Still Dodging Rain at Whitefish Point

I was going to pass on going up to Whitefish Point, but since I was already close enough, I figured what the heck.  The rain wasn't quite as bad but it was still pouring a bit.

 Somehow, lighthouse pictures look better with some weather behind them.

 A shot of the tower.

 Lake Superior still looked fairly angry.

 Pulled out a little to get more of the shoreline.

 A shot of the foghorn.

 Looking up at the tower.

 A full on shot of the lighthouse.

And one more shot with the flags flying in the strong winds.

All in all, it was a pretty nice trip.  I'm glad that another milestone of this blog has been reached.  The next one will be the five year anniversary I think.

I want to thank all of my regular readers.  Do continue to come here.

Dodging the Raindrops at Tahquamenon Falls

Because the weather was so crappy, I was waffling about whether or not I wanted to actually go to the Falls.  But this trip was in commeration of a milestone and since the Falls figure so prominently on this blog, I had to go over there.

 As I was getting closer, I was seeing that some of the trees were starting to change color, so I was hoping that they would be a little more at the falls.  That wasn't to be, but the falls were still pretty.

 My normal shot with the shutter speed slowed to get some motion.

 Moving on to the next spot.

 And then the next spot.

 I didn't want to further dodge the raindrops to get down to the brink.

I will admit, the rain makes for some interesting pictures though.

The Orsula

It's not often these days that I see a ship that I haven't seen before.  But I had that chance.

In this case, that ship was the Orsula.  She is owned by a company out of Croatia but is operated under charter by FedNav.  She started life as the Federal Calumet and was built in 1996.   She is similar to the Federal St Laurent.

Gott Boat?

So my next ship was the Edwin H. Gott.  I just missed her at Sherman Park, so I headed back to the Locks because I wanted one picture of a ship in the Locks.

 I made it just in time to see her as she enters the Poe Lock.  This was taken from my spot on the fence.  I think this presents the best view at the Locks.

 The giant vessel slowly works her way into the lock.  It's amazing that there are ships this big on the Lakes and it's even more amazing that the Locks can handle them.

 It was still raining, but I think that made for a cooler picture with the little puddles on the sidewalk.

 Slowly she works her way into the Lock.

 And I get an almost full shot of her in the lock.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 Not sure what this is.

 A pulled out shot of her pilothouse.

 Then I headed back to the car, to get one more shot of her.

 And it was back to the park near the Hydro Plant.  The clouds made for a nice background.

 She passes by slowly.

 The almost straight on shot.

And the straight on shot.

And one more before moving on.

The H. Lee White Makes a Brief Appearance

We were getting ready to leave, and I saw that there were a couple ships near the locks.  I wanted to catch them before leaving.

 First up was the H. Lee White which is owned by the American Steamship Company.  I wasn't able to catch her in the locks, so I headed up to Sherman Park to catch her as she was leaving.

 As you can see, the weather wasn't particularly cooperative.

 At 704 feet long, she is a fairly decent sized ship and can go through the Welland Canal.

One more shot before moving on.

The Baie St Paul

The next ship is another that I caught while on the boat tour.  She was coming downbound as we were on the tour.  This is a ship that I was hoping that we would catch, but I wasn't sure if it would happen.

 Another shot where I come close to hitting my picture trifecta.  I managed to get a plane in this shot.  If only I could get a train.

 The Baie St Paul has been on this blog before, so I'm not going to go into her history.  Not that she has history seeing how she has only been on the Lakes for a year.

 She is the first of the new Chinese builds for Canada Steamship Lines.

 It's amazing how rough she already looks even though she's only been in service for a year.  Some of the older ships look better.  I think.

 But I think she has a pretty neat looking pilothouse.

 A fairly clean background for her.

 One more shot from the boat.

 After getting off the boat, I saw that I had a chance to catch her from land.  The lighting was a little better for me, so I headed to the park to catch her.

 I was just about in the golden light time.

 She slowly works her way down the river.

And one more shot of her before moving on.

The Federal St. Laurent

The next ship that I saw was the Federal St. Laurent.  She is actually making her debut appearance on this blog.

 The Federal St Laurent is owned by Federal Navigation out of Montreal Quebec.  She is one of a number of salties that travel the Great Lakes.

 She was docked by the steel mill.  I'm not quite sure what she was picking up though.

 Built in 1996, she is one of the older vessels in the fleet (but not the oldest).  She is 656 feet long and can carry a little over 34,000 tons of cargo.

 Again, one of the nice aspects of being in the boat.

One more shot of her.