Not so E-ZPass

Give me automated toll collection anyday. Around NYC and the mid-Atlantic states it’s called E-ZPass and using it bypasses the long lines of cars paying tolls for roads, bridges, tunnels, etc. In small towns fire fighters collect “optional” tolls by standing on the main drag with a boot. So below . . .

is an approach used on the Seaway. No, that’s not a long-handled boat brush.

It’s more like . . . pay up or the exit gate doesn’t open. It works.

I looked really carefully and when a laker came through, no manual toll collection was even attempted. In fact,

when Canadian Provider sailed through, they had both the entrance and exit gates open simultaneously.

Maybe it was the daunting flag staff on the bow . . . looked like a jousting lance. Definitely it had something to do with the fact that water level above and below the Iroquois Lock differs only about six inches. Inches, that was.

Photos, WVD.

Tails

Unlike most ships in the sixth boro, smaller ships–both lakers and salties on the Great Lakes–sport stern anchors.

Check out the anchor on Canadian Provider, and one

in the same location on English River. Where do you imagine the other complicated stern gear leads to?

Up the silo, as she offloads in Oswego.

So do stern anchors pose additional challenges, given proximity to the prop? Here’s a final stern anchor shot of a “light” salty taken and posted here in mid-July. Last week Tuesday early evening I spotted Marlene Green traveling upbound through the 1000 Islands with a new load of wind towers and turbines for–Duluth? Can anyone confirm that these towers ship from Spain?

I intended to call this post “tailhooks” until I remembered some convention almost two decades ago that leads me to make the association with “scandal” if I hear “tailhook,” even though it denotes just a device designed to assist in carrier landings.

See this link for interesting laker and salty fotos.

Photos, WVD.

Hwyh2o

When I wrote about the St Lawrence in June, I missed this.  Here’s the link.  The branding effort dates from about four years ago although it’s new to me.  I’m wondering why I saw signs “advertising” this organization on the Canadian side but not on the US side.  The concept is clear: one ship equals negative 870 trucks, much less noise,  and a tenth their fuel and emissions.  Here’s a commentary site.

Upbound Maritime Trader,

(Check out boatnerd’s exhaustive info here on specs and cargoes.) and

downbound Canadian Provider, (and again check out boatnerd’s page on this vessel)

upbound Canadian Navigator showing

pivot point of the self-unloader and (boatnerd’s page)

plumb bow with the ongoing sprinkler on the cargo hatches.

Can anyone explain the reason to keep some cargo hatches wet?

Photos, WVD.

 

Names 8

From left to right, the remorqueurs below in the port of Ogdensburg, New York, carry the names Lac Manitoba and Ecosse, seasoning exotique from north of the border. Lac Manitoba, built in Trenton, Ontario in 1944, hails from Montreal. Ecosse, from Wheatley, Ontario 1979, hails from Hamilton. Thanks to boatnerd, here are close-ups of Ecosse and Ecosse again. Thanks to shipspotting, here’s Lac Manitoba.

Unlike convenient ports of registry carried on the sterns of most cargo vessels in the sixth boro, here’s a refreshing name, aka the Soo.

I’ll post more on this salty soon.

Photos, WVD.

Seaway

Atlantic Huron arrives at Eisenhower Lock from Snell Lock. Cargo is iron ore from Labrador and loaded at Sept-Isles. Anyone know why the hatch covers are kept wet?

LOA is 736.’ Lock chamber is 740′ by 78.’ Breadth of vessel is 77.’ Notice the two crewmen standing by.  I heard no scraping along  the sides.

Crewman in yellow helmet also stands by just forward of the house. I’m intrigued by the enormity of the hydraulic ram that raises the self-unloader.

Seven minutes adds 42′ to the level of water in the lock chamber.

Atlantic Huron exits the lock upbound, maybe for Hamilton.

Next stop–Iroquois Lock. Play with this amazing interactive Seaway map.

Downbound Algoport, shown two days ago, approaches the Eisenhower Lock.

Seven hours later Atlantic Huron passes port of Ogdensburg. Ready for a most unexpected connection: click on Atlantic Huron and then click again on “related links.” Click on “CSL International” and then on “our fleet.” Alice Oldendorff is there, a cousin along with others like Ambassor, Barkald, and Bauta . . . all of whom have appeared on this blog.

Photos, WVD.

Seawaymax

740′ x 78′ x 26.’ Shoehorning won’t add an inch anywhere. Atlantic Huron, below and loaded with ore, squeezes in with inches on either side and only four feet length to spare.

Vertical lift in Eisenhower Lock is 42 feet.

The lock celebrates its half-centennial next year. I celebrated my return there after 44 years two days ago and feel the same excitement now as when I was 12.

More on Massena, the locks and the fourth coast later.

Although I’ve never seen them, the locks in Panama must look similarly maxed out when a Panamax vessel squeezes through. Got lube?

The lock functions for these “made-to-measures” as well as for 25-foot sailboats. Anyone know the fees for locking through in a recreational vessel? I don’t.

By the way, I’m now back in the sixth boro and finished with the Winooski.

Photos, WVD.