The Federal Shimanto was making its way down from the Keweenaw as of 3:31 this morning, AIS putting its ETA at the Soo Locks at 14:53 this afternoon. That is today's most trackable event on the upper lakes: a saltwater general cargo vessel threading the same water the Bluebill and Kathy McKeil ran in quick succession just Saturday, now with a midafternoon appointment at the MacArthur or Poe chamber.
Upbound toward the Soo, the cruise ship Pearl Mist was tracking from Detour with a 7:12 morning ETA, and Victory II and John G. Munson were both queued at the locks before dawn. The Munson had cleared the Straits eastbound Saturday evening, which puts it on a tidy run up Superior once it clears the locks. Busy morning at the Soo regardless, but the Federal Shimanto's afternoon passage is the one that will draw eyes to the lock cameras: a salty in the chamber always looks different from the thousand-footers that fill it wall to wall.
Kaye E. Barker and Kathy McKeil were running downbound on the St. Clair this morning within eighteen minutes of each other, the Barker with an 8:45 Port Huron ETA and the McKeil at 9:03, both last reported near Harbor Beach before 5 a.m. Two familiar lakers, same bearing, the Barker leading by a short margin.
Sea Eagle II was upbound from the Detroit River Light toward Port Huron, ETA 15:34 this afternoon, the upbound answer to all that southbound traffic in the river this morning.
Joyce L. VanEnkevort was eastbound through the Straits of Mackinac at 4:16 this morning. Readers who followed the two-VanEnkevort geometry edition last Monday will note the Joyce running solo now, eastbound and early.
At the Welland Canal, Federal Bristol cleared outbound from Port Weller just after 2 a.m., the only fresh transit on a canal list gone mostly stale by Saturday afternoon.
Lake Huron stands at 2.14 feet above Low Water Datum at Harbor Beach, a reading that matters this morning given the Barker and McKeil both last reported from that same stretch of water. Lake Michigan is at 2.05 feet, Superior at 1.42. The lower lakes are higher: Erie at 3.23 feet, Ontario at 3.30. Nothing extreme in either direction, but Superior's 1.42 keeps draft margins tighter at Duluth loading docks than anywhere else on the system right now.
Lake Huron is the one to watch today: post-frontal northwest flow is running breezy with five-foot waves and a chance of showers and an isolated thunderstorm this afternoon and evening. Lake Michigan is not much friendlier, with four-foot waves and a small waterspout chance lingering through mid-morning. Superior, by contrast, is sitting quiet under a building ridge, waves at one foot. If you are standing on the Saginaw Bay shore this afternoon watching for the Federal Shimanto's stack smoke on its way to the Soo, the northwest wind will make itself known.
This weekend closes the Thunder Bay Maritime Festival in Alpena, running Friday through today, August 23, with tall ship excursions on Thunder Bay, a paddle race on the Thunder Bay River, and deck tours along Michigan's shipwreck alley. The festival is staged in the shadow of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, where the wrecks below the surface outnumber the boats above it on most August afternoons. If the five-foot Huron chop did not chase visitors off the water, this morning's final sessions should have drawn a crowd worth having.