More Magic...

Hoist the colors high!

Winds gusting to nearly 40km.
Water level also fairly high - especially for this time of year.
Seems higher now than it's been all summer.

Majestic Waves...

Possibly my favorite snapshot of the day
Waves crashing and churning, with the sunlight shining through the water offering many shades of blue.

Thousands of Canadian Geese gathering

Goose nest...

Egg hunt...

As the leaves fall off the trees, an "abandoned" Goose nest is uncovered, with FIVE un-hatched eggs.

Cement foundation from the "Lost Villages".

Square foundations of old buildings from the Lost Villages.
One has natural stones arranged in a square shape.
The other has actual poured concrete to make the square edge.

Stone foundation...

On the trip home, the sky impossibly red - with the silhouette of wind turbines.
Have seen many turbine parts transiting the Seaway. Those giant blades are hundreds of feet in length - basically taking up most of the deck space on a ship. Hard to believe several hundred feet of materials are spinning around up there...

Red November...

Johnstown - Prescott (JESSICA B)

Seaway Traffic: Pair of upbound salties:
VITOSHA of the Navi-Bulgar fleet (and former FEDERAL PEARL)
JESSICA B
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Stopped at Iroquois in hopes of seeing the upbound JESSICA B.
Due to arrive at 10.00 - And it was 10.45.
Takes approximately 45 minutes to transit the locks, so I was hoping to catch the vessel on her way out.

No sign of any activity at the locks...

Heading upriver, had planned to stop at Johnstown because there were FOUR cargo vessels anchored there yesterday afternoon.
(BLAIR MCKEIL, G3 MARQUIS, CAPTAIN HENRY JACKMAN, as well as JOHN D. LEITCH delivering to Ogdensburg across the river)

Those vessels were long gone, but happened to catch up with JESSICA B upon reaching the river.

Even though the angle of the sun wasn't in my favor, just had to snap a photo because a huge ship sailing under a bridge is not something that I get to see everyday.

2003-built JESSICA B
(formerly POCHARD S., PANAREA)

My favorite snapshot of the day...
She still has to navigate through the Thousand Islands before reaching Lake Ontario.

The vessel prepares to head out onto the "infinite beyond".

Heading from the shore and back up the path right between a pair of Cardinals chirping at each other. Normally elusive - But also territorial. This brave little bird is pre-occupied with a rival male on the opposite side of the trail.

Cardinal

Fall on the River...

Sea smoke and sea gulls...

Beautiful morning...

Sunrise...

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Lone Snow Goose...

Geese gathering...

Geese and marker buoys

Seaway Traffic (FEDERAL MOSEL, ALGOMA SAULT, LE BELLOT)

Decent crop of relatively new vessels...
A red ship, blue ship, and a new ship.

The 2017-built FEDERAL MOSEL upbound for Oshawa

Always intrigued by the shape of the bow on some of these FedNav ships...

Optics of the curve...

Dwarfed by the mighty superstructure

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FEDERAL MOSEL disappearing in the distance

Always amazed at how the ships zig-zag through the channel

Shorebirds hunting for Crayfish

Waiting for the next ship, the downbound ALGOMA SAULT

Nothing in sight just yet...

The 2018-built ALGOMA SAULT

ALGOMA SAULT approaching

Downbound for Quebec City

Definitely has newer paint than some of her fleetmates (Especially the EQUINOX and HARVESTER)

Closeup of the bow

Upbound passenger vessel LE BELLOT meets the downbound ALGOMA SAULT

The two vessels meet in front of MacDonald Island

The 2020-built LE BELLOT

Passenger vessels like this are becoming more common on the Seaway.

Can just barely see the colors of the French flag

The two vessels had practically upbound lock times at Eisenhower and Iroquois. They met close to MacDonald Island. Specularing that it's approximately the "halfway point" between locks... Guessing an hour from their in either direction to the lock? Arrival time plus one hour and forty-five minutes?

Morning magic with a flock of Seagulls...
Don't care if it's September...
I'm still enjoying it.




















Another encounter with a Bald Eagle.
Attributing it once again to the fact that it's a dismal day, not appealing for most people to be at the water.

Bald Eagle

Perfect definition of
Mix of sun and cloud, defined.

Marker buoys in the shadows

Missed the ALGONORTH upbound around 7am.

Spotted EVERLAST & NORMAN MCLEOD.
Position unchanged, presumably at anchor just off Ault Island.
They would spend the day here, and would head upriver around 9pm.

EVERLAST & NORMAN MCLEOD at anchor

Only vessel I'd see up close was BLAIR MCKIEL

BLAIR MCKIEL downbound

Just love the choppy water, red sailboat and marker...
Plus the downbound vessel visible in the distance.

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Water was getting a bit rough, and had barely seen any Seaway vessels.
Decided to head upriver to find ALGOMA GUARDIAN transiting the Iroquois Lock.

Had actually seen her once before, downbound at these same locks - but it never gets old...

Especially with a ship this old because it has character.

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Getting dark, but still following one of my favorite ships.
Got ahead of her to watch her coming downriver.

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Here she comes!

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Love the profile of this ship.

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Blurry or not, it's still magical.

White Herons in the Shallows

Saw White Herons in the shallows, normally spread out...
As not to disturb each others' hunt?

A "family" of Canadian Geese

Butterfly enjoying thistle flowers.

Suspecting that the grey weather meant fewer people around to disturb this Bald Eagle, so I could be lucky enough to drift by him, relatively close. Saw him hunting earlier in the day, here he is back at one of his "favorite" trees.