Ending the Day With the Ever Lovely Kaye E. Barker

I ended up catching the Kaye E. Barker on her way to Dearborn as I was on Belle Isle.  I didn't think I would catch her on her return trip as it rained all day yesterday.  But as I said, she ended up spending the night in the Belle Isle anchorage last night.

She was the last ship of the day and I was happy to see her.

She is definitely one of my favorite ships right now.  She has lovely lines and she is one of the more distinctive looking.

The lighting was a little better for me, but for some reason my light meter wasn't reading it correctly.

I kind of like this angle.

The bow shot.

She makes the turn for the channel.  The lighting was much better for these shots.

Probably my favorite of the bunch.  I love this angle for ships.  It gives my favorite view which is the bow plus a hint of the size.

She was heading back to Marquette and that means she might be back this way on Wednesday.  If so, I hope that I can catch her on the return trip.

But I'm not sure if the weather is going to hold.

It will probably be cloudy at least.

She's passing the Bridge.

Again, I wish I didn't have the shadows here.

The almost beam shot.

Her pilot house.

I kind of like this shot.

But I like this shot better.

Catching the Atlanic Huron

 Next up was the Atlantic Huron.

The Atlantic Huron has a special place in my heart.  She's on one of the first pictures I took where I thought I could do this thing.

I was happy to catch her because I don't catch her all that often.

She was heading up from Naticoke, I think.

She was heading to Duluth.

She was making the turn for the channel.

But I missed the bow shot.

She makes the turn for the channel.

The lighting was a little better here.

And I like this shot.

Framed by the Blue Water Bridge.

I would like this shot better without all the shadows.

She continues past the bridge.

Her pilothouse.

And again.

One more shot as she continues on her way to Duluth.

Catching Up With the James R. Barker

 After the Jackson, the next ship was the James R. Barker.

The Barker was coming up from Monroe.

I think she would have been delivering coal to the power plant there.  I'm not sure if she did the split load with St. Clair though.

She was heading up to Silver Bay, Minnesota.

I think she will end picking up taconite there.

The bow shot.

She makes the turn for the channel.

I like this shot.

She passes under the Blue Water Bridge.

Unfortunately, I was shooting towards the sun.

I love the look from the scrubbers.

Her pilot house.

She heads out to Lake Huron.

One more shot before catching the next ship.

Almost Catching the Herbert C. Jackson

 I looked at Marine Traffic and saw that it was going to be a fairly busy day.  Two of the ships I ended up catching stayed overnight in Detroit as Lake Huron was pretty nasty last night.  I got a late start but I didn't think it was a late as it ended up being.

As I was heading into the parking lot, I saw that the Herbert C. Jackson was leaving the Port Huron area.  She was one of the ships I was hoping to catch, but she was the first of the group, so I wasn't terribly disappointed.

I am not normally a fan of stern shots, but I do like this one.  The US flag nearly straight out.  For that reason, I didn't have my drone with me.  But it was a nice sunny day but a little on the cold side.

A Special Ship on a Special Day

 As I said in the last post, yesterday was the 49th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do until I saw that the Arthur Anderson would be passing.  She has a special place in that lore.

As you might know, especially since I posted it on here, the Anderson has a special place in the Edmund Fitzgerald lore.

The Anderson followed the Edmund Fitzgerald for most of her fateful voyage.  She was roughly five miles behind her.

She was the ship that last made contact with the Fitzgerald before she went down.  She was also the ship that received the last transmission from the Fitzgerald.

Both ships faced waves up to 30 feet (or more).  It is suspected that the Fitzgerald bottomed out before she went down.

The last transmission from the Fitzgerald was, "We are holding are own".  Shortly after that, she disappeared from the Anderson's radar.

The Anderson radioed in that the Fitzgerald may have sunk.

The Anderson was approaching the relatively safe anchorage when the Coast Guard asked her and the William Clay Ford to go back out and search for the Fitzgerald.

Both ship captains were understandably reluctant to go out but it was a mariner's duty to try and save other mariners.

Sadly by the time they got there, the Fitzgerald was gone.

The Anderson was returning from Buffalo, she delivered stone there.

Fortunately, she had to stop for fuel in Detroit, that gave enough of a delay for me to catch her.

She was heading up to Stoneport.  Presumably to pick up more stone but I don't know if that means she is heading back this way again.

It was nice to see her and nice to be able to catch her with my drone.

It was doubly special to catch her on the day I caught her.

One more picture in Marysville.

I headed up to Port Huron next.  I wanted to catch her again.

The fog in the air made for appropriate pictures.  It was raining as I was checking Marine Traffic in the morning but I looked at the weather and saw that would break.

The fog was less dense in Port Huron but there was still enough to make moody picutres.

She makes the turn for the channel.

The bow shot which is why Port Huron is my favorite place to shoot ship pictures.

She makes the other turn for the channel.

I love this view too.

One more shot with my normal camera.

I switched back to my drone.  I love this shot with the Blue Water Bridge framing the Anderson.

Moving around with my drone.  I saw another drone around the area.  They might need air traffic control here.

I think I like this shot too.

She continues past me.

And she heads out in to Lake Huron.  I heard it was a pretty rough night last night.

One more shot before moving to the next ship.