Catching Up With the Munson

Last night as I was checking Marine Traffic, I saw that the Munson was heading down.  She was coming from Brevort and I think that means she had a load of sand, but I'm not sure.

She was heading over to Buffalo.  I think this is the third Great Lakes Fleet ship to head over to Buffalo.

Last weekend was the Anderson's turn.  The Clarke headed over there too.

I'm not sure what they are taking over there.  I think Buffalo might have a cement plant or something like that.

She was in Calumet Harbor which is near Chicago.  If I had known that, I could have shot a picture of her from the Blues Brothers Bridge.

Anyway, she is a nice looking ship and I had a relative that worked on her for a brief period of time.

She used to operate out of Rogers City quite a bit.

In fact, I think she carried stone then mostly.

You can see a fisherman getting a last trip out before it gets too cold.

Switching to my drone after she passed the Ambassador Bridge.

Letting her get a little closer.

I'm still not brave enough to get the close up frontal shots.  I'm not sure how quickly my drone can move out of the way.

And honestly, that would be a bad time for it to act up.

It was actually kind of nice today, a little on the chilly side but I'll take what I can get in the middle of November.

The beam shot.

And she passes on.

She approaches the Gordie Howe Bridge.  I can't wait for this bridge to be complete, it is going to look nice.

Switching back to my normal camera.

One more shot as she continues on after being serviced by the Westcott.  The Westcott on her stern.  From this point, it is roughly 18 hours to Buffalo.
 

Catching Up With the Munson

The boat that really dragged me down was the Munson.  I was hoping to catch her last week but I was only to catch her stern as she was heading up Lake Huron.

She had an eventful time since that.  Apparently, she hit the wall while she was in Gary.  But the damage wasn't that serious as she was heading from Gary in the picture.

I thought it was odd that she was riding so high.  I didn't realize at the time I took these pictures why.

She was heading down to Toledo.  I thought she had a load of iron when I first saw her on Marine Traffic.  I thought she was delivering to the iron mill there.

Clearly that wasn't the case.  As I looked at AIS this morning, I saw she was at Ironhead Fabricating in Toledo.

They have a drydock, which I think means that the Munson is going to get some work.  I'm actually surprised that Gary doesn't have a dry dock.  I guess I'm also surprised she didn't go to Bay Shipbuilding.  It seems that is where most of the work gets done on the Great Lakes.

Anyway, she looks better than many other ships on the Lakes.

So I hope it is a quick repair.

One more shot with my normal camera.

Then I switched to my drone.

I kind of like this shot with Detroit in the back ground.

She makes her way past.

I like this shot too.

Trying to get a beam shot but I like this one a little better.

The beam shot.

She passes by with the Gordie Howe Bridge in the background.

The span is complete.  They have to finish the approaches.

 

Barely Catching the Munson

 After chasing the Nickel Plate, I saw that I still had a chance to catch the Munson.  That meant that everything had to work in my favor to catch it in time.

Unfortunately, everything didn't work in my favor.  I saw the Munson passing my spot as I was arriving there.  I didn't want to go all that way and not get a picture, so I took this one.  I don't remember where she was coming from but she was heading to Calcite where she would be up rock.  That also means, she might be back this way in a couple of days.

Catching Up With the Munson

 It was a nice day yesterday but it didn't look like it was going to be a particularly busy day on the River.  most of the ships passed in the night or were coming down much later.  With the sunset coming earlier, it can be hard.  One of the ships was one that I haven't seen in a while.

The John G. Munson was coming.  I think she was coming from one of the stone ports, so she had a load of stone.

She was heading down to Cleveland.

As I was looking at the time, I figured she would be passing Detroit around noon.

I didn't miss it by too much.  Except that I did miss the bow shot.

She starts to make the turn for the rest of the channel.

There is a spot where you can get a relatively clean shot.

She approaches Windsor.

Some of Windsor in the background.

More of Windsor in the back ground.

It was a pretty calm day, so I got my drone out.

I love the look of the Detroit River from the air.

The Munson looks pretty cool too.

She passes my drone.

I like this shot.

The beam shot.

She continues down the River.

One more shot with my drone.

Backed by the Gordie Howe Bridge.

One more before the next ship.