The Kurt Luedtke

 This is the Kurt Luedtke.

I'm not sure what she was doing here.  I think she is usually used as part of dredging.  She might have been docked here.

Catching a Tugboat

 I decided to wait around for the next vessel.

It was a regular tugboat carrying a couple of barges.  I don't usually get to see regular tugboats, so it was cool.

It was the Kurt Luedtke coming down from Alpena.  It didn't have a destination listed on AIS, so I don't know where it was heading.

Based on what I've seen her doing before, she might be going somewhere to help with dredging work.

Anyway, it is a nice looking boat.

I love the red and green colors.

An almost beam shot.

One more.

I decided to catch it from the air but I think it might be too little to get a decent shot.  It looks like the barges were empty, so I think it was going somewhere where they would be filled.

I like this shot.

I really like this shot.  The red of the superstructure stands out against the blue of the water.

On a side note, the Grand Prix has been mostly cleaned up.  There were a few remnants but the island was mostly unblocked which was cool.  In years past, it took them much longer to clear out the island and it was annoying.  Now if they can shorten the construction time, that would be cool.

The Kurt R. Luedtke in the Saginaw River

So the reason I stopped on the Saginaw River was to take a picture of tugboat.  I don't normally get to take pictures of them because I don't normally get to see them.

 The tug in question was the Kurt R. Luedtke which is owned by Luedtke Engineering.

 This particular tug is at least the second one with name (as far as I can tell) and was born as the Jere C at the Lockport Shipyard in Louisiana.

 This is 72 feet long and can carry 95 tons of cargo.

 I do like the looks of a classic tug.  I'm glad she doesn't have the raised pilothouse.

 I believe she is carrying a barge from the dredging or something.

 She carries the barge up the river.

 One more shot.

As I was heading home, I caught her on the River again.