The American Spirit on a Dreary Day

 I was deciding what to do today.  There wasn't much in the way of river traffic and I already missed my chance to catch the Pere Marquette.  I looked again and saw that there was a 1000 footer coming down and a Canadian ship coming up.  I was still kind of waffling because I didn't want to deal with traffic but boats won out for me.

The 1000 footer was the American Spirit.  She is one of the 1000 footers that I like.

Even though her pilothouse is in the back, she still looks kind of like a classical ship.

Since she has the scrubbers, the white steam make her look like a steamship as well.

I almost didn't have these pictures as I kind of screwed up with the format button.  Fortunately, I have a recovery program that works pretty well.

Except doing that pretty much ends any picture taking I'm going to do.

She is coming off from Lake Huron.  I think she was coming down from Marquette.

She was heading down to Toledo with a load of iron, I think.

She is probably going to support the iron mill that is there.

I think that makes her the second thousand footer to do so.

The bow shot.

She makes the turn for the rest of the channel.

One more shot with my normal camera.

I switched to my drone.  It wasn't too windy but it was getting dark.

I like shot.

It gives you an idea of just how long she is.

She starts to pass.

The almost beam shot.

A beam shot as she passes the Huron lightship.

She continues down the river.

Her wake isn't as odd as some of the other ships.

You can see the next ship in the background.

The American Spirit Stops for Fuel

 As I was  taking pictures of the other ships, I had some time between ships to take these pictures.

The American Spirit was stopped at the Mistersky Fuel Docks for fuel.

I think she was heading up from Cleveland and I think she had a load of iron ore for there.

In front of the American side of the Gordie Howe Bridge.

I think she is heading up to Marquette.

The American Spirit at Port Huron

 Next up was a ship that was fueling in Detroit.

As I was looking at the Sykes, I saw that the American Spirit was refueling in Detroit.

She just left Cleveland after stopping at the bulk terminal there.

I think that means she was carrying taconite.

The 1000 footers will take taconite down to Cleveland to load the bulk terminal.

Smaller ships will take it up the Cuyahoga River because they can do that.

The American Spirit is heading for Two Harbors next.

That means she will be picking up taconite again.

But I'm not sure I'll be able to see her.

And then I switched to my drone.

I think the 1000 footers look cool from the drone.

Sadly, my controller was running low on power, so I brought the drone back.  I didn't want to find out what would happen if I lost power from the controller.

Whereupon I Catch 2000 Feet Worth of Ship

 So I had one more ship to catch.  I wasn't sure I was going to catch her because she was fueling in Detroit when I first checked up on her.

The Paul R. Tregurtha had a split load of coal for St. Clair and Monroe.

After she delivered coal to Monroe, she stopped at the Mistersky Fuel Docks where she fueled up.

I'm not sure how long it takes to fuel up at those docks.  I know it is at least two hours.

It makes it difficult to gage when they are going to start moving though.

It was a nice enough day.  As I was sitting in bed this morning, it didn't look like it was going to be so nice.

The weather men were predicting thunderstorms.  Based on other information, we need them.

One more shot with my normal camera.

As I was shooting pictures of Paul Tregurtha, the American Spirit was heading down.  It was cool to catch this shot, I just wish it could have been closer.

The Tregurtha gets closer.

I kind of like this shot.  Especially since it has the American Spirit in the background.

Down low a bit.

And pulling out.

The beam shot.

One more.

And she continues on her way to Superior, where she will pick up coal again.