Saw her upbound at Eisenhower this evening and wondered what her destination was since she wasn't empty. Iron ore for Hamilton? And any ideas if she'll be going back to Clarkson for cement, or hopefully more grain down the Seaway?
Also, where is her bell located? The light wasn't the best, but I couldn't spot it on top or just behind her pilothouse.
Hoping she gets another years reprieve thanks to another strong grain season and catching up with last year's harvest (And stories of another tough winter ahead and Equinox vessels that appear behind schedule). Will that be possible without a 5 year survey?
I believe that she's currently running on a 1 year extension, so I assume she'd likely need investment that Algoma would hate to put into a vessel that they sadly didn't even expect to still own at this time.
Current schedule is grain from Thunder Bay to Trois-Rivieres, followed by cement from Clarkson to Duluth. Could change but that is the schedule as of now.
I have noticed that her ais is turned off while in port and sometimes while underway. Don't know why surely not necessary while moored just us boatnerds are so curious I guess. I lie tracking them the hardwayit's a better test
The decision about how much cement to load at Clarkson depends on a couple of things. Firstly, does Holcim want to ship full loads to Duluth, or retain some of this inventory at Clarkson for sales to the local market. When demand is high, choices have to be made to manage inventory and serve as many customers as possible. Second, the dock at Clarkson is used for both in-bound and out-bound cargoes, using a reversible belt between the dock and the plant. If the cement boat has loaded say 15,000 tonnes and the stone boat arrives, the cement boat will be sent on its way to Duluth and the stone boat will start to unload. The stone boat has priority due to higher demurrage/hour costs and it typically takes 8 hours to unload the stone boat.
The Duluth crew does prefer that the cement be loaded in as few holds as possible. With 18,000 tonne loads, which is the typical maximum load, they will usually use 5 holds. The Montrealais and Quebecois were apparently strong enough that 4 holds could sometimes be used if the load was less than 18,000 tonnes.
Also need to remember that the water depth on the loading side of the dock decreases towards shore, hence loading the stern hatches can lead to draft issues at the bow with full loads.
The cement loading dock is not well protected from westerly winds, and if loading is interrupted because the ship has to pull away from the dock in higher winds, they may decide to proceed to Duluth and not come back in for more product.
If you want to figure out loading/unloading times for ACR vessels, rather than rely on unreliable ETA/ETDs use the Algoma vessel passage arrival and departure times from her last visit and calculate the time. Unless there are major delays it should be relatively consistent.
There are years of records available and are a very valuable resource.
[quote="Guest"]Correction noted on the Montrealis's purpose for being in the twin ports, but the question still stands of how long will this take - or when would be a likely window for departure? (Nothing on Duluthboats.com yet.)[/quote
Duluth Shipping News has it departing on Friday between 1200-1500. With them loading grain in Thunder Bay they'll be at the dock longer for cargo hold cleanup.