Correction: Corrected September 17, 2026: the water-level paragraph now reports the archived NOAA station observations and their limits. Unsupported navigation implications were withdrawn. NOAA measurement context.
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The Kaye E. Barker made two coal runs out of Sandusky on Monday. She loaded at Norfolk Southern, ran the load to Zug Island, returned to Norfolk Southern, and loaded again. The Monday dispatches confirm both calls; the precise hours are not in the record, but the round trip and the reload are. A boat working the same coal dock twice in one day is the kind of entry that does not appear often, and it is the sharpest single fact in today's harbor log.
She does her work while a deepening low bears down on Erie. Pressure stood at 29.70 inches over the northern Great Lakes this morning and is forecast to drop to 29.50 inches as the system drags a cold front southeast across the lake today. Waves are running two feet at Cleveland. A watcher at the Sandusky breakwall this afternoon should expect that water to build as the front passes.
The John J. Boland departed Lorain on Monday for Marquette after unloading limestone for Carmeuse on Sunday. That is a clean outbound Erie-to-Lakes leg, and it leaves the Lorain limestone dock quiet for the moment.
In Toledo, the Dirk S. VanEnkevort moved to CSX to load coal on Monday, a new berth from the Ironville arrival this column tracked Sunday. One sentence is what that move earns.
The Blair McKeil arrived at Midwest Terminals in Toledo on Monday. Among departures, the Caroline McKee/Commander pointed for Charlevoix and the Defiance/Ashtabula for Alpena.
Dense fog is blanketing portions of central to northern Lake Michigan today, with severe thunderstorms possible this afternoon and evening. Vessels working the Straits corridor are contending with fog on one quarter and storm cells on the other.
Archived NOAA station observations: Lake Superior, Sault Ste. Marie (NOAA station 9076027): 1.818 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-07-26 23:54 local standard time. Lake Michigan, Chicago (NOAA station 9087031): 2.133 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-07-26 23:54 local standard time. Lake Huron, Harbor Beach, MI (NOAA station 9075002): 2.211 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-07-26 23:54 local standard time. Lake Erie, Cleveland (NOAA station 9063053): 3.087 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-07-26 23:54 local standard time. Lake Ontario, Rochester, NY (NOAA station 9052030): 3.563 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-07-26 23:54 local standard time. These are individual gauge readings, not lake-wide averages or channel depths. They do not establish vessel clearance, cargo limits or comparative navigability.
The deepening Erie low is the day's primary weather story. Behind it, Lake Huron gets its own turn Tuesday, with northerly gusts of 25 to 30 knots forecast on the south half by evening. Lake Superior is the calmest water on the board right now; the clipper low that grazed the western end this morning is already clearing east. Waves run one foot on Superior and Ontario, two on Huron and Erie, three on Michigan where the fog is thickest.
Captain Steve Hughes of Duluth retires in December, closing three decades on the lakes from the pilot house of the Paul R. Tregurtha, the longest vessel working the Great Lakes. Hughes grew up in Marquette, where his father walked him to the docks to watch ore boats load. With five months left on his calendar, the pellet holds at Marquette are still filling the same way they did when he was a boy on the shore watching, before he knew he would end up on the bridge.