Thursday 21 May 2020

Polsteam Bulk Carrier WICKO

Pretty nice meet of the downbound WICKO & upbound ARAGONBORG if only something wasn't in the way. 😁
Unless you've been sitting on Uranus, or Mars, for the last couple of months, you will have noticed that we are living in much different times. No continent with the exception of Antartica appears to have been spared of this highly contagious bug and as a result, virtually nothing that we may have done prior like a simple or normal daily routine can be taken for granted anymore and for some time after this horrible deadly pandemic nightmare is over.  I'm not going to get into how this dilemma has impacted others and me, especially with my part-time job working as a funeral director assistance because it's just too depressing and after all, this is a "Boat-Blog" and anyone who's been chasing ships since at least 9/11, has been having to deal with all kinds of obstacles like high chain-link fences to heavy cement barricades to get that prize pic in. It is what it is.

The fencing that got in the way of most of my pics here when I finally caught up to the 623'4" Polsteam owned bulk carrier WICKO last Thursday had nothing to do with the COVID-19 restrictions but rather belongs to the Ingredion Canada corn starch plant that spans the complete southern point that kind of juts into the St. Lawrence River in the village of Cardinal, Ontario. With my zoom on the fritz and no place to take it in for repairs due to all the pandemic store closures, I've had to become very selective in finding a vantage point which would give me a decent photo with my standard lens. East of the village between the water filtration plant and the former Canada Starch Works is a great spot and that's where I wanted to catch the upbound Dutch flagged ARAGONBORG underway above Iroquois Lock but had to settle with her meeting the WICKO behind all the fencing above. Will have check her out in my next post at Windmill Point.
Would've loved to have snapped the WICKO where that security guard is but no can do in this day and age, eh!  
While most Polsteam bulk carriers are named after Polish rivers, this one is named after Lake Wicko in northwestern Poland. Actually, earlier in time, it was a fairly large bay that  due to constant wave action a wide sandy spit which is now forested over was created preventing the flow back into  to the Baltic Sea. The 5 km long lake is quite shallow and ideal for fishing 🎣. The downbound for Montreal WICKO was built in 2010 at Mingde Heavy Industry in Nantong China and flies the flag of the Bahamas 🇧🇸. Now off to Windmill Point to catch the Royal Wagenborg's tweener. Explanation to come in my next blogpost.