Four Downbounders Ladder the Superior Run Before Dusk

Four downbounders spread themselves across Lake Superior on Friday in a column that stretched ten hours from first arrival to last. American Century led, reported off Whitefish Point at 3:31 a.m. with a 6:25 a.m. ETA at the Soo Locks. Lake St. Clair followed on the long Keweenaw-to-Soo run, due at 12:03 p.m. Algoma Discovery was two hours behind her, ETA 2:11 p.m. The Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin closed the column: last reported at 2:55 a.m. running downbound from Keweenaw, ETA at the locks 4:16 p.m.

Ten hours front to back is a particular kind of Friday. The upbound lane was moving just as steadily. Alpena and Edwin H. Gott were both tracking toward the locks from Detour before 6 a.m., and Paul R. Tregurtha had cleared upbound around 3 a.m. The Soo ran in both directions through the night without a gap. The geometry worth watching is the column itself: four names, four ETAs, one lock, one channel. The Paul J. Martin arrives last and clears the St. Marys after dark.

Harbor Notes

Viking Octantis, the Hurtigruten expedition ship, was upbound through the Detroit River as of a 5:02 a.m. Friday report, showing Detroit River Light as her position and an 11:51 a.m. ETA at Vantage Point in Port Huron. She is broader and more angular than anything that works the river on a regular schedule. Anyone near the Blue Water Bridge had time to find a spot before noon.

Dirk S. VanEnkevort was upbound on the St. Clair River as of a 4:58 a.m. report Friday, with a 6:23 a.m. ETA at Vantage Point. She is not the Joyce L. VanEnkevort: a different tug, a different errand, a different boat.

In Marblehead, Ohio, Joyce L. VanEnkevort with Great Lakes Trader arrived at Amrize to load limestone, per the Friday port report. Dorothy Ann with Pathfinder was anchored in Lake Erie. Those are two VanEnkevort vessels at two separate locations on the same morning.

The Levels Ledger

Lake Erie leads the system at 3.11 feet above Low Water Datum at Cleveland. Lake Ontario follows at 3.65 feet at Rochester. Lake Michigan reads 2.19 feet at Chicago and Lake Huron 2.15 feet at Harbor Beach. Lake Superior is the thin end of the system at 1.63 feet at Sault Ste. Marie, which is the number downbound loaders trim against before they enter the river. No lake is below datum, but Superior's margin is what captains watch when they set a load.

Weather on the Water

Lake Huron is under 30.00-inch high pressure with 2-foot waves through Saturday, a clean approach for the boats working the St. Clair corridor today. A low passes through Saturday night, bringing the next round of thunderstorm chances. Lake Superior is quiet under high pressure settling from northwest Ontario, but a low tracking from the Dakotas reaches the western end Saturday night. Multiple storm rounds are expected across the southern end of Lake Michigan through the weekend behind a front that has not moved far from the lake's southern shore.

Looking Astern

The former U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Sundew, now privately owned as SUNDEW WLB 404 LLC, was brought to Rogers City for a public ceremony at Lakeside Park honoring the 33 men lost when the steamer Carl D. Bradley sank in Lake Michigan in November 1958. The Sundew pulled the only two survivors from those waters. The Bradley's bell, recovered from the wreck in 2007, was rung once for each sailor lost. Sixty-seven years is a long count, and the ship that answered the distress call finally made the trip to meet the town that still keeps the names.

Tomorrow's Watch If the *Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin* clears the Soo on schedule after her 4:16 p.m. Friday lock ETA, she will be running the St. Marys overnight; check whether *Viking Octantis* has reached Harbor Beach on her northbound run through Lake Huron by Saturday morning.

Vessel Spotlight: The *Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin* was last reported at 2:55 a.m. Friday running downbound from Keweenaw toward the Soo Locks, her ETA set for 4:16 p.m. She is the last name in a four-vessel downbound column and will pass through the St. Marys after dark, closing out a ten-hour parade that opened before sunrise with *American Century* off Whitefish Point.