Port Reports – December 2, 2022

Unless where otherwise noted, port and vessel activity from December 1, 2022. Please send future port reports to news@boatnerd.net.

Duluth, MN – Superior, WI – Joshua Hebeisen
It is most decidedly not the most wonderful time of the year for Great Lakes shipping. Strong winds and winter storms continue to pound the lakes, forcing ships to seek shelter along the coasts and hole up in ports to wait out yet more unfavorable late-season weather. Lake Superior is of course no exception, resulting in delays and chilly conditions in the Twin Ports and beyond.

Regardless, traffic volume remained steady in Duluth-Superior throughout the days leading up to December. Wrapping up a quick load of Keetac pellets overnight from November 28 to 29, American Spirit departed Tuesday morning for the Soo and gave up her place to inbound pair Joyce L. VanEnkevort/Great Lakes Trader at 07:41. Across the snowy harbor, John G. Munson came off the lake in the midst of a white flurry with a load of stone from Port Dolomite. Her 10:46 arrival would be followed by a trip down the harbor to CN-Hallett Dock 5 to unload. At 17:00, Joyce and Trader cleared Superior with 34,000 tons of Hibtac pellets only to proceed to the anchorage to wait out strong winds. CSL Tadoussac would not be fazed, however, braving the storm with a rare trip through the Duluth Ship Canal in the 19:59 darkness. She has been a mainstay in the Superior ore trade this season but has not visited Duluth since June of 2021. This uncommon visit found her due for taconite at CN Dock 6. John G. Munson would later depart empty at 23:33, hugging the North Shore for shelter on her way up to Two Harbors.

Thanks to wind gusts approaching 40 miles per hour, November 30 traffic would not begin until 13:26 with a CSL Tadoussac departure in near-zero temps. Her frozen cargo will eventually make its way to Quebec City. Burns Harbor, due at BNSF, would join Joyce L. VanEnkevort/Great Lakes Trader in the anchorage around the same time. Subsiding weather conditions later in the afternoon allowed the former to formally arrive Superior at 19:39 and the latter to get underway for Toledo around 15:15. Floragracht would also take advantage of the lesser winds with a 20:45 Duluth departure from Riverland Ag for a trip overseas. The saltie has to be quite sick of the Midwest by now and desperate for an assignment closer to the equator.

Things got much quieter as the calendar flipped to December, with only two passages – both departures – on Thursday leaving the Twin Ports empty heading into Friday. USACE tug Billmaier made an unusual solo voyage beneath the Aerial Lift Bridge and out into the sea smoke at 07:03 bound for an unknown destination on Lake Superior. She is almost never seen without the company of her crane barge H.J. Schwartz and tug tender. Burns Harbor would exit around lunchtime with the usual 63,000 Hibtac tons for her namesake port.

Marquette, MI – Arthur Pickering
Well after a storm delay, the Kaye Barker finally departed Marquette earlier today. Due in Friday, December 2nd is the Lee Tregurtha. On Saturday, the Wilfred Sykes and the John Boland are scheduled for a visit to the ore dock followed by the Hon James Oberstar scheduled for a Sunday arrival.

Milwaukee, WI – MKE Marine Reports
After loading about 850,000 bushels of soybeans (22 metric tons) at COFCO, Federal Champlain cleared for Bilboa, Spain, Tuesday evening. USCGC Mackinaw arrived Tuesday evening and departed late Wednesday afternoon for Chicago. Candace Elise with deck barge AM 3600 arrived at 05:09 Thursday and tied up near the COFCO elevator. After delivering foreign steel, Federal Kivalina cleared for Thunder Bay at 07:42. Federal Oshima arrived at 08:05 and, with an assist from G-Tugs Hawaii and Louisiana, backed to the Heavy Lift dock. Prentiss Brown/St. Marys Challenger was still at the Kinnickinnic River cement terminal. Samuel de Champlain/Innovation and Sarah Andrie/A-390 are both expected later Thursday.

USCGC Mackinaw stopped in Milwaukee on her annual journey from Charlevoix to Chicago. On her fantail are about 1,200 Christmas trees as she continues the Christmas Tree Ship tradition honoring the Rouse Simmons, which was lost in a storm with all hands while carrying Christmas Trees to Chicago in November 1912. This is the 23rd year for the Coast Guard’s Christmas mission. On her way south, Mackinaw took care of some routine business pulling navigation buoys for winter. She will be open for public inspection at Chicago’s Navy Pier Friday afternoon and her load of Christmas trees will be distributed Saturday morning.

Federal Oshima comes from Antwerp, Belgium. Among other things, she carries a large drying drum for Georgia Pacific’s Broadway mill in Green Bay. The drum will be moved to Green Bay by barge (AM 3600 with Candace Elise) and become part of a new paper line being installed at the plant. Federal Marine Terminals handled other drums for this project through the port earlier this summer.

Milwaukee, WI – Jeremy Whitman
It was another busy day for the port of Milwaukee. After finishing its offload the Federal Kivalina departed just after 7:30AM. Shortly after Federal Oshima was escorted to Milwaukee’s Heavy Lift Dock by G-Tugs Hawaii and Louisiana.

Lake Erie Ports – Bill Kloss
Monroe, MI: Undaunted/Pere Marquette 41 departed for Port Colborne, ON with synthetic gypsum. New York/Double Skin 509A arrived at 17:12.
Sandusky, OH: Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader arrived to load coal at Norfolk Southern.
Cleveland, OH: Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader departed for Sandusky at 07:33. Peyton Lynn C left at 08:24 with a destination of Antwerp, Belgium. Mark W. Barker loaded salt at Cargill and delivered it to Osborne on the Cuyahoga River. Manitowoc arrived at 11:34 with limestone for Ontario Stone. Mesabi Miner raised the anchor at 16:41 and went to the Bulk Terminal to unload 58,000 tons of UTAC pellets. Flevoborg left for Detroit and Manitowoc departed at 19:30. American Courage is running shuttles.
Fairport Harbor, OH: Defiance/Ashtabula arrived at 13:28 with stone for Osborne.
Nanticoke, OH: CSL Niagara weighed anchor and moved to Stelco to unload ore. Harbour Fountain moved to Imperial Oil at 17:33. CSL St. Laurent left the anchorage for Montreal and Algocanada departed for Halifax, NS.

Buffalo, NY – Brian Wroblewski
The RADCLIFFE R LATIMER arrived with a load of untreated salt from Goderich for Compass Minerals at 2PM on the 29th. She met the VERMONT at the South Entrance, winded in the Southern Channel, and backed up the Lackawanna Canal for the Main Dock. They secured at the extreme South End of the pier and began unloading directly into the storage dome there. Untreated salt is cheap to buy but it has a nasty propensity to become clumped up as solid as it was when they mined it. An entire crew of workers were on call just in case they would have to help break up the cargo if it went bad. After the salt began to clump up, an on-site assessment was made with the ship’s Captain. They looked over the situation from deck level to determine how to handle it. The decision was then made not to send them down there. Conditions in the hold were too dangerous so a crane and grapple were brought in to drop inside the hatches and bust up the hanging cargo. It took a few days but the salt was finally all off by the night of December 1st and the LATIMER finally departed Lackawanna at 11:45PM.

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.