Don't Let Mass Balloons Go

 People like to let masses of balloons go into to the air.  I get it, it looks cool but people never think of what happens when the balloons come back down.

Most of the time, they end up on the land somewhere and can get cleaned up.  But occasionally, they will end up in the water and can't necessarily get fished out.  What's one balloon you say?  Well, it adds up with all the other crap in the water.  So please, don't do it.

The Saginaw Makes an Appearance

 Today wasn't a particularly busy boat day.  The Welland Strike was still going on but I heard that it was settled and the Welland Canal would open up tomorrow.  So I was thinking of going down to Indianapolis to catch an air show but then I checked the weather and that didn't look promising.  So I looked at Marine Traffic again and saw that a couple of cool ships would be passing Port Huron at roughly the same time, so I decided to head up there.

The first ship was the Mesabi Miner but I missed her because I went back to bed for a bit.  I figured I could catch her elsewhere on the St. Clair River but I took too long with the ships I did catch, so I missed her.

First up for me was the Saginaw.  She was one of the ships that I was hoping to catch.  

The AIS said that she was heading down from Sault Ste. Marie but sometimes it shows the last port the ship visited and not necessarily their origin.  

Then I looked up her past track on AIS and it looks like she was coming down from Meldrum Bay.

And I think that means she was carrying stone.

She was taking that stone to Marine City and she is still unloading as I type up this post.

I'm guessing that she is pretty close to finishing her unloading and will be heading to her next destination.

Her trip was roughly 12 hours.

And that is a fairly short trip on the Great Lakes.

Her second bow shot.

She makes the turn for the channel.

The other quarter view.

One more of that.

She passes under the Blue Water Bridge.

I didn't bring my drone because I thought it was going to be raining or windy.  Either thing is not good for my drone.

I like this shot.  As you can see, the clouds are pretty ominous.

The beam shot.

She continues down the river.

She has a nice stern.

She will be at her destination in about a couple hours after this point.

The Herbert C. Jackson on the Saginaw River

 So like I said in my last post, I saw that the Herbert C. Jackson was making her way to the Saginaw River.  Her destination said, "Bay City/Saginaw" which I assumed meant that she was carrying a split load for both the Bay City and Saginaw docks.

When I first looked at it, I misinterpreted the time that she would be arriving in Bay City at 1:00P.M. today.  I'm not sure what I was thinking.  She hit the mouth of the river at 1:00A.M. last night.  But then I did the math in my head.  I figured it was about two hours to the first dock.  Split load meant about a three hour unload there.  Then it would be another two or three hours to the next dock with another three hour unload.  That gave me plenty of time.

Anyway, she was heading down from Drummond Island and that meant a load of stone.

And if my guesses were correct, she was delivering to the Wirt Stone Dock in Bay City and the Wirt Stone Dock in Essexville.

I was hoping that my estimates on time were correct because I had to get a blood draw.  It turned out that I hit it almost perfect because she was heading up the river at about the time I exited at River Road.

I think this is still in Zilwaukee.  It wasn't a bad spot but I think there are better spots.

She passes a power line.

There was still a bit of color.

One more shot here.

Both my mom and I had to go to the bathroom.  There is a spot with a boatlaunch and a port a pottie.  It worked because that was the next spot.  

The place where I would be able to take pictures was a little closer, so I just used my drone here.

Unfortunately, I was shooting into the sun for many of them.

But I guess it wasn't too bad.

You could see a little more color in this one.

She continues up the river.

Next I went to where the Cass Avenue Bridge used to be.  This is a pretty nice spot to catch a ship.

It is also a nice spot to catch an eagle, I guess.

I will have to say the Jackson is a nice looking ship.

She continues past a little more color.

Unfortunately, the lens on my drone was fogged up here, so I didn't get any drone shots.  From what I could see, they would have been nice.

I moved to the other side of the river, where I got some pictures as she started to pass through the Veterans Bridge.

Again, these were pretty close, so I just used my drone.

This was one of the shots I was hoping to get today.

And the sun was at my back this time, so the exposure was a little better.

You can see City Hall in the background.

This is the Doubletree Hotel.

I like this shot.

And this is the tourism shot.  You can see downtown Bay City in the background.

So then I moved to Smith Park in Essexville.  This is another spot where I like to catch ships.

She passes a railroad bridge.

Getting close to a bow shot.

I had to pull back to get more of the Bridge.

She makes the turn for the outbound part of the river.

A bow shot.

An angle shot.

Probably my favorite angle.

And another.

And then I switched to my drone.

I tried to get an oblique angle for the sun, it almost worked.

I just wish there was a nicer background.

An almost beam shot.

And she passed by.

The mouth of the river is not too far from ehre.

She passes the Cement plant.

She is registered in a city she will likely never see.  As I type this, she is on her way to Stoneport to pick up more stone.  Not sure what her destination will be though.