Random Shots From Along the River

Just some random shots as I wandered along the river.

 The ferry heading back to Marine City.

 A power boat speeding along the St. Clair River.

 The US and Canadian Flags with a flowering tree in the foreground.

 A family of geese.

 Another shot of a family of geese.

 The Canadian Coast Guard speeding along the St. Clair River.

Another picture from my new lens.  I like the fact that I can get fuller shots of buildings.  This is the Holy Cross Church in Marine City.

And the Presque Isle

Next up is the Presque Isle.  If I would have stopped to get pictures of the Pineglen and got up sooner to take pictures of the Barker, I would have taken pictures of 8 ships yesterday.  But six ships isn't bad for a day's work.

 The Presque Isle is the only intergrated tug barge that I like.  For the most part, she looks like a proper ship.  Especially if the only pictures you see from her are from this angle.

 Besides, I have to like that bow, since it was built in Bay City.

 A closeup of that bow.  The Presque Isle is another 1000 footer.

 Another three quarters shot.

 Another shot of her bow.

 She is actually a pretty sleek looking ship.

 A shot of her boom and pilothouse.

 Just her pilothouse.  Now you can see that  she's actually a tug/barge.

 She works her way up the St. Clair.

And one more shot of her.

American Integrity Passes St. Clair

Why can't you find American Integrity in Washington D.C.?  Becasue she travels around the Great Lakes.  Sorry, bad joke but she's a cool ship.

 American Integrity starts to peek around the Algomarine.  Shame I couldn't get this shot from above because you would see the difference between the two ships.  The American Integrity is a thousand footer.  The Algomarine is less than that.

 Here you start to get a better idea of her thousand feet.

 And she works her way into veiw, giving me my favorite angle.

 The Algomarine starts to slip out of view.

 The Amerian Integrity becomes more prominent.

 And I get another chance to try out my new lens.

 I almost can her full view from straight on.

 But not quite.

 She pulls away.

 A shot of the rear of her pilothouse.

 I was trying to get one of those Star Destroyer shots.

And one more shot before she moves on.

Suprise Visitors

As I was waiting for the next ship, I heard the distinctive sound of a jet.

Fortunately, I had the right lens on my camera because I didn't have long to take pictures.  The jet sound was the first of a pair of A-10 Thunderbolts that were heading down the river.  They are based out of Selfridge Air National Guard Base.

 She was developed in the late 70's as a tank buster aircraft.  As you can see from this picutre, the plane can carry a bunch of weapons.  If you look just below the nose, you will see her 30mm cannon.  Because, tanks are pretty heavy, they have to make compromises on where their armor is placed, therefore they are fairly lightly armored on the top.  The 30mm cannon is very effective against that.  If the cannon doesn't work, the plane can carry plenty of other weapons.

 She is a subsonic aircraft and built with survivability in mind.  Many of her systems are redundant.  For instance, she can fly home with one engine.  I think she can look a chunk of wing and still fly.  The cockpit is encased in a titanium shell to protect the pilot.

 And then I saw another one.  This one was flying closer to the shot, so I had a chance to get better pictures.

 The Air Force has tried to kill the program several times even though it is a very lethal aicraft.  Every time the Air Force tries to kill it, the Army offers to fly it and the Air Force gives in.  Shame the F-22 doesn't get the same level of scrutiny.

 And the A-10 starts to head off.

She banks towards Selfridge.

In the upper left is the A-10, making this almost my dream shot.

And Now the Algomarine

While I was in Port Huron, I stopped at the Maritime Center for a second.  As I was heading outside, I saw that Algomarine was heading downbound.  I rushed to my car to get my camera, so that I could get some shots of her.

 Fortunately, I moved quickly enough to get some shots of her but since she was heading downbound, I would have other opportunities.

 Here she passes her fleetmate, the Algosteel.  Again, they both said hello.

 Because of other things, the next place that I could catch her was St. Clair.  Here you can see how loaded down she is.  I'm not sure where she was heading but she was definately loaded.

 She makes her turn into the channel.

 A shot of her pilothouse.  She is another Algoma vessel that I really like.

 Here she is about to pass American Integrity.

 She works her way down the St. Clair.

 A stern shot.

 So then I headed to Algonac, to catch her one more time.

 She slowly approaches my spot.

 A shot of her bow.

 And pilothouse.

 And the straight out shot.

And one more for good measure.