The John D. Leitch is at the wall at Port Weller, Ontario Shipyards as of Tuesday, and she came in with help. Ocean tug Grande Baie made the trip from Hamilton to ease her alongside. The five-year inspection is the kind of appointment you keep regardless of what coal and ore are doing, and they are doing plenty this week.
The drydock takes her out of rotation mid-season. What the inspection finds determines the length of the stay. Grande Baie has done her part; the yard crew has the rest. For a watcher on the shore side, the slip at Port Weller is where the story pauses until the surveyors finish their count.
Toledo sorted itself out Tuesday. Samuel deChamplain came in to Amrize and Algoma Bear arrived at CSX for coal, then cleared for Hamilton later the same day. Blair McKeil and Wilf Seymour remain at Midwest Terminals.
Herbert C. Jackson arrived at Sandusky's Norfolk Southern dock to load coal, having departed Cleveland earlier in the day. No loading timeline is reported, so the Sandusky call stands as an arrival only.
The July 29 Cleveland report is cut off in transmission; Mark W. Barker appears to have arrived at Cargill to load salt, but the entry is incomplete. Treat that one as unconfirmed until the full report surfaces.
Sharon M I departed Kingsville with no updated destination on record.
Lake Ontario leads the system at 3.72 feet above Low Water Datum at Rochester, Lake Erie follows at 3.11 feet at Cleveland. Superior is at 1.75 feet, the low end of the board this week. Erie's reading continues to give the coal trade working Sandusky and Toledo serviceable water under a loaded hull; Superior's margin is thin enough that Soo-bound vessels keep a close eye on departure drafts.
High pressure near 30.0 inches is settling over the Lakes today, pushing Erie's 29.70-inch trough toward the exits by Thursday. Michigan and Erie are both showing one-foot wave heights; Huron is running two feet. The calm window holds through Friday before a cold front arrives this weekend with a chance of scattered showers. The flat water days are finite.
Capt. Steve Hughes of Duluth grew up in Marquette watching ore boats work the docks with his father, a former Northern Michigan University geography professor. Three decades in the industry later, Hughes has served as pilot of the Paul R. Tregurtha, the longest vessel on the Great Lakes. He is reported to be retiring in December. His own read on the distinction the boat carries: 'more symbolic than operational.' Marquette has been producing people who end up on the water for as long as the ore has been moving.