The Hollyhock at Rest

 As I was taking pictures of the ships, I had a little downtime between ships.

I decided to take a picture of the Hollyhock as she was sitting there.  I haven't seen her in a while and I think she was busy up near Sault Ste. Marie breaking ice.  I think she will be doing buoy tending next.

Catching the Hollyhock in Action

The next ship was following fairly closely to the Blough.

 The Hollyhock is a ship that I see often enough but usually she is docked.

  She has her home port in Port Huron and is usually near where I like ships.

 She was designed to be a buoy tender but she can also act as an icebreaker and law enforcement vessel.  But I think she acts as a headquarters ship as a law enforcement vessel.

 She is equipped with a positioning system that allows her to maintain her position within 10 meters in winds up to 30 knots and waves up to 8 feet.  That helps her in precision placing of buoys.

 As an icebreaker, she is probably better than the Bay class cutters but not as good as the medium icebreakers.

 I will have to say that she is a pretty neat looking ship.

 Her boom says "Sentinel of the Seas".

 A beam shot.

I think she was going to dock in Sault Ste Marie.

The Huron and Hollyhock

Just decided to take pictures of both of these while waiting.

 The Huron is a lightship that used to operate by Port Huron.  I'm not sure what it was replaced by but now it is a museum.

The Hollyhock is a Coast Guard buoy tender/icebreaker.  There wasn't alot of ice this year, so it wasn't particularly busy.  I think it was doing buoy tending not too long ago.

Watching the Hollyhock in Action

Last Sunday I decided to go catch the Sykes on the St. Clair River.  As I was waiting for her, I caught another ship.

 The Hollyhock was in the process of buoy retrieval.  She was on her way to Algonac (or so).

 It was a pretty nice morning for boatwatching, although a little bit on the cold side.

 It was kind of nice to catch the Hollyhock in action though.  Usually, I just see her docked.

 The almost beam shot.

 I just wish the water were a little calmer.

 I caught up with her in Marine City again.

 Another angle.

 another close to beam shot.

 The almost beam shot.

 I caught her again just south of Marine City.  I think she was actually removing buoys, hence the arm being up.

 One of the boats from the Hollyhock.

I'm not sure what they were doing at the buoy.

The Hollyhock Out and About

I see the Hollyhock almost every time I stop in Port Huron but she is usually docked.  I saw that she was out and about on Lake Huron but I wasn't expecting to see her coming back in.

As I was waiting for the next ship, I saw that she made her turn to return to Port Huron.  That meant that I would get a chance to get some angles of her that I don't normally get.

 Since she's usually at the wall, I sort of get this angle but I don't get her with smoke coming out of her stack.

 she made her turn to enter the channel.

I definitely don't get pictures of her from the side. 

 She passes the casino.

After doing a 180, she returns to her dock.

The Hollyhock

It seems like it isn't often that I get to catch the Hollyhock in action and when I saw that she was heading up on AIS, I had to try to catch her.  I figured my best chance to catch her was St Clair, so I stopped there first.

 I think this is one of the launches of the Hollyhock.  Although on one of my facebook posts, I jokingly mentioned budget cuts.

 I like the vessels of our Coast Guard.

 Again, I was trying that angle.  This time, I had the dock leading towards the ship but I don't think the ship is big enough.  I do like this picture though.

 The Hollyhock serves as a buoy tender for the Coast Guard.  I think she also has the capability to break ice.  She wasn't really needed in that capacity much this winter though.  In January of 2014, she was breaking ice in front of the Mesabi Miner and hit an ice pocket.  This caused the Miner to crash into her.  Both ships had slight damage but no injuries.

 In her role as buoy tender, she is equipped with a GPS system that enables her to precisely place buoys.

And she heads off to Port Huron to spot she normally calls home.

A Stop at the Hollyhock

In between catching my ship at Belle Isle and catching her on the Rouge River, I was hoping that I would catch her as she was passing Milliken State Park.  However, I think I misjudged the timing and I completely missed her.  As I scanned the area, I noticed that the Hollyhock was docked in front of the Renaissance Center, so  I decided to head over to get some pictures of her.

 I see her quite often at Port Huron but this looked like an opportunity to see her up close and personal.

 This gave me an opportunity to get some different angles.

 I wish it wasn't snowing as hard as it was though.  Kind of interfered with my pictures.

 A look up at her bridge.  If I remember correctly, her navigation is tied into GPS and she can place buoys fairly accurately.

 From another angle.

 I liked the way the flag was flying in the wind, although I wasn't too happy with the wind itself.  It made for a cold afternoon taking pictures.

 Looking up at the Renaissance Center.

 A shot of her stern.

 The Lake Guardian which belongs to the EPA was docked nearby as well.  I didn't feel like getting close to her.

 Another rear shot of the Hollyhock.

 Looking up at her boat.

 Another angle of her bridge.

 A couple buoys laying on her deck.

 A shot of the Coast Guard logo on her bow.

And one more shot of her before moving on to the Rouge River.