Great lake boats, a good video

[RSKY]

Interesting, thanks for posting..

RSKY

 

[JerryK]

Live skycam at locks ... Sault Ste. Marie Live Skycam - Northern Michigan's News Leader

 

[ArlyA]

Today we happen to catch the US CG BRISTOL BAY pass through town. This is a Coast Guard Ice breaking tug who was out on buoy tending duty. That means there putting them in for the summer. Here is more info on the tug. Bay-class icebreaking tug - Wikipedia

In the first photo, the background is a ski area. In the last one you ca see some red buoys in the barge. The photos are taken while looking north into Ripley or Hancock MI.

 

[ArlyA]

I should add that we normally see the CG cutter Alder based in Duluth MN doing the buoy tending here. On it you see its open deck with a crane which is used to move buoys in and out of the lake. Here is the Alder at work breaking ice in Duluth harbor.

The Coast Guard cutter Alder goes out to break ice in Lake Superior and the Duluth harbor - YouTube

Here is good photos of it.

Frozen photos of Coast Guard clearing ice-encased Cutter Alder | MLive.com

 

[nybirdman]

You think you could "keep" some of your water "home".Lake Ontario/St.Lawrence River are over-flowing!Just kidding of course;Mother Nature at her best.Record high water is causing's some grief here for sure,lots of debris in the water right now.

 

[cqaigy2]

There is a pretty interesting series on the website, Instructables, about a 630' freighter.

Getting a 630' Great Lakes Freighter Into the Old River ... - Instructables Here is one link, hopefully. :laughing:

 

[fried1765]

I should add that we normally see the CG cutter Alder based in Duluth MN doing the buoy tending here. On it you see its open deck with a crane which is used to move buoys in and out of the lake. Here is the Alder at work breaking ice in Duluth harbor.

The Coast Guard cutter Alder goes out to break ice in Lake Superior and the Duluth harbor - YouTube

Here is good photos of it.

Frozen photos of Coast Guard clearing ice-encased Cutter Alder | MLive.com

I believe that is considered to be a "buoy tender"...... not a "cutter".

 

[MossRoad]

Well gee, I guess a few people do like this baloney. I'm a machine buff and these are just big ones. Here is a video I like because it clearly shows the captain using his front thruster, to hold his 1000ft boat against the dock in a stiff breeze to allow another laker by. He must have been using the stern thruster as well, but we can't see his in the video. You can see the flags being held pretty straight by the wind, as he passes by them.

Thousand Footers at the Soo Locks in 2 - YouTube

These boats are designed to be used in rivers, harbors and open water without tugs. Plus most can unloaded themselves of 60,000 tons of cargo in just a few hours.

I have always been impressed by what a tight fit those ships have going into the locks up there. We were up there about 10 years ago and saw several go through that day. After the third one entered, my kids and wife wanted to hurt me if I made them stay and watch again.... :laughing: I could watch that stuff all day.

 

[MossRoad]

I believe that is considered to be a "buoy tender"...... not a "cutter".

From here...
USCGC Alder - History

ALDER History
The USCGC ALDER (WLB-216) is the last 225' Juniper Class Seagoing Buoy Tender (WLB) built by Marinette Marine Corp. Launched in Marinette, Wisconsin on February 7, 2004, the Coast Guard Cutter ALDER replaced the 180-foot SUNDEW, a Balsam Class Seagoing Buoy Tender built in 1944. After a lengthy pre-commissioning process, the Coast Guard accepted ALDER from the shipyard on September 2, 2004, and she sailed on her maiden voyage September 12th. ALDER officially attained "Great Lakes Cutter" status on October 12th after sailing through all five Great Lakes. Finally, on October 16th, she sailed for the first time into her homeport of Duluth, Minnesota. ALDER was finally commissioned on June 10, 2005.

 

[MossRoad]

Great Lakes... No salt and shark free!

We live pretty close to Lake Michigan. I love taking people there who have never experienced the great lakes. They typically have no concept that you can't see across these little inland lakes!

I have fond memories of sitting on the beach at Rocky Gap in Benton Harbor, MI as a kid and watching many large ore boats heading to and from Burn's Harbor, IN. Now it's a rarity.

Back on April 17, my wife and I were up at St. Joe taking a walk towards evening. There was a very weird looking band (about half a finger-width at full arm extension) on the horizon from full left to full right view... New Buffalo to somewhere north of Milwaukee.... We've seen this before, its some sort of temperature inversion. Anyhow, you could very clearly see the skylines of Michigan City, Chicago and Milwaukee in this band. However, they were UPSIDE DOWN! It's called a Superior Mirage. Sadly, I only had my old Iphone and took a few pictures. They are lousy, but you can see grey pillars on the horizon, and that's Chicago.... 60 miles away as the crow flies. This was from the sidewalk to the southern end of Silver Beach in St. Joe, MI, looking WSW.



Here's a youtube video someone made back in 2015. Very weird to see.

 

[ArlyA]

The Alder replaced the 40's built Sundew after we had left Duluth in 1996. That year was cold one, so Superior froze over and we did catch the Mac cruise into town that spring and tired up to take a few days off. They'd been out breaking ice for many, many days. After the break, they helped the Dew open the harbor up because it was to thick for that class of boat. Seems they could only do 3ft at the most?? Nonetheless, the Adler and Dew are suppose to be buoy tenders, do recurse jobs, break ice and law reinforcement. What else?? Seems like that's to many jobs for just one design....

 

[cqaigy2]

I've never heard of the Superior Mirage! That was very cool!

 

[MossRoad]

I've never heard of the Superior Mirage! That was very cool!

Yes, it was weird. We've seen it twice, but this last time was spectacular. The sunset was even inverted. That is, just at the time when you'd expect the last sliver of the orange disc to drop below the horizon, two curved horns of orange started poking UP on either side of the disc. Horn, space, top of disc, space, horn. Then they joined, then disappeared going UP! Super freaky!!!! :laughing:

 

[RobS]

Yes, it was weird. We've seen it twice, but this last time was spectacular. The sunset was even inverted. That is, just at the time when you'd expect the last sliver of the orange disc to drop below the horizon, two curved horns of orange started poking UP on either side of the disc. Horn, space, top of disc, space, horn. Then they joined, then disappeared going UP! Super freaky!!!! :laughing:

I've heard of that but never seen it myself.

 

[ArlyA]

Ken boothe (now been renamed) is a tug our buddy worked on for a bit. Does anyone wonder why these tug/barges exist?

LAKES CONTENDER - KEN BOOTHE SR. - Upbound Port Huron, Micigan 1 2 216 - YouTube


Dorothy Ann/Pathfinde outbound on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, OH. This is how BIG boats do narrow rivers! The exhaust pipe near the pilot house must be for his stern thruster .

Cuyahoga River Outbound - YouTube


Joseph H. Thompson/Joseph H. Thompson Jr. unloads rock in Grand Haven MI.

Joseph H. Thompson/Joseph H. Thompson Jr. return to Grand Haven - YouTube

 

[ArlyA]

We read in the paper today that the Alder's buoy crane is out of order which put this job on the Bristol B.

Today we happen to catch the US CG BRISTOL BAY pass through town. This is a Coast Guard Ice breaking tug who was out on buoy tending duty. That means there putting them in for the summer. Here is more info on the tug. Bay-class icebreaking tug - Wikipedia

In the first photo, the background is a ski area. In the last one you ca see some red buoys in the barge. The photos are taken while looking north into Ripley or Hancock MI.

 

[MossRoad]

Steward J. Cort

First 1000 foot laker.
Lake freighter - Wikipedia
Built in Mississippi.... sort of...
Built as a stubby in Mississippi, then sent up to Erie, PA, cut in half, and 800 feet were added in the middle!

 

[ArlyA]

The Cort was the last boat built with a front pilot house. They're now all in the rear which costs millions less to have there. Go figure...

 

[ArlyA]

Here is a nice video of the Edgar B. Speer down-bound in the "rock cut" which is located between the Soo and Lake Huron. The Speer is pushing some ice in this film and going pretty fast. This channel I'm told is shallow and fully load boats will only have three feet of draft under them so there props with cavitate and vibrate the boats. When they've got stuck in ice here, they'll power up and move the rocky bottom creating "wind-rolls" which subsequent boat will strike.

Edgar B. Speer busts through frozen Rock Cut St. Mary's River - YouTube

Our little Lake Superior is quite high from the wet spring and cool weather we've had. That means boats will be fully loaded. Sorry to report that to the guys on the lower lakes!

 

[ArlyA]

Oh dear, this is one of the best lake boat videos I've ever seen of one at work, in a harbor. This is at the coal dock in Superior WI. You can clearly see his thrusters in use and do note, he's holding the boat static in the St Louis river as he waits his turn at the dock. The loading sequence is also very neat to see. This was taken from the pilot house of the Algoma Olympic.

Great Lakes Sailing - Loading at Superior WI, HD time-lapse - YouTube