The Opening of the Lakes Can't Come Soon Enough

The Soo Locks open March 25th and the Welland Canal opens sooner than that.  There are a few ships that will make deliveries between ports that don't require the use of either of those canals.  That should be happening in a couple of weeks.  However, none of that can happen soon enough.

 I was able to get pictures of the barge over the weekend, but that doesn't seem like enough.  Fortunately, I have some models on my desk.  I can't really call the above boat a model though.  It was one of those stress things that someone gave me.  It's kind of cool.  Part of me wonders if it floats.  I'll call it the MV Squeezee Ball.

 And this is the paper model that I built of the Walter McCarthy.  I was able to get a model of the Roger Blough over the weekend.  I'll have to figure out a time to built that.

This is a ship I made out of balsa wood.  Since it's patterned after an American Steamship Vessel, I will call it the SS American Nondescript.

It seems pretty bad when I'm reduced to taking pictures of my ship models though.

The 2015 Boatnerd Detroit River Cruise

On Saturday I ended up taking the Boatnerd Cruise.  I had lots of fun last year so I decided to take it again this year.  Based on what I saw on AIS, there would be a decent number of ships this year but I'm going to post them separately.

 The boat we were riding on was called the Friendship and it is based out of Portofino's in Wyandotte.

 This is a view of the restaurant from the river.  Apparently it is built next to the Detroit Shipbuilders slip where a number of ships were launched.

 The Wyandotte Power Plant is a publicly owned utility and recently converted from coal to natural gas.

 The Diamond Jack waiting for passengers.

 Looking down the River in front of Wyandotte.

 A shot of the tug Pioneer.

 I believe that this is the mouth of the Huron River.

 This used to be an executive retreat for the steel mill nearby.  Now it is occasionally used for training.

 A buoy.

 I think they were using this ball to break up slag.  They would raise the ball up and then drop it, this would cause the slag to break up.

 Some of the slag from the steel mill.

 Looking down the Detroit River.

 One of many steel mills we saw.

 This was carrying bits of steel.

 I kind of like the industrial view.

 This was a switcher engine used at the Nicholson Dock.

 Another view of that engine.

 Kind of a view of the dock.

 Coming out of Nicholson's Dock.  To the right is the steamer Ste. Claire which is one of the Boblo Boats.  Evidently, she is getting evicted and may end up going to the scrap heap.  I hope not.  More on her later though.

 Looking up the Detroit River towards Detroit.

 A switcher engine used at the USS Great Lakes Engineering Works.

 The Belanger Lighthouse.

 Entering the Rouge River.

 The old channel for the Rouge River.

 The Jefferson Avenue Bridge.  The huge chunk out of the right is where it was hit by the Herbert C. Jackson a couple years ago.  They finally found the funding to fix it.

 But I'm guessing that will be two years.

 Another view of the Jefferson Bridge.

 The Conrail Bridge.

 The bridge and the Great Lakes Tugs.

 the rail bridge closing after we left.

 The River Rouge power plant.

 Looking at the Ambassador Bridge.

 Zug Island.  This is another steel mill.

 Another view of Zug Island.

 Another type of switching engine.

 Another railroad bridge that covers the other side of the River Rouge.

 another view of the Zug Island plant.

 The Huron Maid Pilot boat docked near the Westcott.

 The Curtis Randolph which is a fireboat owned by the city of Detroit.

 Our lunch being delivered by the Westcott.

 A view of the Detroit Skyline.

 A closer view of the Detroit skyline.

 Our pilot.  He did a pretty good job of getting us close to the ships and stuff.

 A tour boat out of Windsor.

 A shot of the Renaissance Center.

 The Detroit skyline from the other side.

 I believe this is the Diamond Queen.

 I think this may be an attempt at a water taxi.

 Looking up at the Ren Cen.

 I kind of liked this view of the Detroit skyline.

 Looking at the skyline from another angle.

 Looking up at the Ambassador Bridge.

 One more view of that.

 Returning back to Wyandotte.

 A shot of the Mistersky Power Plant.  I think the power plant is out of service and I might have heard that the fuel dock is out of service too but I'm not sure.

 The Diamond Jack in action.

 Another buoy.

A picture of our boat at the dock.