Ending the Day With the Ever Lovely Kaye E. Barker

I ended up catching the Kaye E. Barker on her way to Dearborn as I was on Belle Isle.  I didn't think I would catch her on her return trip as it rained all day yesterday.  But as I said, she ended up spending the night in the Belle Isle anchorage last night.

She was the last ship of the day and I was happy to see her.

She is definitely one of my favorite ships right now.  She has lovely lines and she is one of the more distinctive looking.

The lighting was a little better for me, but for some reason my light meter wasn't reading it correctly.

I kind of like this angle.

The bow shot.

She makes the turn for the channel.  The lighting was much better for these shots.

Probably my favorite of the bunch.  I love this angle for ships.  It gives my favorite view which is the bow plus a hint of the size.

She was heading back to Marquette and that means she might be back this way on Wednesday.  If so, I hope that I can catch her on the return trip.

But I'm not sure if the weather is going to hold.

It will probably be cloudy at least.

She's passing the Bridge.

Again, I wish I didn't have the shadows here.

The almost beam shot.

Her pilot house.

I kind of like this shot.

But I like this shot better.

A Special Ship on a Special Day

 As I said in the last post, yesterday was the 49th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do until I saw that the Arthur Anderson would be passing.  She has a special place in that lore.

As you might know, especially since I posted it on here, the Anderson has a special place in the Edmund Fitzgerald lore.

The Anderson followed the Edmund Fitzgerald for most of her fateful voyage.  She was roughly five miles behind her.

She was the ship that last made contact with the Fitzgerald before she went down.  She was also the ship that received the last transmission from the Fitzgerald.

Both ships faced waves up to 30 feet (or more).  It is suspected that the Fitzgerald bottomed out before she went down.

The last transmission from the Fitzgerald was, "We are holding are own".  Shortly after that, she disappeared from the Anderson's radar.

The Anderson radioed in that the Fitzgerald may have sunk.

The Anderson was approaching the relatively safe anchorage when the Coast Guard asked her and the William Clay Ford to go back out and search for the Fitzgerald.

Both ship captains were understandably reluctant to go out but it was a mariner's duty to try and save other mariners.

Sadly by the time they got there, the Fitzgerald was gone.

The Anderson was returning from Buffalo, she delivered stone there.

Fortunately, she had to stop for fuel in Detroit, that gave enough of a delay for me to catch her.

She was heading up to Stoneport.  Presumably to pick up more stone but I don't know if that means she is heading back this way again.

It was nice to see her and nice to be able to catch her with my drone.

It was doubly special to catch her on the day I caught her.

One more picture in Marysville.

I headed up to Port Huron next.  I wanted to catch her again.

The fog in the air made for appropriate pictures.  It was raining as I was checking Marine Traffic in the morning but I looked at the weather and saw that would break.

The fog was less dense in Port Huron but there was still enough to make moody picutres.

She makes the turn for the channel.

The bow shot which is why Port Huron is my favorite place to shoot ship pictures.

She makes the other turn for the channel.

I love this view too.

One more shot with my normal camera.

I switched back to my drone.  I love this shot with the Blue Water Bridge framing the Anderson.

Moving around with my drone.  I saw another drone around the area.  They might need air traffic control here.

I think I like this shot too.

She continues past me.

And she heads out in to Lake Huron.  I heard it was a pretty rough night last night.

One more shot before moving to the next ship.

Catching the Northern Lights Again

 I heard that there was going to be an aurora again tonight and it was supposed to be a big one.  I wasn't sure but as I was getting home, I could see it at home with my iPhone.  So I headed up to Port Huron, as I was getting up there, it was getting intense.

It wasn't quite as intense when I got to Port Huron, but I could still see it.  So I messed with my exposure times.  I kind of like this one.  This one was a 15 second exposure.

I noticed it was a little hazy on this one but I like this one a little more.  This was a 30 second exposure.

This one was between the two, an I think I like it the best.  I just wish I would have stopped when they were more intense but I would have had to figure out a place to take the pictures.  It looked cool though.  This one was 25 seconds.

I remember seeing an aurora when I was younger but I never saw one again.  Now I've seen two within a span of a few months.  I'm hoping that I see more.

The H. Lee White Makes an Appearance

When I do a post that says either "Catching up with ..." or "The ... makes an appearance".  It refers to a ship I haven't seen in a while (or perceived to haven't seen in a while).  In this case, the H. Lee White.

It has been over a year since I've seen the H. Lee White.  She was about on the same path.

I didn't catch where she was coming from but she was heading to Toledo.

That means that she would likely be carrying iron or stone.

I didn't catch where she ended up in Toledo though.

Anyway, I will use this picture as a reminder for you to get your tetanus booster.

She is one of the River class ships built in the 1980s when the shipping companies realized they needed smaller ships for some of the rivers that are on the Great Lakes.

Granted the Maumee is not one of those rivers (or at least at the mouth of the Maumee) as some thousand footers will layup at the CSX docks there.

Despite the rust, she's not a bad looking ship.

She approaches the Ambassador Bridge.

One of the towers.

I like this shot with the Westcott at her side.

The tower at the middle.

She continues past the Bridge.

The Westcott pulls away.

She continues down the river.  I wish I would have taken a picture with the Gordie Howe Bridge more in the backdrop.  When I last saw her, the Bridge was barely started.  Now it is almost complete.  Makes for a nice contrast.