Sunday's Post ... Freighter Watching

After church the kids and I went out to lunch then we drove to Marine City then on to St. Clair.  We go at least once a year and see if we can see any freighters.  Jessie calls them "big boats".  It was a beautiful day and we hit the jackpot!  We saw 4 freighters: The Manitowoc, SS Arthur M. Anderson, the Algomarine and the Federal Rhine.


When we arrived in St. Clair and we started to get out of the van, Jessie started screaming.  She would NOT get out of the van.  I was stunned, as she likes to get out and go on the boardwalk.  Granted, there were lots of people, but I didn't think this would make a difference.  Oh, well, we just opened the side doors and left her in there while Jon and I took turns going down to the boardwalk. 

Our first ship we saw was the Monitowoc.  It was built in 1973 and is a self-discharging ship.  According to the internet and its exact location for the moment I looked it up, it was underway in Lake Huron using engine.

The SS Arthur M Anderson (red freighter) is a cargo ship.  It was launched in 1952 and is famous for being the last ship to be in contact with the SS Edmund Fitzgerald before it sank on November 10, 1975.  It was also the first rescue ship on the scene in a vain search for survivors.

The Algomarine (black freighter) was launched in 1968, built as a straight deck bulk carrier and named the Lake Manitoba.  It was renamed in 1987 as the Algomarine.  It is owned by the Great Lakes and Seaway Shipping Company.

The Federal Rhine (red freighter) is a bulk carrier built in 1997.  It flies the Barbados flag and it's port is Bridgetown.  Now, if you'll look farther down at the pictures you'll see that on the back of the ship is an all-weather life boat.  I was excited about seeing this because I told Jon it was exactly like the one I saw on the Detroit River on July 22 when we went on our boat cruise.  Guess what?  It WAS the same boat!  The 3rd picture from the bottom is from July 22 on the Detroit River.  The Federal Rhine is docked and unloading.  I was pretty excited tonight when I discovered this.  (Doesn't take much to get me excited about something!)

We had a fun time watching these "big boats", as well as the MANY smaller boats either out on the sand bar or traveling up and down the river.  For the first time ever, we also saw people swimming in the river.  I've never seen people do that before, although I know they do.  I just had to take a picture of the young boys who climbed on top of the boat posts in from of the St. Clair Inn before they jumped off!

After we finished watching them we went across the street and had our "traditional" London's ice cream before heading home.  In all, it was a very nice afternoon.

We were home about 15 minutes when Chris came to visit.  We had a fun time just chatting away about the shower yesterday and lots of other stuff.  Lots of laughs. 

I sure hope this blog posts, as I'm having a terrible time with it.  My computer needs help.  I can't get my e-mail and the internet isn't working right.