The 2016 Boatnerd Cruise

So yesterday was the Detroit River/Rouge River Boatnerd Cruise for 2016.  I was kind of waffling on whether or not I wanted to go but then I finally decided that it would be fun.  The weather yesterday was an improvement over the hot muggy weather that we had for the past week or so.  I caught a number of ships yesterday, but I'm going to post those independently as the opportunity presents itself.

 We went on the Friendship out of Portofino's in Wyandotte again.  It's a pretty nice boat.

 The Portofino is the other boat that is operated by them.  They do dinner or brunch cruises on this and of course you can rent it out.  It's not cheap though.

 A look at downtown Wyandotte.

 The Diamond Jack is the boat that leaves from Bishop Park in Wyandotte.  I think it goes up to Detroit and then back down past wherever Boblo Island was.  I'm not sure if it goes up the Rouge as well.

 An old buoy.

 A newer buoy with the Detroit skyline in the background.

 I think they use this to break up iron slag.  The broken up iron slag is then used in construction.

 A switcher belonging to the Del Ray Connector Corporation.

 Normally these would be full of molten steel.

 Another shot of the engine.

 The lighthouse at Belanger Park.

 Another shot of the Detroit Skyline.

 Entering the Rouge River.  This bridge connects the railroad from Zug Island to the mainland.

 The Patricia Hoey.

 The Idaho is a tug that belongs to Great Lakes Towing.

 Three tugs are better than one.

 A bascule bridge belonging to Conrail.

 The barge Norman McLeod being pushed by the Victorious.  I think they were picking up Asphalt.

 the Shiela Kaye.

 The William Hoey and Shannon.

 The Fort Street bridge closing behind us.  They just finished this one not too long ago.  I also heard that the Jefferson Avenue Bridge will be opening later this week.  I can't wait.  That will make other parts of boatwatching much easier.

 The Dix Avenue Bridge.

 The slip were the ships deliver to the Rouge Steel Mill.

 Another view of the Dix Avenue Bridge with the Ste Claire to the side.

 The William L. Warner is something.  I don't have too many details on her though.

 The Calusa Coast is up from the Chesapeake Bay.  I'm not sure what she is delivering.

 A giant bulldozer moving some iron around.

 A cement barge and tug.

 The Demolen is a tug belonging to the US Army Corps of Engineers.

 And the Rebecca Lynn.

 If you look to the right, you can see some of the smoke damage from a recent fire.

 The Huron Maid acting as the Westcott this year.  Probably one of the highlights of this cruise is getting pizzas delivered by either vessel.

 the Detroit skyline.

 If you look closely, you can see a helicopter.  Slightly behind it is a racing boat.

 The lighthouse at Milliken State Park.  It is a replica of the Tawas Light.

 A better shot of the racers.

 And I think this may be my favorite of the bunch.

 I couldn't resist.

 the Curtis Randolph is a fireboat owned by Detroit.

 The Westcott.

 Mistersky Power Station is used as a fueling point for the lake ships.

 Patricia Hoey out doing work.

 A shot of Zug Island.

 If you think ships are large, imagine the size of some of the structures used to support them.  Although, I'm pretty sure this crane isn't used anymore since most ships are self unloaders.

 A more overall view of Zug.

And I leave you with one more shot of the switcher.

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.