Really Random Means

… or I could call this  “Allen Funt would never have predicted this.  I watched Candid Camera for a short time back in the 1960s.  Even though I know stationary surveillance cameras are everywhere, not to mention the ones each of us carry in our pockets, I tend to forget that they ARE everywhere.  Actually, when I walk into my building, I pass at least three cameras going through the lobby and down my hall.

Having stated all that, I present this set of photos with good intentions:  Call this Brinn Courtney‘s Great Lakes trip.

Here are some photos upbound on May 10, this one with a “footer” Indiana Harbor coming up behind at about double the speed of the tugboat.

 

As I said, we live in a world of surveillance, and the cameras, as this shot illustrates, are of high quality.  This is a much better shot than my Instamatic of a half century ago would have captured.  For one thing, the Instamatic had no zoom, and the Marine City MI Streamtime is staffed.  Hat tip, folks.

 

This morning, Brinn Courtney was downbound light, coming through the Detroit River in glorious May sunshine.

Taking the screenshot, I had to get it here because the webcam on the Dossin Museum pans automatically.  A second later it panned back to the left.  Yes, those are the Ambassador and Gordie Howe Bridges in the distance. 

All photos by webcams.  Any errors, WVD.

Brinn Courtney is Boston bound, and will transit the Welland Canal and Saint Lawrence in the next few days.

Check out how I got photos of Tradewinds Towing Rachel in the Panama Canal here back in 2014.

Remember:  if you think you’re alone and no one will see, smile [or frown] . . . you’re on some camera somewhere.  NYC’s sixth boro has its own StreamTime Live camera in Red Hook.. Feel like projecting your eyes elsewhere via StreamTime Live?  Check out their cameras here.

 

Riverbanks 13

The annual Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center results from a construction worker-placed tree back in 1931.  

The murals at the top of each tower on the rising Gordie Howe Bridge in Detroit result from similar impulses…  A link to the story follows below, but for now, just have a look and draw your own conclusions as you analyze the implied choices: above it’s the symbol of Detroit and the US flag, and below it’s the maple leaf, indigenous images of two figures under a tree on a “turtle” island with furry creatures below, and a bear assemblage to the right, dominated by a polar bear.

No matter than source of the impulse, the choices in each differ a lot.

It turns out that different symbols not visible from the water decorate the land side of the image below.

Here’s the top-to-water of the US side, and

here the same for the Canadian.

A beam was being lowered as we passed.

Note the worker.

The Ambassador will be a century old in 2029, and its statistics are astounding as you can read in this article.

Here a down bound American Mariner passes what will one day be a completed span.

All photos, WVD.

And the story of the murals?  This article makes for some good reading.

Random Tugs 297

That big “300” is beckoning, so although I had other posts planned . . .  let’s increment closer to that 300.  I’m inviting your participation here so that i can make it the best “non-random” random post.  Random Tugs 001 was here. Random Tugs 100 was more than seven years later, and 200 was about four years after that.

What better way to start than with these two photos of W. O. Decker, taken yesterday by Glenn Raymo.  Yes, that’s the Walkway over the Hudson.  Decker is taking a freshwater cure.

Many previous posts featuring Decker can be seen here.

Kimberly Turecamo assisted an MSC box boat in recently.  A less dynamic photo of Kimberly appeared yesterday.  The founder of MSC, Gianluigi Aponte, is alive and well in Italy.

Sarah D was on this blog recently with a unique tow; usually she pushes vessels like this.   But hey . . . it pays the bills.

Andrea follows a box ship to the NJ portions of the sixth boro.

Reaching back into the archives a bit, here was Honcho in San Juan PR.  I took this photo in March 2013.  She’s been all around.  I’ve forgotten, though, whether she actually worked on the Great Lakes.   I need to find out also what she looks like now that she’s a Moran boat.

Back in April 2012, I caught Bruce A. McAllister bringing in Mars, marked as registered in San Francisco.  Mars went onto a heavy lift ship over to Nigeria.  The photo makes me curious about traveling to Mars.

See the tugboat here?  Name the bridge in the background?

Between Algoma Olympic and CSL Laurentian, it’s Leo A. McArthur, built in Penglai China in 2009. Believe it or not, Penglai was the birthplace and boyhood home of Henry Luce, the magazine guy!

Did you recognize the last two photos as the Detroit River, and the bend between Detroit and Windsor.  The reason I asked about the bridge . . . the Ambassador Bridge is that the owner died yesterday.    Manuel “Matty” Maroun was 93. The 1929-built bridge, as well as the duty-free stores in its vicinity, have been owned by Maroun since 1979.

Many thanks to Glenn for use of the Decker photos.  All others by WVD.

 

 

GWA7: negotiating the straits of Erie

“Motor city” is another name for Detroit, but “detroit” is only part of the name for the waterway given by the French explorer Cadillac when he led the first Europeans to settle “Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit” on a bank of “le détroit du lac Érié,”  the strait of Lake Erie), linking Lake Huron and Lake Erie; historically,  the strait included the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River.

Some time after departing the Cuyahoga, we pass this mysterious site.  Any ideas?  I’ll identify it at the end of this post.

If you’re not at the helm, straits bring the treat of relatively close passage with other traffic, like Dorothy Ann and Pathfinder here.

Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial is a 352′ monument we can all live with, sans controversy.

As we approach the center of the contemporary city of Detroit, traffic and industry intensify.   I’d never noticed GLW’s glowing slag heaps, like crafted flows of lava.

On the Windsor side, Frontenac transfers payload .  . not sure what.  Salt maybe?

On the American side, 1000′ Edwin H. Gott is likely discharging Superior ore or taconite.

Sturgeon Bay-built Sam Laud watches from the Rouge.  Laud, the namesake, moved from shop painter and riveter to CEO of GATX.

Folks on the bridge of Algoma Olympic, Port Weller-built and down bound here just south of the Ambassador Bridge, must be experiencing the frustration of having to worry about devil-may-care recreational boaters.  Recently, a high profile meeting of stake holders was held at Port Huron to deal with difficult small boat operators, one in particular who decided to play chicken with a freighter .

Last year this China-built tug was called Victorious;  now she’s know as Leo A. McArthur, and as then, she pushes hot asphalt contained in John J. Carrick.

Patricia Hoey (built 1949) is a good example of the extended life experienced by freshwater boats.

A McAsphalt unit like Leo A. McDonald, Everlast, matched as always with Norman McLeod, is Japan-built.

I’d love to learn more about this Windsor home, but the name on the facade is that of the Massachusetts-born founder of Canadian Club whisky.

Just north of Belle Isle, SS Ste. Claire, Boblo ferry sister of SS Columbia,  marks Kean’s Marina.

And with night falling and work for me to do, we’ll leave this post only partway through the strait with Kaye E. Barker, once Benson Ford III.  Notice the GMRenCen in the distance just forward of the front of the self-unloading arm?  GMRenCen was built by Ford.

The return of daylight will find us in Lake Huron.  To see the St. Clair River by daylight, click here.  All photos and sentiments by Will Van Dorp.

The sinuous structures in the top photo depict Cedar Point as seen from a few miles out in the lake.