sorel may be a trans shipment point where another ship will pick up the grain to take it overseas.
The Ojibway of course will not be that ship.
I also think grain shipments have been pretty steady for the past couple of year.  In fact, I think it helped prevent a complete collapse of Great Lakes shipping last year.
Based on the ships I've been seeing, I think Great Lakes shipping seems to be bouncing back.  But I wont really know until I see the numbers at the end of the year.
There are still a few ships that are in layup.  The Cason Callaway and the Philip Clarke are still laid up.  I'm not sure when they are coming back out.
The John G. Munson just left Sturgeon Bay to head to Calcite to pick up her first load of stone.  As I type this, she is heading up to Duluth and may have just passed through the Locks.
The Blough is still awaiting her fate but I have a feeling they are going to fix her.
I'm not sure what ships are still laid up for the Canadians but again it doesn't seem like many.
And then I switched to my droen.
I think I'm getting the hang of flying it.  I am also thinking I want to get one of the next ones up.  My one complaint about my drone is that I can't fly it well when it is windy outside.  But that is okay, I don't want to get too dependent on it.
One of the cool things about the Ojibway is that she was built in my home town.  I hope that the local maritime history group will be able to get their hands on her when she retires.
Even though she is a straight decker, that may be a while.  I'm pretty sure she sports a newish engine.  And I think they had to some other things when she transitioned from an American ship to a Canadian ship.
At any rate, she continues on her way.  If I remember correctly, she would be about two days to her destination.  It was about two days from her origin to this point which makes it roughly a 4 day journey.  It is one of the longer trips on the Great Lakes.


Catching the Lee A. Tregurtha at Algonac State Park

So on Wednesday night, I saw that I had a chance to catch two ships that I like to catch.  They were both heading down the St. Clair River.

I had hoped to catch her in Marine City but I saw that she was passing by the time I got there.  So I headed down M-29 to Algonac State Park.
There is a little spot where you can turn off and you get a pretty good view of the river.  The Tregurtha was booking so I didn't get as many shots of her as I wanted.
She was heading down to Toledo.  I think she was carrying a load of iron.
They built a new iron plant in Toledo.  Next time I pass that way and I have time, I will have to get a picture of it.  Apparently it is now the tallest structure in Toledo.  When I was heading back from Magee yesterday, I saw it.  I will have to say the thing is huge.
Anyway, that makes another destination for iron ore when ships pass this way.
And then I switched to my drone.
I am really liking my drone.  It gives me different angles.  It also gives me the ability to get shots away from the sun.
She starts to pass.
A beam shot.
And she passes.
I think at this point, she is about 3 hours from Detroit after that is roughly another 4 or 5 hours to Toledo.
 

Sunday, May 30, 2021

Monday Evening Flights

On Monday it occurred to me that it has been a while since I've been to the airport.  It was a nice enough night, so I decided to head over there.  It also helped that there was some interesting flights.

First up was an A330 that arrived from Salt Lake City.
Another picture of that plane.
This is a Spirit Airlines A320.  This livery is disappearing.
I liked the clouds behind the plane, so I guess I will post this one too.  The plane was arriving from Cancun.
An Embrear 175 arriving from Newark.
And a CRJ-200 coming in from Toronto.
This was a 757-200.
It was coming in from Fort Myers.
Another picture because I like this plane.
One more with clouds.
It was followed by a 757-200.
It was arriving from Atlanta.
Again, because I like this plane.
One more with clouds.
A CRJ-200 coming in from State College, Pennsylvania.
An American Eagle CRJ-900 coming from Charlotte.
A plane that is growing on me.
This is an A220 (formerly BCS-100) coming in from Reagan National Airport in Washington DC.
A CJR-200 coming in from Dayton.
This is a CRJ-200 coming in from Bluegrass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky.
This is a CRJ-200 coming in from Lansing.  With a direct distance of 74 miles, it is the shortest Delta.  It spent 22 minutes in the air and almost that much time taxiing.
It was followed by a CRJ-200 arriving from MBS (Midland-Bay City-Saginaw) Airport.  It would be a direct distance of 99 miles.  This plane also spent 22 minutes in the air and 23 minutes on the ground in Detroit.
A CRJ-200 coming in from South Bend.
Another A220.
This one was coming in from Minneapolis.
This A319 came in from San Antonio.
A Spirit Airlines A320 from San Diego.
A 737 coming in from Cancun.
This CRJ-900 was coming in from Grand Rapids.
This 757-200 was arriving from Orlando.
Another picture of that plane.
Another one.
With clouds.
And more clouds.
A Spirit Airlines A321 arriving from Las Vegas.
A CRJ-900 from Traverse City.
An A330 from San Diego.
A CRJ-900 from Houston.
A Southwest Airlines 737 coming in from Nashville.
This 737 arrived from Seattle.
And the last plane of my day.
This was a 757-300.
This one came in from LAX.