Springtime on an LCM

If you haven’t read it yet, here’s my Professional Mariner article on “barging” in the area of the St. Lawrence River called the Thousand Islands. Since there’s plenty of reading there, I’ll just make this mostly a photo post.  LCM owner Jake Van Reenen took all but the last three photos in this post.

In February, the LCM and everything else “afloat” is actually ice-trapped.   Folks who live year-round on the islands travel by snow machine.

By late March, the ice has turned to liquid, and navigation starts to resume on the Seaway. 

It’s April and houses on the islands need a visit from the fuel truck.

In May, folks from “away” begin to return, sometimes bringing their own supplies.

All manner of vehicles travel to the Islands in early June, when

I visited.  The photos below I took  . . .

As we traveled with an empty fuel truck back to Clayton, we took the stern of

Vikingbank, headed upbound for Duluth!! for grain.

Captain Jake and deckhand Patsy Parker.

 

Summer and early fall photos from Seaway Marine Group will follow.

If you’re interested in reading a great book on Andrew J. Higgins, the developer of these boats, try this one by Jerry E. Strahan.

For my post on another LCM cleaning up Sandy debris, click here. For my post on repurposed LSTs, one I’ll be traveling on tomorrow, click here.