The Wilf Seymour, sailing as Alouette Spirit, cleared Monroe this morning for Montreal. She had arrived at the port docks yesterday, stayed one night, and turned east. Montreal means the full length of Lake Erie, the Welland Canal, Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence. Monroe does not send boats that direction every week, and when it does, the departure is the only story at that port for the rest of the day.
While Monroe went quiet, Toledo moved two boats toward the same Ontario port inside the same window. Algoma Bear topped off coal at the CSX dock and departed for Hamilton. Stenheim, which had been loading at the George Gradel dock, also cleared for Hamilton. Two boats, one destination, one morning. Federal Hunter added a third departure from Toledo, bound for Thunder Bay.
Over in Cleveland, Tamarack arrived with cement for Amrize and Manitowoc put in at Ontario Stone before turning back out. The lake moved cargo in both directions before noon.
Kaye E. Barker, which we tracked through Sandusky yesterday, loaded coal at the Norfolk Southern dock and departed for Zug Island in Detroit. That is a compact run on a lake sitting 3.13 feet above Low Water Datum at Cleveland.
In Toledo, John J. Boland is at Midwest Terminals and Defiance/Ashtabula is at ADM/Mid America Salt. Two berths occupied, nothing unusual reported.
Heerengracht departed Cleveland for Thunder Bay, adding a second boat to that northern run alongside Federal Hunter out of Toledo.
Lake Ontario leads the system at 3.74 feet above Low Water Datum at Rochester. Lake Erie follows at 3.13 feet at Cleveland, giving loaded boats on short Erie runs reasonable clearance. Lake Michigan reads 2.26 feet at Chicago, Lake Huron 2.13 feet at Harbor Beach, and Lake Superior 1.90 feet at Sault Ste. Marie. The spread from Ontario down to Superior runs nearly two full feet, a number that dock crews on the upper lakes feel on a loaded departure.
A 30.20-inch high over Iowa is holding conditions flat across Erie and Huron today, waves at two feet on both lakes. Lake Michigan is calmer still at one foot under westerly winds. That window is real but short: a cold front drops south through the Central Great Lakes Tuesday night and crosses Erie Wednesday night, with a secondary system possible behind it. Boats already running for Hamilton or Thunder Bay are ahead of it; anything staging for a Wednesday crossing should watch the front's timing closely.
Capt. Steve Hughes, an NMU alumnus who grew up in Marquette watching ore boats work the local docks, retires in December from the wheel of the M/V Paul R. Tregurtha, the longest vessel operating on the Great Lakes. His father, a former NMU geography professor, first brought him to those docks as a boy. Hughes told Interlake the distinction of commanding the biggest boat is more symbolic than operational. The watchers on the piers have their own view of that.