Friday, June 1, 2012

Back for the Summer


Poe Lock is closed for maintenance for 6 hours on Wed. 5-30-12

My husband and I returned to our cabin on the St. Marys River near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan this past week.  We live about 300 miles south of here during the rest of the year but for three months a year we return to my home town.  In fact, we have the cabin my grandparents build in 1950. 

Every year we look forward to seeing how the St. Marys River is doing.  Will the water level be up or down.  Over the past 60 years, we've seen high and low water.  I remember two times when the water was high-in the early 1950's and the early 1970's.  But since we purchased the 'cabin' in 1999, we have only had low water.  This year the water level seems lower than last year.

I keep a watch on the shipping from our vantage point.  This week the Poe Lock, which is the largest lock in the Soo Locks, was closed for emergency maintenance.  The Poe is the only lock that can handle the 1,000 foot vessels and so anytime it closes, it is cause for concern.  The repairs took just six hours so shipping resumed.  There were three vessels tied up waiting for the repairs to be completed.  I'm sure the Stewart J. Cort, who waited the day tied to the upper pier,  was very happy to be underway by 2 pm.

Shipping has been rather slow this week.  The US Border Patrol vessels have been doing practice maneuvers out front yesterday and today.   Other than that, there isn't much news to report.

I look forward to reporting to you this summer and hope you enjoy my posts.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad your back I missed your post's
We love the UP, and the soo area.Try to get up there from Indiana when we can. Have a nice summer.
Dave R.

Soo Boat Watcher said...

Thanks for your kind words. Hope you can get up here this summer. Everything is nice and green right now. The two days of rain have helped.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back!!! I look forward to your photos and info!!

Anonymous said...

Glad you are back!! Looking forward to your info and photos. Hope this doesn't post twice; having trouble with your "non robot" words!!

Amy said...

good to know your back...i look forward to reading your posts...it's been a year to the day exactly that we were up there...I miss it....

WPgirl said...

I just did some catch up reading of your blog. Thanks for sharing the news in the Soo area.