• Wednesday-What'sUP November 6 - 08:28 am

Jen and Emma Stout live on the Portage Canal, so they have a good view of the boating traffic that goes by. This mother and daughter team snapped today's photos of several of the boats passing through recently, including the Mississagi that was in the area to deliver the Keweenaw's winter salt supply. Neat how it arrived with the fog on the canal, making it look a bit mysterious as it glides along. Pretty nice close-ups as the boat went by, too. Seems almost near enough that if there were any sailors out on the deck, they could have shouted hello!

On a different day, they spotted these three tugs, chugging along. The bigger one in the lead is the Missouri, who is towing the Arkansas and the Indiana. The two tugs in tow, were recently upgraded and on their way from Sault Ste. Marie, to the port of Duluth in preparation for the upcoming ice breaking season there. They are replacing the North Dakota and Kentucky, both of which were also towed by the Missouri a few days earlier, only they went from Duluth to a marine yard in the Soo, with a stop at the Houghton waterfront.

Thanks Jen and Emma, for sharing your "front row seat" of the boating action on the Portage Canal. Your vantage point is the envy of all boatnerds, including me!

Ghostly pix...very nice!

We see a lot of "tugs tugging tugs" along the Houston Ship Channel at times, as well as some of the tankers towing tugboats behind to help guide them along through some of the tight turns. Unfortunately no Lakers here; all smaller tankers that service the supertankers anchored in the Gulf and can't get to the refineries....

We saw the three tugs leaving Munising Bay on October 14th, but
we didn't know anything about them, so it was fun to read about
them here.

incredible pictures...

Great view, Jen and Emma. There's nothing like living on a lake/waterfront and watching the ships passing by! We enjoyed a sight like that when living in Charlevoix.....long time ago.

Freighter pictures are always a treat to see for me!

Great pictures of the fog and the freighter. You have a very good ring side seat at the Canal.

I miss living overlooking the canal. I always loved
watching the boat traffic. Great pics! I love the ship
in the fog!

How cool! Fantastic pictures!

WOW!!

Very Cool!

I like the Great Lakes freighters with the pilothouse at the bow, and Canada's Maple Leaf Flag is impressive, 2.

I saw some of these freighters on little Torch Lake in the '60's going to Torch Lake. Often times they were going a little too fast as a little tsunami effect was created by their wake. Talk about seeing the boats up close.

These are awesome!

Thank you for these cool pictures. Especially thank you for letting me know the name of the ship and its purpose. That is the one that I saw traveling the Portage and going under the Lift Bridge on MTU's webcams. I had asked what it was on the day it happened, but now I have my answer. :-)