The tug Nels J. assisted the BBC Oregon to the dock at the CHS grain terminal in Superior early this morning, April 29, 2011. Steve Sydow, the ship’s agent, was waiting for her and took this picture. The ship brought wind turbine parts from Denmark on Sunday; she is at CHS today loading grain and will likely depart early this evening.
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Take a look at our latest variation in weather in Duluth; always something different.
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It will be remembered for a long time. With 22 inches of snow falling, helped along by winds over 50 mph and topped off with freezing rain, the day was one to remember, even if all the relatives didn’t make it to dinner. Ships were not moving in the harbor and only a few hearty souls made it down to Canal Park to get some pictures.
One cold soul had an advantage; Steve Sola lives on Park Point and owns the lighthouse next to the Aerial Bridge, providing a nice vantage point to watch the action. He was also in a good position to follow one of those big waves that enter the ship canal quickly and branch out over the top of the wall. We stitched 3 of those pictures together (above) as he shot the same wave at 3 different points along its journey through the ship canal.
But with wind gusts over 50 mph, moving his camera through the lighthouse door at the top was worse than swimming upstream in a heavy current. After two hours of moving out, snapping a picture and retreating quickly to the ‘warmth’ inside his lighthouse, he was able to get some nice pictures of his neighboring lighthouses.
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The Mackinaw is propelled through the water by two Finnish azipods at the stern of the ship. An azipod is a propeller mounted on a pod that can be rotated 360 degrees to control the movement and direction of the ship. I took the photo at the right just before the ship was launched. You can see the two azipods in the picture turned toward each other, something I don’ think would happen under normal circumstances. Both pods are independently controlled from the pilot house; each of the two handles with the red stripes in the picture below controls one of the pods. In normal conditions, the pods are computer controlled. Manual control is use in tighter situations perhaps near a dock, or another ship, or breaking ice in a river. These along with bow thrusters at the other end of the ship, give the ship exceptional maneuverability. The pods can be turned toward the ship allowing the ship to go in reverse as easily and as fast as going forward. That is sometimes used when breaking ice.
They can also “walk the ship sideways” using both pods and the thrusters. They have received some strange looks when seen from the shore moving sideways in a channel. This is often done to give them a wider berth when they are trying to clear out broken ice.
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