The Indiana Harbor was off Point Iroquois before sunrise Sunday, running downbound with a 5:47 a.m. ETA at the Soo Locks. Last reported at 4:26 a.m., she was the freshest item on a lock list that had grown to twenty vessels by the time this edition went to press.
On the other side of the gate, the expedition cruise ship Pearl Mist was working upbound from Detour, last reported at 2:54 a.m. with a 7:28 a.m. lock ETA. Do the arithmetic: Indiana Harbor clears downbound, Pearl Mist arrives upbound, roughly ninety minutes between them at the same set of chambers. A loaded laker and a ship full of passengers, trading directions on a Sunday morning. That is the Soo in August.
Further back in the downbound column, Kathy McKeil was still on the Keweenaw leg at 00:55, a 14:02 ETA ahead of her. She has the longest run left of any vessel on this morning's board.
At Port Huron, Clyde S. VanEnkevort was running downbound off Harbor Beach at 4:59 a.m., ETA 9:19 a.m. Coming the other way, American Integrity was upbound from Detroit River Light at 4:47 a.m., due at Port Huron around 13:06. Same corridor, same morning, pointed at each other.
The Lee A. Tregurtha was in the Soo Locks downbound at 2:19 a.m. Sunday, ETA 2:29. The Gazette tracked her sister Paul R. Tregurtha through the locks earlier this week; now the Lee is making her own southbound run.
At the Welland Canal, Algoma Buffalo came inbound through Port Weller in the early hours Sunday while Algoma Strongfield had just cleared outbound at 00:28. The Strongfield last appeared in these pages sharing the Keweenaw corridor Thursday; she is now at the far end of the system, exiting into Lake Ontario.
Le Bellot was upbound from Detroit River Light at 4:36 a.m., ETA at Port Huron 12:18, one of four deep-draft vessels working the St. Clair corridor before the Sunday morning shift change.
Lake Huron sits at 2.10 feet above Low Water Datum at Harbor Beach. Superior reads 1.65 feet, Michigan 2.05 feet, Erie 2.93 feet, Ontario 3.32 feet. The chain is in workable shape end to end. No vessel is trimming its load for the bottom this week, and the St. Clair River traffic in today's data moves without obvious draft anxiety.
Lake Michigan draws the watch today: breezy southerlies are forecast with 4-foot waves, the highest reading on any lake this morning. Lake Huron, Erie, and Ontario are running 2-foot seas under an active pattern as low pressure develops over the Dakotas. Superior is quietest at 1-foot waves as a 29.6-inch low lifts north into Canada. Deck-chair conditions on Superior; something to hold onto on Michigan.
One hundred years ago last November, the freighter City of Bangor ran hard aground near Copper Harbor on Lake Superior, carrying new automobiles out of Detroit. What followed was one of the stranger salvage jobs in lakes history: workers pulled cars from a wrecked hull in January cold. The Keweenaw Historical Society marked the centennial this past week, and a painting of the scene by Upper Peninsula artist Clyde Mikkola was presented to the society to commemorate the event. The original story, and the photograph record behind it, belongs to the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.