Two CSL Boats, One Lock List, Eleven Hours Apart

Two vessels are tracking the same downbound corridor toward Sault Ste. Marie today, and the gap between them is almost exactly a working shift. The Algoma Guardian, last reported in the Keweenaw-to-Soo stretch at 3:24 this morning, carries an ETA of 14:41 at the locks. The CSL Laurentien, logged in the same corridor nineteen minutes later at 3:45 a.m., is penciled in for 17:28, eleven hours behind the Guardian and arriving at the gray end of the afternoon.

The two are not racing. The Soo will take them in sequence, same as any other Sunday. What makes the pairing worth watching is the spacing: close enough that a reader at the locks could see both stacks in the same visit, far enough apart that the locks crew gets a breath between them.

The CSL Assiniboine was also downbound this morning, out of Whitefish Point with a 6:32 a.m. ETA, meaning the Soo has already handled that call before most readers finished their first read of this page. Three downbounders in a single day's parade is not a record, but it is a full docket.

The Drawsko was upbound on the Detroit River at 4:36 this morning, bound for Port Huron with an 11:25 ETA. That is a long river morning for one hull; readers at the Blue Water Bridge should have a sighting window around midday if she holds pace through the St. Clair.

Also upbound on the Detroit River, the Florence Spirit was logged near South East Shoal at 2:32 a.m. with an 8:37 ETA at the Detroit checkpoint, putting her somewhere in the river corridor as Sunday opens.

At the Welland Canal, Frontenac cleared Port Weller outbound before 4 a.m. and Baie Comeau followed two hours behind, while the Petit Forte came inbound through the same gate just before 5 a.m. Three Canal transits in one pre-dawn window is the kind of detail the Canal scoreboard hides in plain sight.

The Calumet, upbound from Algonac at last report, was tracking a 6:40 a.m. Port Huron arrival, making her the early bookend to the Drawsko's midday appearance on the St. Clair.

Archived NOAA station observations: Lake Superior, Sault Ste. Marie (NOAA station 9076027): 1.555 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-09-05 23:54 local standard time. Lake Michigan, Chicago (NOAA station 9087031): 2.096 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-09-05 23:54 local standard time. Lake Huron, Harbor Beach, MI (NOAA station 9075002): 2.093 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-09-05 23:54 local standard time. Lake Erie, Cleveland (NOAA station 9063053): 2.949 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-09-05 23:54 local standard time. Lake Ontario, Rochester, NY (NOAA station 9052030): 3.271 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-09-05 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.

High pressure at 30.1 inches is settled over the central Great Lakes today and the wave numbers follow: Superior at 3 feet, Huron at 2, Erie and Michigan each at 1. The NWS says the ridge briefly builds to 30.2 inches on Superior Monday before shifting toward the lower lakes. Lake Huron's forecast notes a low pressure system arriving Tuesday night into Wednesday, so the flat-water window is a weekend loan, not a standing offer.

A life ring from the S.S. Milwaukee turned up at a rummage sale, nearly a century after the railroad car ferry went down in Lake Michigan on October 22, 1929, with 52 people aboard and no survivors. The Milwaukee ran for the Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company, carrying railroad cars between Milwaukee and Grand Haven. The recovered ring is now with the Society for the Preservation of the S.S. City of Milwaukee, whose executive director Robby Laurain noted that something like this does not come along very often. The successor vessel sits as a museum ship in Manistee.