A River Meet and Then Some.

No, it wasn't exactly a "Teddy Bear's Picnic" and though I shot many of my photos through branches and beneath trees, it wasn't the woods I was going to on Wednesday, October 28th, but the river, the St. Lawrence and my photo possibilities surely were a "big surprise". 

With an inch of wet snow blanketing the neighbourhood, motoring anywhere through that slop hadn't entered my mind for a second that day even though it was a day off and I truly didn't know when I'd be able to get back down to the river after my upcoming hernia surgery. That was until I saw photos taken by fellow boat watching friend, Pat English of the 740' CSL NIAGARA unloading road salt at the Rideaubulk dock near Mariatown, a location I had not been able to catch a ship at since by chance, I came across the former Algoma Central self unloader PETER R. CRESSWELL discharging the hot commodity of the day then too, on October 8, 2012 (http://carlzboats.blogspot.com/2012/10/self-unloader-peter-r-cresswell.html).

Making that 90 minute drive to that wee dock on Lake St. Lawrence, a body of water that was created during the building of the Seaway was not going to happen but catching the Canada Steamship Lines self unloader underway along with the recently built Polsteam bulk carrier NARIE which was also upbound, was very doable regardless of the early-winter conditions. Actually I almost didn't make it to the river in time to even catch the 656' NARIE, I had barely parked at the foot of Centre Street in cute town of Prescott when the sitting high in ballast Polish-owned bulker effortlessly motored by.

Those unpredictable autumn skies along the river makes it look like the passage of the flagged Bahamas general cargo vessel took place late in the afternoon though it was just after lunch hour.

Even before I had time to check the whereabouts of the now upbound CSL NIAGARA,  I suddenly noticed a downbound in the distance....

...loaded and bound for Port Cartier, the 740' ALGOMA STRONGFIELD was approaching the NARIE which was bound for Toledo...

...and soon realized that not only was I going to get an unexpected rendezvous but also a mid-river meet. Oh YAAA!! 

From east of Prescott at Windmill Point, you can see the NARIE continuing to motor away towards Brockville in the distance, while another downbound, the cement carrier NACC ARGONAUT appears to the stern of the advancing ALGOMA STRONFIELD.

The Seaway-max size STRONGFIELD turns again to avoid another one of many shoals and shallow points along the seemingly vast upper St. Lawrence River.

After turns completed, shipping by the old windmill lighthouse runs very close to the Canadian side of the river.

While the NARIE had cranes topside to assist in unloading her cargoes, the oncoming ALGOMA STRONGFIELD has none requiring unloading to be done by dock equipment making her known as gearless bulk carrier.

One of my favourite vantage points, Battle of the Windmill National Historic Site. 

Even though we're experiencing late summer temps today in the 20's celcius, it definitely looks like winter was near in this clouded over view from the end of Old Windmill Road. 

The last of four Equinox-class gearless bulk carriers in Algoma Central's fleet renewal program, her original name was  CWB STRONGFIELD when built in 2015 at Nantong Mingde Heavy Industry, in Nantong City, China...

...however before the then Canada Wheat Board owned vessel was completed, the shipbuilder went into bankruptcy. Algoma Central purchased the hull, had the construction completed and when she entered service in 2017 the vessel was renamed her ALGOMA STRONGFIELD .

As the STRONGFIELD, which is the name of a Canadian prairie wheat continues passed the Port Of Johnstown's riverfront docks  the upbound CSL NIAGARA approaches beyond the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge.

Trying to get a better view of my next ship-meet, I was able to find some high ground above the port's dock, but then had to contend with shooting through swaying branches in wind gusts of 28km and dead ones from a partially submerged tree along the shoreline. Meanwhile you can see the two 740's position themselves to complete their meet beneath the 1.5 mile suspension bridge in this sequence of photos...

 ....ALGOMA STRONGFIELD starts to turn to starboard as the rounded bow of CSL NIAGARA makes a wide wake as she pushes against the steady river current...

...while CSL NIAGARA maintains her course, ALGOMA STRONGFIELD continues to swing right...

...while the gap between the two passing ships widens below, an 18 wheeler crosses over to the Canadian side on the completed in 1969 suspension bridge that remains closed to non essential travel due to the pandemic.

With the STRONGFIELD out of her way, the NIAGARA straightens out as she approaches the Port of Johnstown...

She was known as J.W. McGIFFIN when christened by her namesake, the then CSL chairman of the board at Collingwood Shipyards on April 11, 1972. At 730' in length and 75' wide, the 34,380 ton cargo capacity McGIFFIN was the first in a new class of domestic self unloading bulk carriers with a rounded bow, flat stern, and all cabins and wheelhouse aft.

When seaway-maximum sizes were revised, she was also the first in her class to receive a new and larger forebody at Port Weller Dry Dock. Renamed CSL NIAGARA, she re-entered service in 1999,  10' longer, 3' wider and deepened by 1.5' which increased her cargo capacity to just under 38,000 tons.

While built primary to haul coal from Lake Erie ports of Conneault and Toledo to steel mills in Hamilton, Nanticoke and Sault Ste, Marie and the Ontario Hydro coal burning plants at Courtright, Nanticoke and Port Credit., these days her cargoes also includes iron ore, salt, grain and stone.

As CSL NIAGARA continues her upbound passage to Toledo, another meet was about to begin, with the  cement carrier NACC ARGONAUT skirting the American side of the river while bound for Trois-Rivieres.

While the sleek and bulbous of the NACC ARGONAUT appears, tossed wave spray and furiously flapping flags make for an interesting effect as the big CSL NIAGARA pushes on into the strong and constant wind gusts that day in these next two photos.

Her name was ARKLOW WAVE when built at Kyokuyo Shipyard, in Shimonoseki, Japan in 2003. She was a general cargo vessel then like fleetmate ARKLOW WILLOW which is now named FLORENCE SPIRIT.

She was converted into a cement carrier in 2017 and initially named NACC TORONTO, but changed to NACC ARGONAUT before taking over the cement trade for Lafarge on the lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River in 2018.

NovaAlgoma Cement Carriers (NACC) was founded in 2016 as a 50/50 joint venture company between Algoma Central Corporation and Nova Marine Holdings SA of Luxemborg dedicated to building a global fleet of cement Carriers to support infrastructure projects worldwide.

The 447.5' NACC ARGONAUT is just over 40' longer than her predecessor, ENGLISH RIVER seen entering Toronto harbour on August 27, 2011 in the background of this all of my Carlz Boats blogposts. At 14, 650 tonnes, she can also carry almost double the cement capacity of the former CSL package goods freighter which is still being dismantled in Port Colborne.
 

Well I certainly got more than I bargained for during this last rendezvous at the river. While today at home "relaxing" with another cold pack on my groin to sooth the pain from my hernia surgery last week, you might say it's exactly what the doctor ordered. Anyhow my recovery is one day at a time and hopefully before I know it I'll out and about photographing boats. The sooner the better.

Asphalt & Bitumen Tanker IVER BRIGHT

Almost a century old Bridge 19 was built for the 4th Welland Canal in the 1920's

Regretfully because of COVID -19, I haven't been able to journey up to my hometown, Port Colborne to visit my mother, whose been getting wonderful care at the Portal Village retirement community there, and while in town, get to snap a boat or five passing through Lock 8 which my dad was in charge of as a lockmaster before he retired in 1991, or the bridges he earlier operated, like #21, the first lift bridge at the harbour entrance from Lake Erie and the one to the right,  #19, the single leaf bascule or "jacknife" bridge at the north end of the lock taken by my co-worker and good friend, David Cole of Nepean, Ontario on September 20th.

"That darn bridge is up again", - Yeah, if my dad heard it once, he heard it a hundred times, week after week throughout most of his career working on the Welland Canal. It was a common complaint back then and actually quite understandable because there were only two vehicle and pedestrian bridges crossing the often busy Welland Canal in Port Colborne at the time. If you were a student walking to Port High (only rural kids got to go by school bus 🚌, wusses) you were going to be late, 😀YES!! Meanwhile, more often than not, motorists would simply pull a "U-ee"and hightail it to the other bridge about a mile away hoping it was down. If it too was up, they'd simply have no choice but to shut the car off, have a smoke 🚬 (in the car 🚙 then of course) and listen to Danny Neaverth spin some real Rock 'n' Roll 🎶 (now Classic Rock) on WKBW-1520 radio in Buffalo, New York, or some wonderful music to fall asleep by 😴 on our local station 📻, C-HOW-1470 (btw, I spun discs and read the news a couple of times on C-HOW while studying radio at the Columbia School of Broadcasting in Buffalo). 

I can still recall the front page photo and article in the Port Colborne section of the Welland Evening Tribune in the late 60's showing how a proposed tunnel like those built in Thorold and eventually Welland would join together Killaly Street East and West which were divided since the digging the fourth Welland Canal in the1920's. Like many things in Port Colborne, the tunnel didn't happen but the second best solution to silence the "raised-bridge-whiners" was the building of another jacknife bridge at the south-end of Lock 8 in the early 80's. Since then, motorists have had a choice to either make their way to closest open bridge, or simply turn off the car and have a smoke 🚬 - in the roadway and away from anyone these day, listen to a music app in the car or 🎧 ear-buds, or simply get out of the car 🚙 to take a pic 📲 or five of the passing vessel like what my friend Dave did for me of a very popular ship on the Great Lakes these days, the 367.5' smart looking tanker IVER BRIGHT.

Built in 2012 at Hyundai Mipo Shipyards at Ulsan, South Korea, the IVER BRIGHT is known as a high-heat asphalt and bitumen tanker which can carry over 6,000 tons of asphalt in her cargo tanks that are heated and capable of maintaining a temperature of 230C (446F) to keep the asphalt in a liquid form. 🆒, actually Hot 😓 Stuff for sure.

The IVER BRIGHT is one of 14 high-heat tankers owned by Iver Ships BV which is a subsidary of Breda, the Netherlands based Vroon BV which which operates and manages approximately 140 deep-sea vessels capable carrying livestock, dry bulk cargo, containers, automobiles, product tankers, high-heat tankers and off-shore support vessels.  Each Iver Ships high-heat tanker is red hulled with a huge white "V" near the bow on both side, to acknowledge parent-company 'Vroon" which made the IVER BRIGHT look a lot like a Canadian Coast Guard vessel, according to Dave's wife. Good eye 👀 Anne Cole. 

While all other salties rush to get out of the Great Lakes before the St. Lawrence Seaway system closes for winter at the end of December, the Dutch-flagged Arctic Ice Class rated IVER BRIGHT has remained working the upper lakes and rivers for the last two winters while leased by Calgary based Suncor Energy.  At their Sarnia refinery, Suncor converts crude oil into many petroleum products including asphalt which is blended to produce material for road building and pothole patching by paving companies throughout the Great Lakes region. However the only way to get the oil by-product to them is by marine transportation which can be a challenge during winter months, first due to the lack of this type of specialized vessel in Canadian fleets, and potential delays if one of the shared Canadian-owned articulated tugs and barges (ATB's) is unable to transit the ice covers lakes and channels even with icebreaker assistance. To prevent reduced production due to these potential delays, Suncor sought to lease a vessel that could solely transport asphalt from their refinery. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of Ice Classed high-heat tankers out there, (only 65 of 263 worldwide) but Iver Ships had 2, and since entering the Great Lakes trade year round, though foreign flagged and crewed, the IVER BRIGHT has done the job and has offered a bright and different look when seen anywhere.

Though still plenty of room to manoeuvre the 60' wide tanker, the ship's pilot uses the fenders along the west wall to guide to the IVER BRIGHT into the 80' wide Lock 8, and not touch the bridge on the other wall (which has happened).  

 

 

Whether it's liquid or dry bulk in their holds, cargo transportation is a year round operation from Sault Ste. Marie on the St. Mary's River to Chicago and Indiana Harbor on Lake Michigan, through to various ports on the St. Clair and Detroit rivers, and all the way down Lake Erie to Nanticoke near the eastern end. Though last year was quite mild, most Great Lakes winters can be brutal due to excessive snowfalls and bitter Siberia-like polar vortexes blasting down from over the top causing several lakes and channels to freeze over completely. Fortunately American and Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers have worked very hard as one joined effort to ensure that ship transits are completed and goods are delivered. Freeing up those overworked vessels, the IVER BRIGHT with her ice strengthen bow can safely transport asphalt on her own and lead the way breaking up ice for other cargo vessels. What better way to "BRIGHT"-EN a mariner's day in late February, don't you think. Thanks again David for the pics. 👍📲👍  Stay Safe 😉 Everyone!! 

 Upbound IVER BRIGHT pushes water over her bulbous above Cardinal on April 4, 2019

 PS: In case you were wondering too, BV stands for "Besloten Vennootschap" which is Dutch for "Private Company". Also a lot of good information about the IVER BRIGHT on the Vroon and Suncor websites.
 

Classic Straight-decker CSL TADOUSSAC (Revisited, Again)

Summer per se is over as daytime and evening highs are dropping and before you know it, so will soon the leaves 🍁🍂 and then the white stuff ⛄, YUCK!! While I haven't blogposted in a bit, I have made several trips to the St. Lawrence and am chomping to show what boats I got and their stories told.  Though technically still spring, it was the upbound CSL TADOUSSAC that I really wanted to see on my run to the St. Lawrence on June 15th. After all, who knows when the classic straight-deck self unloader would be around this neck of the woods again. She’s a uniquely designed ship that's being phased away and since her last long term layup a few years back, the furtherest east I had seen her operating, was to pick up a load of clicker at the St. Mary's Cement plant in Bowmanville on Lake Ontario and speaking from experience that's one location where a good zoom lens is needed and a steady hand.

A few days earlier I had missed CSL TADOUSSAC's downbound passage to Quebec City laden with American iron ore which had been transloaded into her hull while tied off to the thousand footer, EDGAR B. SPEERS at Conneault, Ohio on Lake Erie.  No, I did not want to miss her this time but when I checked her whereabouts on the MarineTraffic 📲 app soon after getting up at about 6:30 🕡, the 730' self unloader was anchored ⚓ across from Upper Canada Village. The St. Lawrence is quite wide there all the way to the American-side at Wilson Hill and a great place to shoot ships but with my zoom on the fritz, I needed a more-in-my-face location to get her and Iroquois Lock would be ideal. She was still anchored⚓ for some unknown reason when I headed down to the River shortly after nine and presuming she got on her way soon, I felt pretty confident it might still be my lucky day to catch her with my standard 📷 lens at Loyalist Park another great vantage point, after checking out the action and boat passages at the Port of Johnstown, upriver.

West Street, Port Colborne - another great vantage point.

Fortunately there was more than one fish 🐡 to catch 🎣 on that day's photo 📷 op by the river. The first find across from the Old Windmill Lighthouse was the Danish-owned 473' oil and chemical tanker HARBOUR FIRST which by the way was the third time I came across her. Flying the flag of Portugal, she was also upbound in Port Colborne in May 21, 2019 when I caught her for the second time but she was downbound also across from the old Windmill Lighthouse when I caught the HARBOUR FIRST for the first time a few weeks earlier on May FIRST! 😀

First time catch of the HARBOUR FIRST, May 1, 2019 at Windmill Point 

It was also neat to catch the Canada Steamship Lines fleetmate, the 740’ CSL NIAGARA motor by another ship named after the famous waterfalls, the Equinox-class Algoma Central self unloader, ALGOMA NIAGARA hiding in the dust as dock crews loaded stone into her at the Port of Johnstown destined for Port Colborne which is my old hometown, a community located in the Niagara Region.

Hey, if you want to see my pics and blah-blah a little sooner, feel free to join my Facebook group, Carlz Boats And Lighthouses. Click here to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/808680946172702/

I caught CSL NIAGARA again rounding the bend across from the Ingredion starch plant in Cardinal, and then took of my standard lens off and rested it on a long and tall concrete barrier at the water treatment plant's parking area while shooting the big downbound with my zoom as she approached an oncoming sailboat and the 740' gearless bulk carrier, ALGOMA HARVESTER.

Because the automatic feature on my zoom lens was a bit wonky lately, I shot these pics manually and I'll have to admit I'm pretty pleased with my effort.

I then looked at my MarineTraffic 📲 app and was disappointed to see that the TADOUSSAC was still anchored ⚓ east to Morrisburg and with no new ETA for Iroquois Lock, I decided to call it a day and motor 🚙 home. Even with a stop at Costco to fill-up ⛽ my tank, I made it home 🏡 in a little more than an hour and while sitting in my driveway in Kanata putting my stuff together, I said to myself, "self, where is my standard lens?" 💩💩, 💩💩💩, Oh No, 😱 I LEFT IT ON THE PARKING BARRIER IN CARDINAL!!!!!! I quickly walked into the house and did a greeting to Janice similar from what I recall hearing on the "I Love 💘 Lucy Show" from back in the 50's when Desi would say, "Hey Roooseee, I'm Hooome!!" but added, "but I got to go again, 'cause I left my standard lens down by the river." Unbelievable, it SUCKS getting old and forgetful. Zoom 🚙 ZOOM back to Cardinal I went, got to the barrier and the lens wasn't there. 💩💩, 💩💩💩. Wasn't on the ground either, 💩!

So sheepishly I walked over to the water treatment building, stepped in and asked a worker at his desk if he knew of someone finding and handing in a camera lens from outside? "Oh, is it this one?" he said. "One of our guys was walking by the river and found it on the cement parking barrier". I told him that's where I left it, that I hadn't realized that I had forgotten it until after I got home in Ottawa, and had to come back to find it because I knew with the pandemic closures, it would be a hassle and costly to replace it. Still embarassed I asked if he could mention my appreciation to the worker who found and handed in the lens, and then left, while knowing I would be returning soon with a Tim Horton's gift card to really show my gratitude for his honesty.

However, while walking back to the car 🚙 a couldn't help but check out my MarineTraffic 📲 app one more time and immediate thought to myself a Gomer Pyle saying from his '70's TV 📺 show, "Surprise, Surprise, SURPRISE!!!" while seeing that CSL TADOUSSAC was underway and entering Iroquois Lock. SHAZAM (another Gomer Pyle saying) I thought. "It was a miracle" and off I went to the nearby Seaway lock to get my girl, Oh YAAA 👍📷👍

Talk about being at the right place at the right time. As she inched closer and closer to the lock's arrester, I began to feel like it was my destiny to see the classic self unloader one more time. Her name was simply TADOUSSAC when built at Collingwood shipyards in 1969,  and she was the last Canada Steamship Lines self unloader built with a forward wheelhouse and the first to be built with stern mounted self unloading equipment.

While others like her have been cut apart by the breaker's touch in Port Colborne and scrapyards overseas, at least her presence, though looking rough with a steel patch on her starboard bow and badly needing a coat of paint, suggested there still maybe a future for this classic laker.

As the west end of the lock arrester rises and the gates open, soon there would be nowhere to go but forward for the TADOUSSAC as to her stern, the 610' Bulgarian bulk carrier, RODOPI bound for Thunder Bay, can be seen waiting in the basin below for her turn to enter the last Seaway lock before Lake Ontario.

Scraped sides due to years of rubbing against the lock walls suggests she's surely due for some attention like when the TADOUSSAC was given some TLC and an extended lease on life during the winter of 2000, when she entered Port Weller Dry Dock. After all things were done, she received updated self unloading equipment, her centre section was rebuilt and widen by about 18" on each side to the Seaway's maximum ship width of 78', and the company prefix "CSL" was added to her name when rechristened in March 2001.

Like so many shipping seasons before, CSL TADOUSSAC continued to be useful throughout 2014 and not laying-up for winter at Thunder Bay, Ontario until January 17, 2015. However as her gearless and self unloading fleetmates got underway in the following spring, CSL TADOUSSAC stayed put and remained there in long term layup status until December 2018 when she was towed into the old Port Arthur Shipbuilding slip, for an inspection and refit by Hamilton-based, Heddle Marine before then re-entering into service that April.

The engine room door, a fine spot for an upfront view of what has been passed by....

...or as in this photo from May 19, 2013, a great place for a quick puff.

While the favoured design for newbuilds these days are "sternenders" with a    superstructure for crew accommodations and wheelhouse  erected high above the engine room at the stern and behind a long line of cargo hatches, the "straightdeck" design of the CSL TADOUSSAC  was praised when the first laker of its kind, the R.J. HACKETT was built 100 years earlier in 1869, because it offered the captain better vision and quicker reaction to danger in the water and when maneuvering through channels and locks. As the 51 year old classic laker leaves Iroquois Lock for Fairport Harbor, Ohio to take on a load of salt, the increased view from her forward wheelhouse will surely be helpful for her captain as the CSL TADOUSSAC motors through the Brockville and then American Narrows ahead and the Welland Canal locks beyond on that trip and hopefully many more to come until her usefulness days comes to an end. Despite the calamities of the day, I'm glad I got to see her again.

Took awhile but on my next trip to Cardinal on August 17th, I got to meet Mark, the worker and "Eddy Shack" lookalike who retrieved my standard lens off the concrete parking barrier a couple months earlier. Instead of pocketing the lens and selling it on Kijiji, he did the right thing, brought it in and kept it safe for its owner. Yes there are many good people out and because of his honesty, I gave Mark a $25 Tim Horton's gift card. Thanks again my friend and everyone, please keep your distance and stay safe 😷


PS: To those who were affected or lost someone due to the terrorist attacks on 9/11 nineteen years ago today, I will never be forgotten them and that horrible day 😔

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.

CCGS PIERRE RADISSON - Medium Icebreaker (Revisited)

Built in 1978 CCGS PIERRE RADISSON is makings good speed by Crysler Farm Battlefied Park and Mariatown.

What a difference a year makes. About this time last year I was standing along the St. Lawrence River listening in aw as the big or as the Canadian Coast Guard prefers to call it, medium icebreaker PIERRE RADISSON crashed through a huge field of ice east of Morrisburg like a knife slicing through whipped cream. It was March 22, and the RADISSON was on her way to assist shipping on the upper Great Lakes an activity that she'd been required to do in past, with the exception of perhaps this spring.

Unlike this winter where except for my backyard, much of the Great Lakes region had very little or no snow at all, and most bodies of water were completely free of ice while in mid January 2019, Lake Superior had lots of it and Erie was over 90% ice covered in places. To makes matter worse, gale force winds blew across the continent in February causing huge ice ridges and banks that I hadn't seen since I was a kid growing up in Port Colborne. Along with the help of their American counterparts the Canadian Coast Guard's "Light" icebreakers GRIFFON and SAMUEL RISLEY which had been busy all winter escorting tankers and other carriers to supply communities with needed cargoes, could not break through either. The cry went out and the mighty PIERRE RADISSON was on its way in.

Today the Welland Canal opened and from what I've seen in Janey Anderson's Facebook ship watcher's posts, who was at Port Coborne this morning, no vessels encountered any ice issues. Such was not the case when the RADISSON arrived at Port Colborne a year ago today. Not only was there ice in the harbour, but not far from the canal entrance breakwalls, she encountered ice ridges two and half to three metres high. It was almost a week before the PIERRE RADISSON and GRIFFON could make safe shipping tracks for the 10 vessels waiting in Port Colborne and at various walls along the canal, to get their season underway.

Photo by Our Midland.ca Local News - April 19, 2019

Meanwhile, the call went out for the light icebreaker MARTHA L. BLACK to assist at Cape Vincent at the St. Lawrence Seaway's Lake Ontario entrance because of ice ridges there, and two more medium icebreakers. Once CCGS AMUNDSEN arrived then followed by CCGS DES GROSEILLIERS soon after, the PIERRE RADISSON continued up through to Thunder BAY and eventually broke out BAIE COMEAU in Midland on April 19th which had been trapped there due to ice ridges on Georgian Bay as well.
 

Arctic research vessel during the summer CCGS AMUNDSEN breaks ice in winter at Mariatown - April 4, 2019.

CCGS AMUNDSEN (formerly SIR JOHN FRANKLIN) was the second medium icebreaker built in 1978 at Burrard Dry Dock, North Vancouver.

Light icebreaker CCGS MARTHA L. BLACK also no stranger to spring ice operations on the Great Lakes disturbs a flock of Canada Geese while approaching Iroquois Lock on March 27, 2019. 

Dark sky and setting sun as DES GROSEILLIERS passes Morrisburg.

- April 10, 2019.

The 5,775 gross tonne 322'  medium icebreakers are designed for Coast Guard operations in the Arctic Ocean. Their two fixed-pitch propellers are powered by 6 Alco M241F diesel engines that when driving the shafts can create 17,580 shaft horsepower which allows their powerful propulsion system to break ice over a metre thick at a speed of 6 knots. They have a top speed of 16 knots (30 k/h, a range of 15,000 nautical miles and cants at sea for up to 120 days. They have a flight deck with a retractable hanger to house their light Bell 206L helicopter which provides air reconnaissance to identify safer commercial routes.

CCGS DES GROSEILLIERS was built in 1985 at Port Weller Dry Docks in St. Catharines.

CCGS GRIFFON returning home to Prescott from winter ice ops - April 4, 2018

Between late December 2018 and April 2019, six Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers travelled 19,173 kilometres escorting commercial vessels through the ice on the Great Lakes. Canada and the United States shares icebreaking duties between our two nations as needed and combined with U.S. Coast Guard vessels, they assisted 522 ship transits. While light icebreakers CCGS GRIFFON and SAMUEL RISLEY are dedicated to the Great Lakes each year, it sure is nice to know that once old man winter with his arctic blast from over the top returns, at least there's a few extra big or "medium-sized" guns available to make a clear passage regardless of the flag your flying.

CCGS SAMUEL RISLEY lowers a workboat at Johnstown - September 5,2015