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.

Catching a Train Too

 As I said before, there is a railroad bridge by Windy Park.  It is in the main Norfolk Southern line that runs through Pennsylvania.  As a result, it is a fairly busy.

As I was getting a picture of another ship this guy passed by.  I didn't grab my camera in time, so I ddin't get the greatest picture of it.  But it works.

A Boat

 There are sometimes some interesting boats that pass by.

I thought that this was possibly an old police boat but I'm not sure.  The little dome on top looked like it might have been a police light.  Anyway, I thought it was kind of cool looking.

The Federal Seto Comes Into Cleveland

 So this is the ship that I was waiting for.

It was the Federal Seto but I'm not sure where she was coming from.

MarineTraffic listed her origin as Port Colborne, but that is the port on the Lake Erie side of the Welland Canal.  I'm pretty sure she came from somewhere else.

She was soon joined by the Pennsylvania.  And in the background was the bonus ship that I caught.

She gets nudged towards the Cleveland Port Terminals.

Cleveland has a number of slips for salties.  I think one of those slips can handle containers.

She moves over towards the east.

A shot of her pilothouse.

You can see the tug pushing her into position.  I was kind of surprised to see the tug as I thought she had bow thrusters.

She gets into position for her slip.

Another shot of that.

The Samuel Mather is in the background.

One more shot before moving to my other ship.

The Tug Pennsylvania Appears

 Like I said in a previous post, I headed down to Wendy Park to catch a ship.  It has been a while since I've been to Wendy Park and I was surprised at all of the improvements.  They added a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks.  The road leading to the park was paved and so was the parking lot.  They cleaned up the train leading out to the Coast Guard station.  I was amazed.

When I got by the river, I saw this guy passing me.

It is the tug Pennsylvania and it is owned by Great Lakes Towing.

It replaced an older tug that was built in 1911 and I believe this one was built in Cleveland.

I will have to say it looked pretty cool.

It guides the ship in.

The Sam Laud Leaving the Crooked River

As I was about to leave Cleveland, I saw that I had a chance to catch a ship as she was heading out of the Cuyahoga River.

 I decided to head over to a spot that I've been to before in order to catch her a little sooner.  As I arrived, I saw this Marine Safety boat.  I knew that they usually lead ships out in order to clear the recreational boats on the water.

 The boat turned around as the Laud started appearing around the bend.

 And the Sam Laud appeared.   She apparently has been doing this run all season.  You can tell from the red of the iron dust on her hull.

 Another angle as she pulls out.

 Looking up at her pilothouse.

 A shot of her Plimsoll Lines.  Plimsoll Lines are named after Samuel Plimsoll.  He was a British Member of Parliament that took up the load line cause.  The British were losing a high number of ships due to overloading.  These lines insure that the ships have enough freeboard and thus enough reserve buoyancy in order to stay afload.  The diamond with the line is the mark of the organization that determined the load line.  In this case "AB" for the American Bureau of Shipping.  FW and SW indicate the load lines for Fresh Water and Seawater.  As seawater tends to be denser than fresh water, a ship will sink deeper in the water.  The S and W are for summer and winter load lines.

 She backs away.

 She was only doing about 2 knots, so I could get closer to her.

 One of the bridges behind her.

 And one more shot before leaving this spot.

 I decided to head over to Wendy Park to catch some shots of her leaving this area.

 Framed by the bridge and a couple of the Cleveland buildings.

 A close up of her stern as she makes the turn for the channel.

 As you can see, it was raining as I was taking this pictures.

 Pulled out a little bit.

 Another shot of her stern.

 Looking up at her pilothouse again.

 She pulled away and so I could get the shots that I preferred.

 Mainly because this could be a shot of her entering too.

 She pulls away.

After this shot, she would start to turn and head towards the terminal.  There she will pick up more iron and head back down to the river to the steel mill.

The Arthur M. Anderson Unloads in Cleveland

I'm getting caught up to the weekend before last.  Like I've said in previous posts, I've had no problem going out to take my pictures.  I've had problems when I came to writing about my posts.

 Anyway, on Saturday August 24th, I checked out AIS and I saw that the Arthur M. Anderson was heading down.  When I saw that she was passing Port Huron, she updated her destination to be Cleveland.

 As I did the math, I figured that I had plenty of time to catch her as she entered Cleveland Harbor.

 That of course was based on me getting up early enough.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen.  I was able to catch her as she backed into the dock.  As it was, I think I got some pretty nice pictures of her.

 I don't normally like pictures of docked boats, but these aren't too bad.

 As she is about to unload stone.

 From another place on Whiskey Island.

 She is a little obscured by the trees though.

 One more shot from this angle.

 I headed over to another spot where I could get some stern shots.

 I don't normally like stern shots but I do like pictures that give a sense of place.

Especially when you can see the skyline in the background.