Perhaps one of my favorite arrivals of all time! American Century taking their time arriving, going slow due to fog, the fact that Saginaw was occupying the dock she wanted, and maybe just enjoying the sunset over the Duluth Hills. She came out of a thick fog bank that obscured much of her approach into the canal, which then overtook her while she was still in the canal, dramatically changing the weather conditions in a matter of minutes. Temperatures dropped to the mid 50s and visibility plummeted to a couple hundred feet almost instantly as soon as the ship passed. With the sun setting behind the hills, so did the light level, leaving the canal in extremely different conditions than those I had arrived in less than a half hour earlier. This is why in many videos you see some people in coats while others are in shorts and T-Shirts. You never know what weather you’ll have at the top of the hill vs the bottom, or even 5 minutes later while standing in the same spot. Always be prepared because Superior can throw anything your way! Absolutely amazing to see the differences in real time and to be able to visually share that. And for American Century… well she was racing the sunset and the fog, not sure exactly who won there.
As for the Century herself, she arrived for a refuel and a load of coal, which she left with the next day. One of the most common visitors to Duluth, American Century was built as the Columbia Star in 1981, the fifth and final ship of her class. Long serving as the flagship of the Columbia Transportation Company, she was sold along with 6 other vessels to American Steamship Co in 2006 and given her current name. She mainly hauls coal and iron ore out of the Duluth area and brings it to the Detroit area or various ports along Lake Erie. She has a theoretical capacity of 80,900 tons, however due to constantly changing river depths and conditions around the St Marys River and the Soo Locks, she’s never been fully loaded to maximum weight. She holds the all time Great Lakes coal record at 70,900 tons (coal is slightly lighter than iron ore). All together, the ship weighs well over 200 million pounds when fully loaded, stocked and fueled.
With the sun set, the fog rolled in, camera low on power and the ship out of sight, I headed home and waited for Saginaw to leave! Hope everyone enjoys!
Негізгі бет Fire in the Sky & Fog on the Water! How Fast Can the Weather Change in Duluth?
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