The James R. Barker was at Detour at 4:36 this morning, running upbound with a Soo Locks ETA of 7:49 a.m. That is a Monday-morning push through the St. Marys that puts the big Interlake boat at the locks before most people finish their eggs.
The Barker was not alone in the queue. The Algonova was at Nine Mile Point at 4:34, showing a Soo ETA of 5:35, already ahead of the Barker on the river. The Hon. James L. Oberstar had checked in at the locks themselves around 3:27. Three upbound boats layered into the St. Marys before first light is a crowded Monday opening.
Coming the other direction, the Algoma Niagara was downbound along the Keweenaw corridor at 2:51 this morning with a Soo ETA of 2:45 this afternoon. She and the tail of that upbound queue are on a collision course with the lock schedule this afternoon.
The Saginaw, which we noted ending her lay-up six days ago, showed up outbound at Port Weller on the Welland Canal at 3:41 this morning. She is headed back into the upper lakes.
The Kaye E. Barker and the Humbergracht were running in loose company up the Detroit River early this morning, both logging South East Shoal as their last position at 5:00 a.m., with Dossin Museum ETAs of 10:00 and 9:15 respectively.
The American Century was working through the Soo downbound last evening, last reported at 10:09 p.m. Sunday. The vessel movements report notes she took one of the last clean-up coal loads from a Superior dock Saturday; at least one more load remained at the dock when she departed.
NOAA figures out this morning put Lake Superior at 1.66 feet above Low Water Datum at Sault Ste. Marie, the shallowest reading in the system. Lake Huron follows at 1.97 feet at Harbor Beach. Lake Michigan stands at 2.20 feet at Chicago. Erie reaches 2.87 feet at Cleveland, and Ontario tops the chain at 3.31 feet at Rochester. Anything drawing deep out of Duluth-Superior is working with the thinnest margin on the lakes right now.
NWS is calling for south-southwest gusts of 25 to 30 knots over the southern two-thirds of Lake Michigan this afternoon; gales are not expected but seas will build to three feet. A warm front developing over the Great Lakes tonight into Monday will bring showers and storms to Huron as low pressure tracks across northern Ontario through midweek. Superior stays quiet at two-foot seas under a weakening Saskatchewan low.
One hundred years ago this November, the steamer City of Bangor drove up on a reef near Copper Harbor during a Lake Superior storm with a hold full of new automobiles out of Detroit. The wreck itself was bad enough; what followed was stranger. Salvagers worked a Keweenaw winter to pull the cars off the grounded hull, an operation without a close parallel in lakes history. The Keweenaw Historical Society marked the centennial this past week, accepting a painting of the scene by Upper Peninsula artist Clyde Mikkola.