A Load of American Courage Between the Raindrops

 I was going to catch a pair of ships yesterday but I had to do my laundry and I ended up missing my window to catch them.  It looked like it might rain yesterday, so I just messed around.  Didn't even work on my model.  Well today, I figured that I should get out.  There was a nice group of ships that was passing Detroit today, so I thought I would go catch them.

Sadly, I missed the first two but I made it in time to catch one.

This one is the American Courage and I believe it has been a while since I've caught her.  I think it also has been a while since I've taken pictures from Belle Isle.  So I was happy.

It was threatening rain all day today too and in fact, it was raining pretty hard as I was heading to Belle Isle but it stopped when I got there.

I'm not sure where she was before, but she did stop for fuel at Mistersky Fuel Dock (in fact that was her destination while I was there).

She is a pretty nice ship to catch.

You can see the towers of the Gordie Howe Bridge from this spot as well.  I didn't realize how well that bridge shows up.  She will definitely be a dominating landmark.

I think she was carrying stone and I think she was in Sandusky (or around there).

she is one of the River class ships that were built by using the same loan money as the thousand footers.

They decided they needed some smaller ships because the 1000 footers couldn't get everywhere.

These are also equipped with bow and stern thrusters and have the Cuyahoga in mind.

They can deftly maneuver her tight curves.

Anyway, I just checked Marine Traffic and she is heading up to Cedarville which means that she will be picking up stone.

And a Bonus

 As I was taking pictures of the NACC Antigua, I looked across the river and saw that there was another ship unloading.

The American Courage was as the Bay Aggregates Dock.

She was unloading stone from Calcite.

Fortunately for me, she was in with her bow facing out because that's what I like to shoot.

She is moving up a little bit.

And she started to unload the rest of her load.

I'll have to admit she is pretty neat looking ship.

I like the looks of this ship with the lines of the dock feeding into it.

One more.

Last Up...the American Courage

 The American Courage was following fairly closely behind the American Spirit.

The American Courage was also in Cleveland.

She was doing shuttle runs from the bulk terminal to the steel mill.

I think she is getting replaced with another ship.

She was heading up to Calcite when I took this picture.

She loaded in Calcite and now she's heading to Erie, PA.

These ships are fairly versatile.

She's a pretty nice looking ship.

Framed by the Blue Water Bridge.

She passes the bridge.

I like this shot.

Her pilot house.

She continues out into Lake Huron.

The American Courage Getting Ready to do a Shuttle Run

 As I was entering Windy Park, I saw the American Courage.  I think she was waiting for another ship to come up the Cuyahoga River.

She would be doing what is known as a shuttle run.  Ships will load taconite from the bulk terminal and they will go to the steel mill at the bottom of the Cuyahoga River.   These ships are designed to navigates the bends of the river.  It is a pretty cool thing to watch.

The American Courage Stops For Fuel

 This is a ship that I was hoping to catch as she was passing but it seems that she needed fuel.

The American Courage was coming up from Cleveland.  I think she was doing shuttle runs there.  She was heading up to Alpena.

The American Courage Stops For Fuel

I was hoping to catch the next ship, but she had other ideas.

I didn't catch where she was heading from but she was heading up to Stoneport.

She had to stop for fuel though.  Fortunately, I'm close enough to catch her.
 

The American Courage on the Saginaw River

 So yesterday I decided I wanted to go boatwatching but I had a few choices.

The Wilfred Sykes and Algoma Intrepid were going into Muskegon.  They arrived early in the morning, so if I went there, I would have to catch them leaving.

The Saginaw was heading to Holland but she wasn't going to be there until later in the afternoon.

The Alpena was heading to Chicago but she arrived there early in the morning and wasn't going to be leaving until later in the evening.  Cement is a long unload.

The American Courage arrived in Zilwaukee in the middle of the night and she was starting to leave as I was starting to leave.

The nice thing about a ship leaving the Saginaw River is that it takes a while, so I had some time to catch her.

I saw her as she was passing James Clements airport, so I knew I had a little more time.

I stopped at the Cass Avenue Bridge park first.

It is a nice spot for boatwatching and the Saginaw River is a nice spot for catching them.

She continues up the river.

Next I went to the park that was made where the Third Street Bridge collapsed.

The Third Street Bridge was struck by a freighter and collapsed in 1976.  

It was a swing bridge and pretty cool looking.

The sky was pretty nice looking too.

Her pilothouse.

A shot of her plimsoll lines.

Another shot of her pilothouse.

The American Courage approaches the Liberty Bridge.  The Liberty Bridge replaced the Third Street Bridge.  It is a bascule bridge compared to a swing bridge.  It is also four lanes instead of two.  Construction was completed in 1986.

I then headed to Smith Park in Essexville to catch her again.  This was not built over a former bridge.

But she was passing a railroad bridge.  I'm not sure if this bridge is still used.

Anyway, this is a pretty nice spot to catch boats.  Good views whichever way they are coming.

My only complaint is the amount of cottonwood in the air.  Made it look like there was dust on my lens.

She makes the turn.

She continues the turn.

The bow shot.

She follows a pontoon boat.

One more shot with my normal camera.

And then I switched to my drone.

I never noticed how much was in the dock on the other side of the river.  They use it to stage windmills

She starts to pass.

The beam shot.

She continues on.

She is heading to Cedarville where she will pick up another load of stone.

The view of the other side of the Saginaw River.

After this, I headed to Muskegon but I didn't make it in time to catch the Sykes or Intrepid.  I missed both by about a half hour.  I headed down to Holland next but the Saginaw wouldn't be there for another couple hours, so I headed home.