CSL’s new Nukumi arrives in Canada
Halifax, NS – CSL’s new diesel-electric self-unloading ship arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on March 27, 2022, fresh from her maiden voyage. Purpose-built for Windsor Salt, Nukumi will begin servicing the Mines Seleine salt mine in late April. The ship is Canada’s first diesel-electric laker and the first single point loader to operate in Canada.
CSL
Twin Ports roll out snowy welcome mat for Spar
Duluth, MN – The latest U.S. Coast Guard vessel to call the Twin Ports home emerged Wednesday through the shipping canal and into a snow globe on Park Point. Several of the crew’s family members endured the morning’s snowfall to see their loved ones for the first time in roughly 90 days.
“This is a big deal,” said Nicole Browne, of Cloquet, as she and 16-year-old Morgan awaited the arrival of warrant officer David Browne. “Normally, they’re gone for two weeks at a time.”
Coast Guard Cutter Spar arrived after an adventurous year, bringing with it the former cast of the last vessel to call Duluth home, Cutter Alder. Sources said about 80% of the crew arriving home sailed last summer with the Alder to Baltimore, where they later joined Spar, a 225-foot buoy tender beginning its second life after a year of refurbishment and career spent in Alaskan waters.
“This was something very unnatural to the crew,” said Lt. Cmdr. Joel Wright, heaping praise on his charges, of which there are 48 assigned though it’s lighter than that at the moment.
“We are Spar as a crew, and we are Spar as a vessel,” Wright continued, “and to cross-deck, the way we call it, giving Alder away, which was a pristine ship, and taking a ship that had been up in Alaska, being used and reconstituted, that was a very difficult task.”
The crew members will enjoy two weeks of well-earned rest, Wright said, but not before having been put to the test already when Spar encountered nine vessels stuck in ice in Whitefish Bay earlier this week. Spar went to work alongside the heavy icebreaker Mackinaw, and the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Griffon to assist some of the first commercial lakers underway this season, including the Arthur M. Anderson and American Mariner — the first arrivals into Duluth and Superior, respectively, since the shipping season opened last Friday.
Lt. Kyle Hansen counted six vessels aided by Spar in Whitefish Bay. A deck hand, Hansen described the rubble field of ice. “There were parts that were at least 6 feet thick,” Hansen said.
For the captain, Wright, it was an easy choice to help. “For us to get through Whitefish Bay, we had to help others get through Whitefish Bay,” Wright said.
The Spar now takes its position as the regional buoy tender and icebreaker on eastern Lake Superior. Soon, once the ice leaves, the mission will call for aids to navigation to be set out on the lake.
Read more and view more images at this link: https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/local/twin-ports-rolls-out-snowy-welcome-mat-for-spar
Arthur M. Anderson opens Duluth-Superior season
Duluth-Superior – The port of Duluth-Superior welcomed their first arriving Great Lakes vessels on Wednesday in the new navigation season. The Great Lakes Fleet’s Arthur M. Anderson, the freighter famed for its search for the Edmund Fitzgerald during the 1975 storm, came into the Duluth Ship Canal at about noon CT to load iron ore pellets at CN#6. It is sporting a special decal commemorating its 70 years of service. American Mariner arrived in the afternoon at 14:05 to load wheat at General Mills.
Steve Sola, owner of the South Pier Range Light near the Aerial Lift Bridge, took this video of the Anderson’s arrival, including the two-blast salute. https://www.facebook.com/steve.sola.3/videos/505531857856316
Lake Superior Magazine
Biden’s budget includes billions in funding for Corps projects, including new Soo Lock
The President’s Budget for fiscal year 2023 includes more than $6.6 billion in discretionary funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works program, with just over $117.2 million set aside for Detroit District projects.
Of great regional significance is an additional $600,000 for the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study, a project that includes the three Great Lakes districts: Detroit, Buffalo and Chicago. The goal is to create a plan identifying vulnerable coastal areas and recommending actions to bolster the coastal resources’ ability to withstand, recover from and adapt to future hydrologic uncertainty with respect to built and natural coastal environments. Recent high-water events across the Great Lakes brought about the study’s need.
The $117.2 million Civil Works budget is for the district’s Operation and Maintenance Program, which includes the maintenance of federal shipping channels and navigation structures within the Detroit District’s area of responsibility including the Soo Locks, Duluth-Superior Harbor, and Detroit and Saginaw rivers. These are part of the Great Lakes Navigation System, which provides significant economic benefit to the nation, in addition to added shoreline protection and flood reduction benefits to areas behind the structures.
The district operates and maintains the Soo Locks along with 81 harbors and nearly 400 miles of connecting channels on lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, St. Clair and portions of Lake Erie bordering Michigan.
The FY23 funding will be distributed among the projects as follows:
Michigan
Alpena Harbor $29,000
Channels In Lake St. Clair $248,000
Charlevoix Harbor $25,000
Detroit River $8,041,000
Grand Haven Harbor $3,425,000
Grand Traverse Bay Harbor $23,000
Holland Harbor $1,317,000
Inland Route $127,000
Keweenaw Waterway $1,458,000
Leland Harbor $22,000
Lexington Harbor $505,000
Little Lake Harbor $204,000
Ludington Harbor $1,164,300
Marquette Harbor $805,200
Monroe Harbor $1,286,300
Muskegon Harbor $980,500
New Buffalo Harbor $26,000
Port Sanilac Harbor $506,000
Saginaw River $4,058,000
Sebewaing River $68,000
St. Clair River $833,000
St. Joseph Harbor $3,033,000
St. Marys River, Soo Locks $82,566,000
Minnesota
Duluth-Superior Harbor, includes WI $6,185,000
Knife River Harbor $22,000
Wisconsin
La Pointe Harbor $22,000
Funding received also includes over $231,000 to support real estate coordination at 36 Detroit District navigation projects. Projects not funded through the President’s budget have the potential for funding through the FY22 Workplan and Infrastructure Investments and Job Act. FY22 Workplan projects and their funding amounts are scheduled to be released in early summer 2022.
Soo Leader
2022 edition of “Know Your Ships” ready for new shipping season
The new shipping season has started, and the 2022 edition of Know Your Ships, the popular annual field guide to boats and boatwatching on the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway, has been released.
This year’s 200-page book includes information on U.S., Canadian and international-flag cargo vessels, tugs, excursion boats and barges in regular Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway service, including owner and port of registry, year and shipyard where built, length, beam, depth, cargo capacity and former names, plus type of engine, horsepower and more.
In the Spotlight section, you can read stories about the 50th anniversary of the Stewart J. Cort, check out some of the unique cargos carried on the lakes in 2021, get to know the ship-to-shore chef Catherine Schmuck and more.
Standard and spiral bindings are available. Order here: www.knowyourships.com
