A Pilot’s Life 2

Algoma Mariner (2011) heads upriver with a load of ore.  This time of year and until the St. Lawrence Seaway opens, Montreal is the head of navigation, so that’s where the ore will be discharged and sent further by rail.

Pilot exchange at Quebec City is facilitated by Ocean Ross Gaudreault (ORG).

 

 

Minutes after the exchange, ORG (94′ x 37′) cuts a swath back to the base

using its 5000 hp through the freshwater ice that’s come down from

Lake Saint Pierre.

Back in September, I got these photos of the pilots’ exchange.

 

For some info on the Canadian Pilots, Laurentian Region, click here.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

 

Océan Blue 2

Where has the time gone since I did Ocean Blue 1?  Well, it’s not been wasted.   Ocean blue seems at least as ubiquitous on the lower Saint Lawrence as  green-red G-tugs are to the upper Great Lakes watershed.

I took all these photos near their Quebec City base, nestled beneath the illuminated G3 grain elevators so reminiscent of the ones in Buffalo.

Right up front and center is Ocean Tundra, with Ocean Taiga looking over its starboard shoulder.  Are they still the most powerful Canada-built tugs at over 8000 hp?  I’m going to have to invest in winter layers so that I can come up in January and see these machines in ice mode.

Ocean Charlie docks here too.

Just in from an assist, Ocean Ross Gaudreault and Ocean Henry Bain return to base.   Click here for the particulars on all the Ocean vessels.

 

Here Ocean Ross Gaudreault and Ocean K. Rusby assist a heavily laden Garganey.

 

In the distance beyond Ocean Stevns, is that Jacques Cartier National Park?

And what blue-hulled vessel is that in the distance at the shipyard?

Ocean Guide does pilot exchange round the clock.

 

 

 

More Ocean vessels tomorrow.  All these photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s eager to return to Quebec.