2020 Calendar July and August

Yes, I missed doing this in July, so today I play catch-up.

Three vessels were on the July page.  First, it’s Louis C, a small tanker reborn as a small crane ship.  I was last aboard her on a very cold morning in January 2020.  The enclosed workshop forward of the wheelhouse features a wood burning stove that has no appeal in August but was very welcome in January.

Fugro Enterprise, now as then, is working off Atlantic City, making bathymetric charts of the area where the 99 turbines of Ocean Wind will soon sprout above the surface of the waves.

The third and more prominent boat on the July calendar page is Nathan G, and rather than use a photo from July 2019, let me put up this one from July 2020, where Nathan G is one of the tugs escorting USS Slater to the dry dock.  That dry docking will soon be finished, and Nathan G will possibly accompany the destroyer escort back to Albany.  For more info on Slater and memberships, click here.

For August, on 17 August 2019 at 0615 and we were at the western end of Lake Ontario approaching Port Weller.  You’re looking over the after deck of Grande Caribe.  In case you’ve not heard, Blount Small Ships Adventures made a shocking announcement this Monday that their BSSA vessels are for sale. 

Welland Canal pilot vessel Mrs C approached ready to deliver a pilot, having just

retrieved one from the down bound Federal Yukina.

A few days later in August at 0722 and at the northern end of Crystal Island in the Detroit River, about 50 miles north of Toledo OH and 25 south of Detroit MI, we passed

Edgar B. Speer as she was about to enter the down bound lane between Crystal Island and Stony Island.

Speer is one of the 1000-footer, aka “footers” who ply the Upper Lakes unable to get beyond Lake Erie because they greatly exceed the dimensions of the Welland Canal.  Speer‘s cargo  capacity is 73,700 tons.   That would be a lot of trucks.

All photos, WVD.

CB 2019 G

The rosy fingers of dawn paint the eastern sky, as we

prepare to meet the pilot boat off Port Weller, which means Lake Ontario is nearly behind us.  The pilot has just departed Federal Yukina via Mrs C, and

and readies to join us.

Summertime is the repair season for icebreakers like CCGS Pierre Radisson, named for the renegade French fur trapper.

Behold the immense entrance to the double flight at Welland lock 4.

A crewman on Tim S. Dool employs and time-tested communication device, and it actually works well.

Saginaw discharges coal.

CSL Welland meets us.

Just before climbing W-8, we pass Federal Seto, Happy Rover, and wait for

Algoma Strongfield.

Atlantic Huron is tied up just north of the scrapyard . . . but that’s for tomorrow’s post.

All photos in the Welland Canal by Will Van Dorp, who posts about four days behind these days since wifi is not always available.  When this post appears today, we are approaching the south end of Lake Huron.