Port Reports – October 29, 2022

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Duluth, MN – Superior, WI – Joshua Hebeisen
BNSF Dock 5 ‘Gott’ a rare visitor Friday afternoon in Great Lakes Fleet’s 1,004-foot self-unloading giant. Usually hauling ore between Two Harbors and ports on Lakes Michigan and Erie, the Edwin H. Gott made just her second trip through the Superior Entry of the year at 13:43 to load in Allouez Bay for a nice change of pace. Previously occupying the dock was Canada Steamship Lines’ CSL Tadoussac; the classic laker cleared for Nanticoke 12 hours earlier, giving the dock plenty of time to prepare for the behemoth to come. The Gott’s cargo will eventually be making its way to Stelco’s Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke as well. Duluth would have to stay up considerably later to see its first action of the day, with two of the port’s most common visitors – Arthur M. Anderson and Paul R. Tregurtha – arriving in succession shortly after 22:00. The Anderson was bringing in a load of Cedarville limestone for delivery at Graymont, while the Tregurtha was, of course, headed farther into the harbor for more coal at Midwest Energy. Joseph L. Block is across from the Queen loading blast furnace trim at CN-Hallett 5 as of Friday night.

Marquette, MI – Oggdo Bogdo
Kaye E. Barker concluded a string of Interlake classics with her departure at 15:36, headed to Dearborn as usual. The John J. Boland will be making a rare trip to Marquette in a day, only her third of the year, but not quite as rare as her arrival at Munising earlier on Friday, unloading coal at Neenah paper mill. It’s the first ship to make that run since the Herbert C. Jackson over a year ago on June 20. Certainly an unusual string of ports of call for the Boland. Also arriving soon will be the Victory/Maumee.

St. Joseph – Benton Harbor, MI – Michael Moran
The Samuel de Champlain/Innovation successfully delivered cement to Holcim Cement St. Joseph.

This delivery took a great deal of coordination: emergency surveys, setting buoys to mark the shoal, having a small boat with specialized depth finding equipment on standby and two tugboats to assist. The weather also had to be ideal and the arrival and departure had to occur in daylight.
This does not mean the harbor is back to normal or even fully open. Companies will have to do careful analysis to see if they can continue to come in with these added expenses and complications, or whether it is not worth the risk and they will wait for dredging. That decision is made by the commercial stakeholders and is out of my hands. If more vessels do come in prior to dredging, they will be facing greater difficulty and more risk than normal, and it will be more expensive to do so.

The Corps of Engineers continues to work on dredging options, but unfortunately that is a complicated and time consuming process to do properly.

As we head into the weekend, I can honestly wish I had more answers, but I don’t. All I can say is that I will keep working with our stakeholders and government officials and private businesses to do what we can for the harbor.

Port Dolomite, MI – Joshua Hebeisen
Tug ‘n tub (a name I use endearingly) Defiance/Ashtabula arrived to load stone at 19:08.

Thessalon, ON – Joshua Hebeisen
Michipicoten was inbound from the Soo at 22:30 and primed for another aggregate cargo. Following the international U.S.-Canada boundary jutting out to the east, the classic laker didn’t even have to step foot in the main body of Lake Huron.

Meldrum Bay, ON – Joshua Hebeisen
14:30 saw the American Mariner make port and commence another load at Lafarge.

Goderich, ON – Bruce Douglas
Yakina continues loading at elevators.  Algoma Buffalo and Algoma Conveyor expected next for salt.

Stoneport, MI – Joshua Hebeisen
Though her arrival was neglected in yesterday’s report (poor AIS coverage), John G. Munson took on a load of stone overnight before departing for Windsor around 09:45 Friday morning.

Lake Erie Ports – Bill Kloss
Toledo, OH: Departures were Saginaw for Sault Ste. Marie at 05:18 and Manitoulin at 20:10 for Quebec. American Courage docked at Torco at 19:42. Federal Dart
Marblehead, OH: Manitowoc is at Holcim.
Cleveland, OH: Fivelborg at 17:15 and went to dock 24W at the Port. Algoma Intrepid anchored at 17:26. Departures were Laura L. VanEnkevort/Joseph H. Thompson for Detroit at 02:33 and NACC Argonaut for Bath, ON at 05:32.  After spending the day at anchor, Algocanada left for Sarnia. Still in port are USS Cooperstown, Karen Andrie/Endeavor and Sam Laud, running shuttles to Cliffs.
Fairport Harbor, OH: H. Lee White departed at 09:17 and headed to Port Dolomite.
Nanticoke, ON: CSL Niagara arrived at Stelco at 09:07 with ore. She departed for Toledo, OH at 13:34. Harvest Spirit is loading coils and Algoma Hansa is at Imperial Oil.

While we do not currently have daily write-ups for the following ports, their respective port authority websites post schedules of vessel traffic that are embedded below. Each schedule takes the form of a miniature webpage within a box – scroll with your cursor within the box (or slide your finger within the box on a mobile device) to move through the schedule as you would a normal webpage. To move up or down the actual Port Reports page itself, make sure your cursor/finger is outside of the box.

Green Bay, WI – Port of Green Bay
Click on vessel image for voyage info.

Hamilton, ON – Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority
Scroll past AIS map for arrival/departure schedule.