The Stewart J. Cort is at Bay Shipbuilding Co. in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, for propulsion repairs. She arrived Thursday, August 7, with a tug on her stern.
Regular readers will remember the Cort we tracked August 3 returning to ore service after time at the repair dock. That return did not hold. The data notes she had undergone temporary repairs at an idle dock in Superior before making Sturgeon Bay. Two repair stops in short succession for a thousand-footer is not a small story, and the yard has her now.
The Cort is 1,000 feet long and one of the senior members of the American bulk fleet. What she carries when she runs, she carries in volume. The question now is how long Bay Shipbuilding needs her, and whether the propulsion fix at Sturgeon Bay is the one that sticks.
Federal Fraser was downbound at the Soo before 4 a.m. Saturday; BBC Dubai, a saltwater visitor, was upbound from 9 Mile Point in the same hour. Two vessels threading the locks in opposite directions in the dark is a normal August night at the Soo, and Saturday delivered it on schedule.
American Century was logged downbound through the Detroit River at Crib Light before 6:45 a.m. Saturday. Mesabi Miner was pushing upbound from South East Shoal in the same window, ETA at the Dossin Museum marker 8:36 a.m. The river was running traffic both ways at first light.
Paul R. Tregurtha was logged inbound at Superior Entry late Friday night, August 7. She is one of the vessels Duluth locals know by silhouette. Her pilot, Captain Steve Hughes, a Marquette native, retires in December after three decades on the lakes, the last years of them on the longest vessel operating on the Great Lakes.
In Toledo on Friday, Manitoulin arrived with limestone for Southwestern Sales Co. at Kingsville, then cleared for Marblehead once empty.
Lake Ontario leads the system at 3.60 feet above Low Water Datum at Rochester. Lake Erie reads 3.02 feet at Cleveland. Lake Michigan stands at 2.25 feet at Chicago, Huron at 2.00 feet at Harbor Beach, and Superior at 1.89 feet at Sault Ste. Marie. The spread between Ontario and Superior is 1.71 feet, and the boats moving between them feel every inch of it in their load calculations.
A cold front is crossing the lakes today. Lake Huron sees light southerly flow give way to northwest winds briefly topping 20 knots over the northern reaches. Lake Superior is caught between a 29.5-inch Quebec low and a 30.0-inch Four Corners high, with 2-foot waves. Michigan and Ontario are also running 2-foot seas. Erie sits at 1-foot waves now, with the front crossing tonight and a 30.00-inch ridge building for Sunday. Northern Huron is the place to watch through midday.
Captain Steve Hughes of Marquette spent his early years watching ore boats work the docks from shore, his father beside him. His father, a former Northern Michigan University geography professor, is 97 years old. Hughes went on to a three-decade career on the lakes and rose to pilot the Paul R. Tregurtha, the longest vessel on the Great Lakes. He retires in December. The distance from the shore in Marquette to the wheelhouse of a thousand-footer is, by any measure, a long way to travel.