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Duluth, MN – Superior, WI – Joshua Hebeisen
CSL Tadoussac departed early Wednesday morning at 02:52 after loading 29,000 tons of Hibtac pellets at Superior’s BNSF Dock 5. As with all of her Twin Ports trips this year, the Tad will be headed to Nanticoke to unload at Stelco’s Lake Erie Works. Baie Comeau was inbound shortly after at 03:06 to load her own cargo for Nanticoke at the dock; the newbuild – 44 years younger than her elder fleetmate Tadoussac – had arrived to anchor off the piers shortly before midnight. Walter J. McCarthy Jr. paid a visit to Duluth at 04:54 to load iron ore pellets at CN Dock 6, while back in Superior, Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader were outbound at 06:18 for Silver Bay after discharging stone at Graymont. Indiana Harbor arrived for BNSF at 19:03 after the Comeau left port with 30,000 Keetac tons less than an hour earlier. Next in line to load at the Allouez Taconite Facility is Captain Henry Jackman, currently swinging on the hook off Minnesota Point. The evening’s traffic would wrap in Duluth with a pair of late-night transits starting with the arrival of Hon. James L. Oberstar. The classic laker took her limestone cargo across state lines to EnviroTech-Hallett Dock 8 to unload. With her salt cargo ashore, Canadian veteran Algoma Transport backed out of the Compass Minerals slip and was soon outbound beneath the Aerial Lift Bridge at 23:02. She will be headed up the North Shore for Thunder Bay. The quintet of salties in port remains unchanged from yesterday: Fagelgracht, Federal Kushiro, and Federal Churchill are unloading at the port terminal, Iryda is at Gavilon, and Maxima is getting quite bored at anchor out on the lake. Tall ship Pride of Baltimore II should be departing her berth in Superior tomorrow to join her friends at the Parade of Sail in Two Harbors.

Two Harbors, MN – Silver Bay, MN – Gary Putney
The Clyde S. VanEnkevort is loading taconite in Silver Bay.

The Oakglen departed Two Harbors with a load of taconite for Quebec City.

The American Spirit is due in Two Harbors to load taconite.

The Manitoulin is due in Two Harbors to load taconite for Algoma at the Soo.

The Whitefish Bay is due in Two Harbors to load Taconite.

Milwaukee, WI – MKE Marine Reports
After delivering steel from Antwerp, Federal Bering cleared for Thunder Bay at 16:15 Tuesday. Bradshaw McKee/St. Marys Conquest arrived Tuesday afternoon and departed for Charlevoix late Wednesday morning. Tug John Marshall arrived Tuesday evening and cleared for Calumet Harbor at 15:09 Wednesday with two barges loaded with armor stone at Michels. Samuel de Champlain/Innovation arrived at 00:43 Wednesday with cement for Lafarge. Prentiss Brown/St. Marys Challenger arrived at 10:24 with cement for the Kinnickinnic River terminal. Calumet arrived at 12:23 with deicing salt from Morton, Windsor.

Southern Lake Michigan Ports – Joshua Hebeisen
Indiana Harbor, IN: Sister ships went back-to-back at Dock 7H this week with the arrival of Mesabi Miner from Duluth at 16:52. James R. Barker had departed just a day earlier. After a long limestone load at Indiana Harbor West, Wilfred Sykes steamed outbound at 21:42 bound for a date on the River Rouge.
Gary, IN: Edgar B. Speer departed at 23:37 late Tuesday night for Two Harbors.
Burns Harbor, IN: Isolda is at FMT.

Detroit, MI – Windsor, ON – Joshua Hebeisen
Motor City Materials saw the 23:39 Tuesday night arrival of Sam Laud loaded with a stone cargo from Calcite. Defiance/Ashtabula arrived from Toledo at 03:43 for what appeared to be Carmeuse, and American Mariner was in port for Mistersky from 06:41 to 09:55 before continuing upbound for Calcite. The Laud followed her fleetmate north an hour later, headed for a load of stone at Port Inland. At 11:20, CSL Niagara stopped across the river in Sarnia for fuel at Sterling while on her way to Superior. Tanker Iver Bright went to anchor near Belle Isle at 13:00 and would be passed by the Niagara about three hours later when the Canadian laker resumed her journey. Thunder Bay-bound Kaministiqua was next at Sterling from 17:45 to 21:20, and Defiance pushed Ashtabula outbound for Calcite at 22:54. Lee A. Tregurtha entered the River Rouge and meandered up to Dearborn at 23:18. Per the norm, she is loaded with pellets from the Tilden Mine.

Lake Erie Ports – Bill Kloss
Monroe, MI: American Integrity is at DTE and New York/Double Skin 509A is at the Port dock.
Toledo, OH: Defiance/Ashtabula left late Tuesday night for Detroit.Wilf Seymour/Alouette Spirit departed for Quebec at 18:47.  Algoma Innovator is at the ARMS dock.
Kingsville, ON: Cuyahoga unloaded at Southwestern Sales and left for Meldrum Bay at 02:24.
Marblehead, OH: Leonard M/Huron Spirit arrived at 18:48 to load stone at Holcim.
Sandusky, OH: Kaye E. Barker departed for Cedarville at 10:48.
Cleveland, OH: Leonard M/Huron Spirit arrived at 00:12, unloaded steel at the Port and left for Marblehead at 13:36. Petite Forte/St. Marys Cement departed  at 05:01. American Courage departed for Marblehead at at 12:23.
Nanticoke, ON: Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin arrived at 15:09 to unload ore at Stelco.  Departures were Algosea for Sarnia at 00:53 and Frontenac for Thunder Bay at 09:40. Algonova and Algocanada are at Imperial Oil. At anchor is Federal Beaufort.

Buffalo, NY – Brian Wroblewski
The Karen Andrie departed Tonawanda at 7PM on the 30th around 7PM and cleared Buffalo under a beautiful sunset. An approximately 75-foot length of the concrete dock wall of the NFTA Metrorail Terminal near the Firetug slip fell into the Buffalo River that night. Part of the adjacent walkway went with it and some of the debris was sticking up from the water at least 30 feet out. BIDCO came down with a tender tug and some flexi-float barges a few days later to set two marker buoys and a small floating boom around it for safety. 

The American Mariner came in with wheat from Superior for the Frontier Elevator on July 31st at 2PM without tug assistance. NACC Capri arrived later that night around 10PM for Holcim cement with the tug Vermont.

Unloading was all done for the Capri by 4:00PM on August 1st and departed with the Vermont, headed for Bath, Ontario.

The Mariner departed by herself by backing out for the lake around 11:30AM on the 2nd. Out near Erie, PA, she met her sister ship John J Boland that was on the way to Buffalo with sand for Canadian Silica. They arrived here around 7PM and met the Vermint at the North Entrance for a tow up the City Ship Canal.

The Boland was all set at 2PM on the 3rd and backed out for the lake without tugs.