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 Unsupported navigation implications were withdrawn.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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Three vessels had the Soo Locks on their cards before six o'clock this morning, and the queue showed no gaps.
American Mariner was in the chamber itself at 5:45, ETA 5:55. Edwin H. Gott was coming up from Detour, last reported at 3:13 with an ETA of 6:10. Victory I was working north from 9 Mile Point, last reported at 5:43 with an ETA of 6:45. Three lakers, three successive lock windows, all logged under today's date: the Soo is working a full card this Friday.
The Gott is the anchor of that picture. A U.S. Steel thousand-footer inbound from the lower lakes, she was moving north in the pre-dawn channel while the lock tenders were still on their first thermos. Her ETA at 6:10 puts her in the chamber right as Mariner clears, which leaves little margin and no idle time. Whatever Lake Superior dock is waiting for the Gott, the run north is already well along.
Dorothy Ann was logged near the Dossin Museum area at 4:45 this morning, upbound, with an ETA of 10:41 at Vantage Point in Port Huron. Samuel de Champlain was moving the opposite direction on the same corridor, last reported at 5:09, passing Downbound 11 and 12 with a Port Huron ETA of 6:13. Two vessels threading the Detroit-to-Port Huron stretch in opposite directions before sunrise: the river does not sleep.
The Welland Canal had a crowd at Port Weller overnight. Seahound was inbound at 4:18, Thunder Bay at 3:32, and Algoterra at 2:59, all logged this morning. Kaministiqua was working outbound at 1:40. Four vessels cycling through Port Weller in roughly two and a half hours.
Dirk S. VanEnkevort passed Vantage Point upbound on the St. Clair last evening, logged at 20:56. The Sam Laud we tracked Thursday in the Detroit River area was still moving north this morning, logged upbound near the Dossin Museum at 2:29.
Archived NOAA station observations: Lake Superior, Sault Ste. Marie (NOAA station 9076027): 1.88 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-08-06 23:54 local standard time. Lake Michigan, Chicago (NOAA station 9087031): 2.215 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-08-06 23:54 local standard time. Lake Huron, Harbor Beach, MI (NOAA station 9075002): 2.087 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-08-06 23:54 local standard time. Lake Erie, Cleveland (NOAA station 9063053): 3.051 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-08-06 23:54 local standard time. Lake Ontario, Rochester, NY (NOAA station 9052030): 3.698 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-08-06 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.
Patchy marine fog is possible over southern Lake Michigan this morning. Lake Huron carries the roughest outlook: a frontal boundary over southern Michigan keeps scattered showers and thunderstorms in the forecast, waves at 2 feet. A cold front is expected to cross Lake Erie this afternoon, waves there also at 2 feet. Lake Superior is the calmest water on the system this morning, waves at 1 foot, sitting between a Hudson Bay low and high pressure to the south.
The tug Harriet M, formerly the U.S.-flagged Harriet Moran, was photographed at Glen Walter, Ontario on August 5, making her first Seaway transit under Canadian ownership. The purchasing company has not been publicly identified. She was bound for Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. A vessel renamed and reflagged and already moving north on her first run is the kind of quiet transfer a shore-side photographer catches before the shipping press does.