My mother (and partner on this project) and I started calling this "That Day" so that's what I named this post. It started out when we were heading out on our daily drive out the the Island. We were pulling up to the corner of Presque Isle Avenue and Wright Street heading East on Wright Street toward Lake Superior, when Mom noticed the top edges of the ship. As we came up the rise toward Lake Shore Dr. there was the Michipicoten directly in front of us. It seemed to be stopped right there at the end of Wright Street. At first it looked like it had been beached, but when we got to Lake Shore Dr. it was clear that it was waiting to dock.
The James R. Barker was already docked in the south side of the upper harbor dock and was in the process of unloading coal.
The James R. Barker is the biggest ship I've seen thus far, measuring 1000 feet in length with a beam of 105 feet. It can carry 67,475 tons per trip and can load 3,168 tons per foot of draft. It is owned by the Interlake Steamship Company/Lakes Shipping Co., Inc.
Close up of the coal delivery system using the ballast arm of the ship as a conveyor belt. (Or vise versa, it could be that the primary use of this arm is the conveyor belt and ship crews have found it useful as ballast as well. Or maybe it was designed to be used both ways. Engineers are way smarter than me! Right Christian?)
As Mom and I circled around the Island drive we got several more shots of the Michipicoten waiting to dock.
We got back to the beach on Lake Shore Dr. just in time to see what happened next.
I was watching the Michipicoten when Mom alerted me to the fact that the James R. Barker was moving out of the slip.
The Michipicoten started to move forward and for a time it looked like the two ships were going toward each other. I envisioned The Mountain having a fight with The Hound (if your a "Game of Thrones" fan you know what I'm talking about.) one of those "Who would win in a fight between Superman and the Hulk" arguments.
They got closer . . .
And closer . . .
Until finally they kissed!
After that you could tell that the Michipicoten was in front and the Barker was passing behind.
In this shot, as a reference point, you can see the light house at the end of the breakwater at Presque Isle.
This day seemed pretty exciting for me which is either a gauge of how big a geek I am or how boring life in Marquette is, I don't know which is true if either. I'm actually quite happy to be here taking care of my mother and getting some things accomplished that I didn't have time for in my real life down in Traverse City.
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