Next Up...the American Century

So the ship that I saw on Marine Traffic coming down was the American Century.  I wasn't planning on sticking around to take her picture but I figured that since I was down there, I might as well.

 She is heading down to Toledo, where she will be laying up for the winter.  Based on how the shipping season has gone this year, it is a well earned layup.  It seemed like the ice stuck around later at the beginning of the season and formed earlier at the end of the season.  These are hard working crews in the time that they work.

 The American Century passes the Algosteel.  At a little over 1000 feet, she dwarfs the Algosteel.

 She was moving along at around 8 knots.

 I do like her looks but I don't think they compare to the classic lakers.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 A fuller shot of her.

 You can see that she has a bit of ice on her bow.

 The almost straight out shot.

 She slowly passes the Windsor casino.

 Another shot of her pilothouse.

 She slowly makes her way down the river.  AGain, I was shooting into the sun for this one but I kind of like the shot.

 Another shot of Windsor in the background.

 She slowly works her way to the Ambassador Bridge.

 A shot with the Bridge in the background.

One more before moving on.

With the early onset of ice, I have a feeling this may be my last ship post until the season starts up again.

My First Ship of the Year

After spending two days holed up at home with the respite by taking the picture of the Wolverine, I made my way over to Detroit today.  I was hoping to catch my first ship of the season.  The roads were okay but a little slick in spots but I made it down to Detroit in plenty of time.  Although, why are the sides of the freeways littered with four wheel drive vehicles after a snow like this?

 Part of the reason I was able to catch the Algosteel was because she was inching along at 2 knots.  When I saw this on Marine Traffic, I thought that perhaps she was stopping at the fuel dock.  But it turns she wasn't.

 You can't really tell in this picture but there is a nice layer of ice on the Detroit River.  With ice forming this early, it is really gumming up the system.  I read today that the Coast Guard is limiting traffic to one direction, so downbound ships will go and then upbound, etc.  I suspect that this might put an earlier end to the season.

 Enough about that though.  Algosteel is certainly worthy of being my first ship of the year because she is a beauty.

 If the trends of other ships are any indication, she may not have too many years left in her and that would be a shame.  I still hate to think about the beauties like this leaving the lakes.

 She slowly works her way up the River.  At this point, I could hear her moving through the ice.  It is actually a pretty cool sound.

 A shot of Windsor in the background.

 A shot of her lovely pilothouse.

 The river was calm enough that I got a reflection of her.  Sadly, I was shooting into the sun.

 A shot of her Algostack.

 She slowly pulled away, but it turns out she wasn't quite pulling away but going into the Belle Isle Anchorage.

 Since I saw that there would be another ship coming down in about an hour, I decided to go to Greektown for lunch.  I took this shot from the parking structure.

 And then I came back to Milliken to catch the next ship, which is to the right.

 A shot of her stern.

 She was twisting a little bit in the wind.

One more shot of her before I left.  I believe as of writing this post, she is still in the anchorage.  She is heading to Goderich to pick up a split load for Milwaukee and Chicago.

New Year's Day Wolverine

As I said in the last post, I took the opportunity today to get a picture of the Wolverine.  I think the train passing through the snow makes for some pretty cool pictures, especially if you can catch it kicking up the snow.  The snow today was pretty powdery, so I thought it would make for good train pictures.

 While taking pictures of boats is a pretty leisurely activity.  Train pictures are not, especially the Amtrak since it moves by pretty fast.  For my pictures today, I decided to go to a different spot.  I think it is a pretty angle for the eastbound trains.

 As you can see, the snow was coming up pretty heavy.

 One of the advantages of this angle is the fact that I can get a shot of Depot Town in the background and it seems to make a nice backdrop.

 I had to get back a little bit but it still made for a cool picture.

 Can almost feel the woosh on this picture.

 And about a minute or so later, the train is almost gone.

Especially as it vanishes into the snow.

A Snowy Day in Ypsilanti

I was thinking about heading over to Detroit today in order to catch my first ship of the year.  The weather gave me second thoughts as the roads were pretty slick but it didn't seem too bad.  As I was heading towards the Freeway, I nearly had a minivan hit me as he spun out.  Then he blew past me and through the light.  That was giving me pause, but I still headed towards the freeway.  The freeway looked clear but as I got on, it seemed pretty slick so I got off at the next exit and headed home.

After filling myself with breakfast, I decided that getting a picture of the train would be pretty cool on a day like today.  So I headed down to Depot Town for some pictures.  Here are the not-train pictures.

 This time I decided to grab my pictures of the train from other side near the Depot itelf.  So here is a shot of the freight house from an angle I don't normally get.

 Depot Town and it's namesake.

 Another shot of the freight house.  As you can see, the snow was coming down pretty hard.

 After getting my train pictures, I decided to wander around town for a little bit.  So here's a shot of part of Depot Town.

 The shot of Depot Town that I like better.  With the crappy weather, there wasn't a ton of traffic.

 Gave me a chance to get the shot of the clock again.  This one looks a little more holidayesque.

 Then I decided to wander over to Eastern's campus to get pictures of the Water Tower.

 Then a shot of Pease Auditorium.  I think I like it better with the walks cleared because I get some leading lines.

 Pierce Tower in the snow.

 I kind of like this shot of the Water Tower past the pampas grass.

 Then a shot over the trees.

 I kind of like this shot of Pease, but I think I would have liked it better with my other lens.  This isn't too bad though.

 I couldn't pass on a shot of the Paper Mill since that is right on the way home.  I kind of like some of the reflections in the water.

And one more shot.  You can see the building in the water a little better in this shot.

While I am disappointed that I didn't get a chance to get ship pictures but the fact that it kept snowing pretty much all afternoon took that disappointment away.  I don't think I would have liked to deal with the roads after all of that.