Two downbound lakers were bearing down on the Soo this morning from Point Iroquois with barely a quarter-hour between them. Great Republic carried an ETA of 10:00 and American Century one of 10:16, reported at 08:46 and 08:57 respectively. That puts them at the lock approach nearly nose to tail, the kind of geometry that decides who ties up and waits and who slides straight through.
The Soo was already moving before those two arrived. Victory II had a lock ETA of 08:33 this morning and the Army Corps survey vessel USACE S/V Bufe was threading upbound at nearly the same hour. Further back in the queue, Oakglen and Resko were both running the Keweenaw-to-Soo stretch downbound, with ETAs of 19:31 and 20:31 tonight. The locks will not be idle between now and dark.
Algoma Innovator was downbound in the Detroit River at 09:01 this morning, passing the Crib Light with a Dossin Museum ETA of 10:05.
Humbergracht cleared Downbound 11 and 12 in the St. Clair River at 08:30, southbound with a Port Huron ETA of 09:21 and a Detroit arrival expected at 13:36.
Algoma Strongfield was upbound through Port Huron at 07:28, and Mark W. Barker was upbound in the Detroit River at 08:53, ETA at Vantage Point 16:03.
CSL Welland, which locked through yesterday afternoon, was already past Harbor Beach on the St. Clair run by 09:07 this morning, southbound and well ahead of the front tracking across the upper lakes.
Ontario leads the system at 3.25 feet above Low Water Datum at Rochester. Erie follows at 2.92 feet at Cleveland. Huron reads 2.13 feet at Harbor Beach, Michigan 1.99 feet at Chicago, and Superior 1.42 feet at Sault Ste. Marie. The spread from Superior to Ontario is nearly two feet, a gradient that accumulates through every lock and river passage a downbound boat makes this week.
A gale warning is in effect on Lake Superior until 6 PM EDT this evening, with a deepening low near Hudson Bay driving 3-foot seas. Lake Michigan carries 3-foot seas as a cold front works across the open water. Huron is calmer at 1-foot seas, with showers and possible thunderstorms as a slow front crosses northern Ontario. Erie and Ontario each show 1-foot seas, though a trough moves across Erie this evening and a cold front crosses Ontario tonight.
A life ring from the S.S. Milwaukee turned up at a rummage sale, resurfacing nearly a century after the railroad car ferry sank in Lake Michigan on October 22, 1929, with 52 people aboard and no survivors. The ship had left Milwaukee bound for Grand Haven in a severe storm and never arrived. The ring is held by the Society for the Preservation of the S.S. City of Milwaukee, whose museum ship sits permanently docked in Manistee. The society's executive director called the find one that does not come along very often.