CB10

Let’s call this the leg between East China, MI and Roger City, MI.  A faster vessel–Happy River–over take us soon before we both

 

passed Damia Desgagnes.

North of the Blue Water Bridge, we passed Huron Spirit after she exchanged the pilots on Happy River.

Once out in the width and depths of Lake Huron, we passed CSL Niagara.

Sparta pushed barge Sparta II, containing some sort of liquid.

 

Manitowoc was down bound.

So was Joyce L. VanEnkvort. pushing Great Lakes Trader.

 

The last time I saw her she was just about coming out of hibernation here.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

CB9

Call this Ambassador Bridge Detroit to Lake St. Clair, the sixth Great Lake.  For starters at sunrise, it’s Argentia Desgagnes.  

Offloading coal at USSteel, it’s Clyde S. Van Enkvort, formerly a DonJon tug.

Here’s a waterside view of Cheyenne.

Upclose to the Detroit Jazz Fest, it’s Lake Guardian and

Escanaba, WMEC-907.

Farther north, it’s Bristol Bay and

this tragic sight of SS Ste Clair, sister ship of SS Columbia.

And closing out this post, it’s a Seadoo above the lifeboat of

Salvage Monarch.  A hanging Seadoo like this is something I’ve never seen before.  It strikes me as a good idea.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

CB8

This is Toledo to Detroit . . .and we start with Bessie B 

making her way out toward the mouth of the Maumee River.

Laid up . . . it’s Manistee.

This post is geographically arranged . . . otherwise, I’d put this first.  Tug Wisconsin used to be America, launched 1897!!

This ferry is in the Detroit River, crossing between Bois Blanc Island and Amherstburg, both in Ontario.

Wagenborg has lots of vessels, this one for the location appropriately named Americaborg.

 

CSL Tadoussac heads upstream and

H. Lee White, who has a museum named for him in Oswego . . .  down bound.

Here’s some info about Mr. White.

And off the stern of John G. Munson . . .

the new digs for Cheyenne, a former denizen of the sixth boro.

 

And closing it out behind Zug Island . . . it’s Missassagi, unloader stowed and minutes away from the next upbound trip.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

CB7

Call this Buffalo to Cleveland.  Starting out with the other half of the Erie Canal inaugural trip of DeWitt Clinton, yes there was a Buffalo ceremony too, and it wasn’t a wedding.  Rather, maybe it was the reception when they offered appeasement to the Lake gods.

up the Buffalo river, it’s NACC Argonaut offloading at the LaFarge elevator.

Cotter . . . it’s my first time seeing her outside the river and under way!

Kraig K . . .  my first time to see a commercial boat fishing on Lake Erie.

 

BBC Kibo . . . in port in front of the city.

Eagle, a 1943 Bay City tug,  with matching bridge….

Sam Laud takes about two hours to back out of the Cuyahoga, using thrusters at stern

and bow.

And let’s end with Meredith Ashton. 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, currently at wifi in Manitowoc.

 

 

CB6

MRC is located on the east side of the entrance to the Welland Canal.  This was a part of the trip I was eager to see. I recall seeing English River for as long as I’ve taken photos on the Lakes.  Paul H. Townsend I first saw here.

Townsend dates from 1945, and

English River  . . . from 1961. Here’s a post I did on her 10 years ago.

 

Marcoux Princess of Acadia arrived here on a towline from the Maritimes.  Click here for photos of her on the Saint Lawrence a year and a half ago.

 

Doubled up at the south end of the scrap yard were Algorail and Algoway, launched in 1968 and 1972, respectively.

 

Algoway on a towline was featured here.  This is the first post that includes Algorail.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

CB5

This is Oswego to Port Colborne, by way of Rochester . . . actually Charlotte on the genes.   The whale-watch headed Grande Caribe.  No . . . the Great Lakes have no whales. At the port is Robert S. Pierson, a river-class bunker.

I repeat a variation of this image.  The Erie canal flows under the arched bridge and the Genesee . . . under the longer, flatter bridge.

We take a pilot right outside Port Weller, the Ontario end of the Welland Canal, and then

enter upbound.

 

Nassau-flagged Victory II met us between locks 7 and 8.

From right to left here, that’s Pierson  again, a sailing vessel, and Capt. Henry Jackman.

Now more on that sailing vessel . . . schooner Empire Sandy.  You have to read this link:  she started her life as a tugboat!

HMCS Oriole is a 1921 ketch, whose origins hearken back to both Toronto and Neponset, MA.

 

Capt. Henry Jackman waits in Port Colborne as does

Baie St Paul. Jackman was built in the Collingwood Shipyards, whereas St Paul comes from Jiangsu China.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

CB4

This will be Rome to Oswego, a downstream run. With a drone, I would have gotten the other boat and our own.

 

Fishing might be good at Three Rivers.

Tug Syracuse waits at the section yard.

 

The Oswego River appears tor teem with fish, sought by man and raptor.

As it’s Saturday, Canal equipment waits at Minetto and

Oswego.

Only lock O-9 divides the river here with the Great Lakes.

All photos by will Van Dorp.

 

CB3

Let’s make this Fonda–current location of Urger— to Marcy, beginning of one of the highest sections of the Canal.

Approaching E-13 westbound, there’s a row of yellow painted bollards . . . starting from lower left here.

Each of those yellow bollards is on a sunken concrete barge. More sunken concrete barges can be seen at E-09.

We encountered lots of traffic . . .

including Dolphin, a

Canadian beaut.

Other traffic included Lil Diamond II and

Roman Holiday. 

At Marcy, Governor Roosevelt and

Erie were in the water, as were two buoy boats not shown.

x

 

 

CB2

This is day 3, the Rondout brought a surprising visitor in the form of

Kalmar Nyckel.  When I’m back, I’ll do a whole post of this vessel.

These photos are included chronologically, so you’d be correct to conclude that north of the Rondout there are signs of nature.   Foreign mariners especially must be surprised by all these critters.

 

The port of Coeymans always has activity, briefly docked here are Mister Jim

and James Turecamo.

Betty D is southbound just below the Federal Lock at Troy.

x

Once in the Canal, we are treated to many boats, including Governor Cleveland, 

BB 109, 

and Day Peckinpaugh.  Farther west, we pass the

Mohawk Harbor, the former Alco plant, dominated by the cube that is Walthousen reactor. 

and a self-propelled scow.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Chicago Bound 1

 i.e., CB.  I’m writing this on the 8th . . .  my first encounter with serious wifi. After today, I might not have wifi again for a spell.   Last year I posted about this trip under the title GWA.  Two years ago it was Go West.

Let me post some highlights from August 1 and 2, and Chelsea Piers to the Rondout.  Note the fireboat 343 below,

Left Coast Lifter at Spuyten Duyvil,

 

USAVs Chickahominy and Missionary Ridge across from West Point,

Helen Laraway pushing a handful of barges southbound toward the Highlands,

 

Our vessel down the hill from

Newburgh’s historic district,

Penobscot Bay heading down river,

Philadelphia upbound,

Hudson leaving the Rondout for the Hudson,

and Johannsen Girls doing the same.

All photos by Will Van Dorp on August 1 and 2.