Thanks to Marc Piché

Marc Piché has photos of St. Lawrence shipping in all seasons, and truth be told, I haven’t had time to look through all these 22,000 + shots, but I will.

Ocean A. Simard recently assisted in getting the last ships out of the Seaway before the end of the season.

Ocean Echo II has appeared on this blog once before.

Ocean Georgie Bain has been here before but without snow cover.

This is what Montreal looks like as the days shorten.  Ocean Jupiter has appeared here before also, but on a rainy fall day.

 

Also from Marc, have you seen this boat before?  He took it while visiting Boston in January 1978!

Here’s my best matching shot, one that I took at the mouth of the Rondout in June 2012.

Why not another . . . I took this along the Troy waterfront park in 2013.

Many thanks to Marc for use of his photos.

 

Seasonal Closing for Seaway

“irrespective of operating conditions, all vessels must be clear of the Montreal-Lake Ontario section [of the St. Lawrence Seaway]  at 12:00 hours on December 31st, [2017].” quoted from Seaway Notice No. 26–2017

Above and below, Leonard M and Ocean A. Simard struggling to extricate Federal Biscay, as seen from Robinson Bay, on January 6, in temperatures double digits below zero, Fahrenheit.

Yet, here we are as of earlier this morning in the areas east and west of the Snell Lock [between groups 3 and 4].  Green AIS symbols are ships, all down bound, and aqua are tugs, assisting in that effort.   Key follows.  Check this news update from Massena NY on boatyard.com for January 8.

1  Pacific Huron.  It had grounded farther upstream in late December.

2  Performance and Robinson Bay

3  Federal Biscay and Ocean A. Simard.  Federal Biscay precipitated this delay, when it got stuck in Snell Lock last week.  It was freed Saturday. 

4  Billeborg, Beatrix, and Mitiq

5  Ocean Tundra and Martha L. Black

This should make for interesting story to follow on AIS or on FB group St. Lawrence River Ship Watchers.

Leo Ryan’s Maritime Magazine comments on the gold-headed cane ceremony each January in Montreal honoring the first ship into port of Montreal each year.  There should be a similar “recognition” of the last ship out of the Seaway.  Name suggestions, anyone?  Definitely there should be recognition of the efforts of the tug and ice breakers crews ensuring that the last ship gets out.  For some reason, I recall a kid’s book . . . The Story About Ping.

Many thanks to Nathan Jarvis for the top two photos and assistance with information.  The photo below I’m not sure who to credit to, but it shows Robinson Bay‘s efforts to extricate Federal Biscay last week.

And as of 10:54 today…

Federal Biscay and Pacific Huron are competing to be Ping;  the others are downstream following Black and Tundra.