James R. Barker Puts Ore on Conneaut's P&C Dock

James R. Barker reached Conneaut on Saturday with ore for the P&C Dock, a different assignment from the Sandusky coal runs she drew earlier in the week. Ore in, coal last time: the Barker is keeping the southern ports in rotation.

She was not alone on the lower lakes Saturday. Toledo logged two arrivals in the same morning watch: Baie Comeau to CSX and Lee A. Tregurtha to Ironville. Conneaut got the Barker's ore. Buffalo had Algoma Innovator still working a salt cargo. At Marblehead, Dorothy Ann and her articulated partner Pathfinder came into Amrize, then left for Cleveland with limestone for Allied Road Products. The south shore of Erie was moving product.

None of that is noise. It is what 27 percent of the Seaway's international freight looks like from the dock rail: ordinary arrivals on an ordinary Saturday, each one a line in the tally that the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation counted up when it handed out its Pacesetter Awards to nine U.S. ports on Friday for their 2025 cargo performance. More than 4 million metric tons of international freight moved through those nine harbors last year. The announcement came Friday; the work behind it looked like Saturday.

Harbor Notes

Stewart J. Cort returned to service Thursday evening out of Duluth-Superior after several weeks tied at the SMET coal dock for propulsion repairs. She headed to fuel first, then moved toward BNSF to load ore. A repaired engine is a quiet thing from shore, but a boat back off the wall is a boat earning its keep.

Pearl Mist departed Cleveland for Port Colborne on Saturday, continuing her cruise circuit on the lower lakes. The bay was flat enough for a pleasant crossing.

Clyde S. VanEnkevort and Erie Trader departed Toledo together for Detroit on Saturday, leaving Manitowoc still parked at CSX and Algonova at George Gradel. Toledo's west-end docks were doing what Toledo's west-end docks do.

The Levels Ledger

Lake Ontario leads the system at 3.55 feet above Low Water Datum at Rochester. Erie follows at 2.94 feet at Cleveland, enough clearance for full loads on the lower run. Huron reads 2.34 feet at Harbor Beach, Michigan 2.19 feet at Chicago, Superior 1.83 feet at Sault Ste. Marie. Superior's number is the tightest in the chain; captains staging deep-draft loads out of Duluth are working with less water than anyone else on the system right now.

Weather on the Water

A 29.7-inch low over central Indiana is the story on Lake Michigan today: breezy north winds and waves to 4 feet over the central and southern basin. Lake Huron draws rain and isolated thunderstorm chances as the low tracks northeast. Erie and Ontario are sitting at 1-foot seas. High pressure at 30.0 inches is expected to build over the region Monday and hold into midweek, which should settle conditions from Superior to Ontario before the work week begins.

Looking Astern

The Pacesetter Award the GLS handed out Friday is named for Robert J. Lewis, who spent decades working the locks and channels that make the Seaway run. The award tracks how much international freight American Great Lakes ports move in a given season. Nine ports earned it for 2025. From a bay-facing desk, the connection is plain: every arrival logged in Harbor Notes above is a brick in that annual total, added one dock line at a time.

Tomorrow's Watch If Barker clears the P&C Dock before Monday morning, watch for her departure direction: a light-ballast run northeast points toward an upper-lakes reload, while a southwest heading puts her back in the Sandusky coal lane.

Vessel Spotlight: James R. Barker arrived at Conneaut's P&C Dock on Saturday with a cargo of ore, marking a shift from the Sandusky coal work she drew earlier in the week. The Barker we tracked through the Sandusky coal runs is now on the northeast end of Erie, which puts her well-positioned for either a Great Lakes Steel turn or a reload at an upper-lakes port.