The Soo Locks ran a tight crossing in the pre-dawn dark Wednesday. The Lee A. Tregurtha, downbound out of Lake Superior, was tracked at Point Iroquois at 4:56 a.m. with a 6:01 ETA at the locks. Coming the other way, the Walter J. McCarthy was upbound past 9 Mile Point at 4:39, due at 5:36. Two heavy-tonnage vessels, opposite directions, the same narrow channel, less than half an hour separating their lock calls.
Neither was running into an empty queue. The Mesabi Miner and the Joseph L. Block were already at the locks ahead of them, both downbound, their 5:03 and 4:19 ETAs putting them through the chambers while the Tregurtha and the McCarthy were still closing on the complex from their respective sides. That is four vessels on the St. Marys waterway in a single pre-dawn window, two going each direction.
The CSL Welland, running downbound from the Keweenaw, carries a 16:06 ETA at the Soo this afternoon, giving the daylight crowd a second look at a loaded laker coming off Superior.
The Paul R. Tregurtha was reported inbound at the Duluth piers at 3:02 a.m. Wednesday, placing her at the head of the lakes while her fleet-mate Lee A. Tregurtha worked the lower end of Superior toward the Soo. Two vessels sharing a family name, at opposite ends of the same lake, before sunrise.
In the St. Clair River, the American Courage was downbound from Harbor Beach at 4:07 a.m. with an 8:18 ETA at Vantage Point, Port Huron; the Algoma Buffalo, upbound from the Detroit end, carried a 9:57 ETA at the same waypoint. They were on a collision course with the clock, not each other.
At the Straits of Mackinac, the Wilfred Sykes cleared eastbound at 3:06 a.m. Wednesday and the Victory II followed minutes later at 4:43, both heading toward Huron. The Sam Laud, whom we tracked upbound through Port Huron Monday, was westbound through the Straits at 22:49 Tuesday night, already back on Lake Michigan.
Lake Erie leads the board at 2.90 feet above Low Water Datum at Cleveland, with Lake Ontario behind it at 3.12 feet. Lake Michigan stands at 2.10 feet, Lake Huron at 1.81 feet, and Lake Superior at 1.54 feet. Superior's reading is the tightest on the system; heavily loaded boats departing Duluth are working with less margin than vessels anywhere to the south and east.
A gale warning is in effect on Lake Superior from 8 a.m. EDT Wednesday through this afternoon, driven by a 29.4-inch low near Hudson Bay expected to deepen to around 29.1 inches before tracking into northern Quebec by early Thursday. The CSL Welland ran the Keweenaw with that system at its back. Lake Michigan faces a wind shift to northerly with waves to 4 feet. Lake Huron carries a slow cold front today with showers and possible thunderstorms; waves to 2 feet. Erie and Ontario are quieter at 1-foot seas, though Erie's cold front arrives late tonight into Thursday.
An original life ring from the S.S. Milwaukee turned up at a rummage sale in Manistee, nearly 97 years after the railroad car ferry sank in Lake Michigan on October 22, 1929, with 52 aboard and no survivors. The ship ran for Milwaukee to Grand Haven into a severe storm and never arrived. Robby Laurain of the Society for the Preservation of the S.S. City of Milwaukee, the successor vessel now a museum ship in Manistee, called the find rare. On these lakes, rare surfaces in unexpected places.