The Cement Barge Integrity and Tug G.L. Ostrander

 There was a tug/barge docked at the cement plant.  I had some battery left in the drone, so I decided to get some pictures of her.

The barge was the Integrity.

And I took my drone out to get some shots.  I kind of like the sweeping view of the cement plant.

I got in a little closer.

Tried to get a frontal shot.

More of a frontal shot.

Taking the drone up before it started to yell at me about the wind.

Pulled it back.

The drone over Del Ray Park.

One more shot with my camera.

The Samuel DeChamplain and her Barge

I headed up to Port Huron next as the next two ships were coming downbound.  But before I could catch them, there was an upbound ship.

 This is the tug/barge combo Samuel DeChamplain and her barge the Innovation.  I think they were returning after delivering cement to Detroit.  I think it is also possible that was the first cement delivery to Detroit.

 I'm not sure where she was heading to as she was heading upbound but it was a nice day.

 I do think she is one of the neater looking tug/barges out there.

 A shot of her tug.

 She continues on her way.

And she starts to enter Lake Huron.

And An Innovative Barge...Or Something

The Callaway was being trailed by the next vessel.

 The Samuel De Champlain and her barge the Innovation were on their way to Detroit.

 I believe the pair is on its way to the cement plant where I sometimes catch the Alpena.

 I'm not a huge fan of tug barges but they are growing on me.

Sadly, it was a pretty windy night otherwise I might have continued to chase the Callaway.

The English River in Action

I had one more reason for wanting to watch the air show from Wendy Park.  I was hoping to catch a ship as she was coming into the Cuyahoga River.  When I checked AIS on Saturday night, I didn't think that it would happened.

 I checked AIS again and I saw a ship to the east of Cleveland that appeared to be heading towards Cleveland.

 It turns out that ship was the English River.  I have caught her once before but that was while she was docked.

 It is always nicer to catch a ship in action though.You get better views of them.  Plus, you can sometimes get them with stuff in the background.

 Although the English River was having a tough time getting into the channel.  I was having a tougher time getting pictures of her without other boats in the way.

 Kind of like this picture with a jet ski person.

 The Coast Guard had to remind people about the lays of physics and tell them to get out of the way.  It's kind of sad when you think about it.

 The crew of the English River have a job to do.  They aren't just willy nilly going into a harbor because they feel like it.

 At any rate, She is a pretty cool looking ship.  In many ways, she reminds me of the Stephen B. Roman.

 But there are more dissimilarities than similarities though.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 One of the crew members enjoying the view.

 Another shot of her pilothouse.

 And she makes her way to the railroad bridge.

 She would be heading to the spot where I caught her before.

One more shot before battling the traffic out.

Finally Caught My White Whale

It's amazing that there are ships that I haven't caught especially ships that have been around a while.

 The ship in question is the English River which is owned by Lafarge Canada and is managed by the Canada Steamship Lines.  Normally she makes runs around ports on Lake Ontario.

 She will occasionally make runs to Cleveland but it seems like that only happens during the week.  I was happy to see that she was docked in Cleveland.  I thought maybe she would start moving yesterday but that wasn't the case.  I did see she was at the dock where I caught the Alpena, so I headed over there.

 Like many older Canadian vessels, she was built in Collingwood, Ontario.  In 1974, she was converted to her current configuration in 1974.

 A shot of her stern.

 Framed by the Bridge.

 A shot of her stack.

After looking around, I found a spot where I could get a shot of her front.  I was hoping that I would be able to catch her as she was leaving but I found out that wasn't going to be until later in the evening.   One of these days I will catch her properly.

Random Randomness on the River

Tuesday night found me down at the Detroit River once again.  I was hoping to catch a glimpse of a certain freighter that was going to be leaving there as I would get there.  It was actually a pretty busy night.

 Of course many of the ships were unloading.  The Mississagi was unloading stone at the dock across the river in Windsor.

 A little further down the River was the behemoth American Century which was unloading at Zug Island.  The freighter I was hoping to see isn't quite the same size as her.

 Another shot of the Mississagi.  The Mississagi kind of provides a hint to what I was hoping to see, but even she is a bit newer.

 Back to the American Century.  Even though I've seen plenty of 1000 footers, I'm still amazed that something this big can float.  I'm even more amazed that it is seen on the Lakes but then again, the Lakes are pretty big in their own right.

 Dock up closer to the Ambassador Bridge is the Stephen Roman.  I haven't seen her in ages, so it was of cool to see her.  She also provides a hint to the freighter I was hoping to see as she carries similar cargo.

 Another ship that I saw was the John Carrick.  She's not to be confused with Paul Carrick who is a singer.

 And we come back to the Mississagi.  And with this, I kind of moved on to another spot.

 My prey kind of eluded me at Del-Ray but she ended up stopping for fuel, so I headed up to Belle Isle in the hopes of catching her there.  I didn't catch her right away but I did catch the Ovation.

 It's kind of a cool looking boat.  Almost reminds me of one of those painting from the early 80's of what the future would look like.

 And then we have the Macasa Bay.  She operates out of Windsor.

My last shot of the night would be the Buffalo.