American Century Brings Ore Into Cleveland as Erie Ports Fill

Cleveland had company at its docks Saturday. American Century arrived at the Bulk Terminal with ore, joining Petite Forte/St. Marys Cement at SMC Jefferson Street and Caroline McKee/Commander at SMC Columbus Street, three vessels on different grades of cargo at different berths inside one port on the same morning. Dorothy Ann/Pathfinder, which we watched working Cleveland's stone dock earlier this week, cleared out to make room.

The south shore of Erie was busy north to south and east to west. At Sandusky, Herbert C. Jackson loaded coal and left for Detroit. At Toledo, Joyce L. VanEnkevort/Great Lakes Trader arrived at Ironville, the Kaye E. Barker and Dirk S. VanEnkevort/Michigan Trader were also in port, and both H. Lee White and Muntgracht arrived before turning around for Detroit and Oshawa respectively. Three separate tug-and-barge pairings at a single Ohio port on a single Saturday is not a routine count.

Harbor Notes

Muntgracht put in at Midwest Terminals in Toledo before pulling out for Oshawa, a cross-lake run that keeps CSL's Hamilton corridor busy on both sides.

At Cleveland, McKeil Spirit had already departed for Windsor by Friday evening, and Victory I, which arrived at Dock 28W on Thursday, left the same night for Port Colborne.

The Algoma Equinox, which we covered Wednesday when tugs Pride and Welland pulled her free off Sarnia around 2:15 p.m., was reported heading downbound for Baie Comeau with a possible stop at Port Colborne. No new grounding reports as of Saturday.

The Levels Ledger

Lake Erie stands at 3.04 feet above Low Water Datum at Cleveland, the highest reading across the upper four lakes right now. Lake Ontario is higher still at 3.65 feet at Rochester. Both Superior at 1.86 feet and Michigan at 2.20 feet are running well below Erie, which matters for loaded drafts transiting the Welland: vessels coming down from the upper lakes step into deeper water as they reach Erie.

Weather on the Water

Lake Michigan is the rough water today. A 29.5-inch low approaching from the northern Plains is pushing gusty south to southwest winds across the full length of the lake, with gusts to 30 knots and three-foot seas. Lake Superior has a troughing pattern near 29.8 inches that holds through Sunday before a Clipper system deepens things Sunday night. Erie is calm at two feet with a slow pressure fall toward a cold front Monday. Huron stays light, one foot, for now, with thunderstorm chances building Sunday into Monday.

Looking Astern

Steve Hughes, a Marquette native who spent his boyhood watching ore boats load at the docks his father pointed out, is retiring in December as captain of the Paul R. Tregurtha, the longest vessel operating on the Great Lakes. Hughes has worked the lakes for three decades, rising to the one post most freighter watchers would recognize on sight. His father, John, a former Northern Michigan University geography professor now 97, watched those same docks with him. It is a tidy circle: the boy who watched boats became the man who drove the biggest one.

Tomorrow's Watch If Herbert C. Jackson held course after departing Sandusky Saturday, watch for her coal delivery arrival at Detroit on Sunday morning.

Vessel Spotlight: American Century arrived at Cleveland's Bulk Terminal on Saturday with an ore cargo, one of three vessels calling Cleveland simultaneously on different commodities. The arrival capped a busy south-shore Saturday that stretched from Toledo's Ironville docks to Sandusky's Norfolk Southern coal pier.