Monday, September 29, 2014

Closing Out With the Cedarglen

Normally, I would split this into two posts since I caught her in two places but I'm not really trying to get my post count up, so I will just post one picture of her.
 The last ship I would see yesterday was the Cedarglen.  She's appeared on this blog in the past and is probably one of my favorite rear deckers.
 That is mainly because she has a pretty odd pilothouse.
 Apparently, the reason why she is missing one bridge wing is because it was clipped off in Marquette as she was trying to load iron there.  But that gives her character, I think.
 She also wears the scares of a harsh winter pretty well.  Although, I suspect these may also be the scars from going through the Welland a few times.
 It's amazing how much punishment these boats can take.
 One more shot of her before leaving Marysville.
 Then I went back to Port Huron to catch her as she was entering Lake Huron.
 A nice three quarters view.
A profile view.
 A straight shot of her pilothouse.
 She is about to pass under the Bridge.
One more shot before leaving.

I was also hoping to catch the Lee A. Tregurtha yesterday but she decided to stop for fuel.  By the time she got moving again, it would be almost dark by the time she passed Algonac.  I didn't think I would get good shots of her, so I passed on that.  At any rate, it was pretty nice to get out boatwatching yesterday.

Apollon but Out of Order

The next ship is out of order because I wanted to keep the pictures of the ship in order.
 It's amazing when I see the same saltie twice. It's even more amazing when I see the same saltie three times.  It seems like the runs for salties are so odd that I will rarely see them more than once.  I don't think I've ever seen the same saltie twice in one season.
 Well this makes the third time that I've seen the Apollon this season.  First I caught her in Port Huron.  Then I caught her in Duluth as she was continuing that particular journey.
 It looks like she got a fresh coat of paint between then and now.  She doesn't quite look like the beat up boat I saw earlier.
 I was playing around with video, so I didn't get my normal profile shot.
Surprisingly, she is a Greek registered vessel.  It seems like many of the salties are not registered in their home country.

Next Up by the Pineglen

For the next ship, I decided to head down to Marysville and catch her there.
 That gave me the opportunity for the headshot.
 But that opportunity doesn't last long.  I did like the way the light was hitting her hull though.
 She was giving me the nice angles.
 And the lighting was just about perfect.
 I didn't quite get the profile shot though.
 A shot of her bow.
 And pilothouse.
And one more shot before she moved on.

And Then There Was the Presque Isle

The next ship after the Philip R. Clake was the tug/barge Presque Isle.
 She's actually my favorite tug/barge because if you didn't know better, you would think she's a proper ship.  Plus her bow was built in my hometown.
 I didn't quite get a chance for a headshot with this ship either but pretty close.
 But I did get the nice three quarters shot.
 The wind was blowing well enough that the ship looked like she was flying.
 Still had the nice blue sky.
 The smoke from the stack was flying even more.
 A shot of the tug portion.  As I said, if you didn't know any better, you wouldn't think she was a tug/barge.
 She makes her way to the bridge.
One more shot.

The Philip R. Clarke Passes By

It wasn't long before I saw my first ship.  She was the ship I was looking for though.
 The Philip R. Clarke worked her way around the bend and came into view.
 She almost gave me a head shot but not quite.
But I got an almost straight shot.
 She did give me the three quarters view I like a little better and since the water was a little choppy, she had a nice bow wake going.
 The River was still a nice shade of blue because it was a nice day yesterday.
 I'm glad that I decided to head up to Port Huron yesterday.
 She has a lovely profile.
 And then she works her way under the Bridge.
She slowly works her way under the Bridge.
 Giving a nice stern shot.
A nice little plume of steam.
It was still a little hazy on the Lake.

A Lovely Day on the St. Clair River

So I decided to head over to Port Huron yesterday.  It was a nice enough day and there was a fair amount of traffico n the river.
 Had I realized it was foggy, I would have gotten up a little earlier because there were a few ships that passed earlier.  They would have looked cool in the fog.
 The fog seemed to have been pretty much limited to the Lake Huron side of the bridge though.
 I'm not sure what kind of tugboat this was, but I thought it looked pretty cool.
 This one is a fishing tug.
 The pilot boat returning from a salty that was anchored just off the Blue Water Bridge.
 I wish I could have gotten this shot with a real ship though.
 I kind of liked the reflections in the water.
 Johnathon Livingstone.
 A powered glider.  It was actually flying in formation with another plane like it.
 A sailboat.
 Another seagull.
 This is a Cessna 182.
 The Hollyhock.
 The Fairchem Yuka getting fuel at the dock.  This vessel is owned by Fairfield Chemical Carriers out of Wilton, CT.  Not sure where it is registered though.
 A duck.
 Another seagull.
And I end with the commorant.