The Biscayne Bay Heads Home

Last Saturday proved to be a busy day.  We were thinking about trying for Tahquamenon again but that wasn't going to happen with the degree of busyness.  I'm not sure how many ships I saw on AIS but there were quite a few.

 An unexpected visitor was the Biscayne Bay.  She was the tug that was available for tours at the Coast Guard station. 

 Normally it would be the Katmai Bay at the Soo and so they brought up the Biscayne Bay from St. Ignace in order to do the tours.

 With the tours only happening on Friday, she could go back home.

I think it is roughly 8 hours to St. Ignace from the Soo for a ship.

A Tour of the Soo Coast Guard Station

Every year the Coast Guard station is open for tours and every year I end up doing other things.  This year there was only one ship going through the locks and the rest of the ships that were passing that day were coming down later in the afternoon.  That gave me plenty of time to do other things.

 So I decided to head over to the Coast Gaurd station, although I didn't look at the station itself.  I was more interested in the boats that you could tour.

 First up is the US Coast Guard Cutter Buckthorn.  She is a buoy tender and I think one of the oldest vessels still in the Coast Guard.

 Looking up at her bridge.  The Buckthorn is used as a buoy tender.

 A view from the Bridge of the Buckthorn to the one of the defender boats that just docked.

 A shot of her control panel.

Next up on the tour was the Biscayne Bay.

 A view of her bow.

 I think this was the mess hall.  The accommodations are pretty small.

 The Captain's office.

 The controls in one of the bridge wings.  I think these are used when she is doing icebreaking operations.

 A shot of her other controls.

 The wheel of the Biscayne Bay.

 The Canadian Coast Guard provided the Constable Carrier patrol ship.

 The Constable Carriere is used for enforcement duties and because of that, she has a compliment of Mounted Police.

 One of her liferings.

 I think this is the flag of the Canadian Coast Guard.

 Looking at her bridge from the front.

 The crest of the Canadian Coast Guard.

 Her controls.

 One of her mounties.

 An okay shot of her.

The Great Lakes Towing company has a slip next door to the Coast Guard station.  This gave me an opportunity to get a picture of a pair of tugs.

Catching the Biscayne Bay

I got to Grand Haven and could not believe how busy it was.  I thought that I was going to park at the State Park but that lot looked pretty full.  Also, I saw that the ship I was interested in catching was making her turns to enter the channel.  I ended up finding a parking spot at a place that I don't normally shoot from.

 As I got out of car, I could see that there was a Coast Guard Cutter docked at the Coast Guard station.

 She is the Biscayne Bay which is one of the 140 foot Bay Class Cutters.   She is named after Biscayne Bay which is near Miami, Florida.   She was the fourth in the class and built by the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company in Tacoma, Washington.

 After her construction, she sailed to her home port of St. Ignace, MI where she has been stationed ever since.

 Like the other ships in this class, she is used as a tug, icebreaker and with a special barge, she can become a buoy tender.

 Next to the Coast Guard Station, there is a park.  I will do more on that in a bit.

One more shot of her.

The Biscayne Bay Cutter

Next up in my set of pictures is a Coast Guard Cutter.

 Making her debut on Michigan Exposures is the Biscayne Bay, which is another of the 140 foot bay class icebreaking harbor tugs.

 She was launched in December of 1979 and has served out of St. Ignace since then.  She was built by the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company of Tacoma, Washington.

 She serves a multitude of functions.  During the warmer months, you will see her with a barge as she is used for maintaining buoys and other aids to navigation.

 During the winter, she is used as an icebreaker and will occasionally help get ships out of jams.  Here she is blowing by the Indiana Harbor.

 I think she's a pretty neat little boat.

 And the lighting was just bout perfect for me.

Here she is following behind the Pathfinder.

The Dorothy Ann/ Pathfinder

As I was heading back to the other end of the St. Clair River in an effort to catch the new build on the lakes.  I looked out and saw the three ships as I was passing St. Clair.

 The three ships are the Pathfinder in the front, Indiana Harbor and Biscayne Bay.

 The Dorothy Ann/Pathfinder is a tug/barge.  At one time, the Pathfinder used to be known as the J.L. Mauthe and was built at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in River Rouge, MI.  In 1998, she was converted to a barge.

 I understand why they convert ships into barges but I still don't like it.

 Here the Pathfinder is being followed pretty closely by the Indiana Harbor.

 A shot as she comes into view.

 A nice clean shot of her.

 A shot of her tug.

 You can still see hints of the ship she used to be.

 Another shot of her tug.

 The tugs pilothouse.

 A closeup of her name.

 A more pulled back shot of the pilothouse.

 A side shot of the tug.

 And the pair move out of view.

And head up the St. Clair River.