From December 7, 2013.

December 7, 2013.  

There was a wild Northern wind blowing as the Selvik Tugs Susan, L., Jimmy L.  and the Cameron helped guide  the CSL Niagara down the bay, past Pottawatomie State Park.

Her bow covered with a beard of ice from breaking her way down Green Bay, the Canadian ship CSL Niagara, worked her way into Sturgeon Bay for some repair work in the Graving Dock at Bay Ship Building.

CSL Niagara is lined up for the graving Dock at Bay Ship.

Sandwiched between tugs Susan L (left) and Jimmy L (rt)

As time progressed the weather deteriorated into a snowy fog while the tugs split ice to move the 700+’ ship to it's position in the graving dock.

The Susan L Selvik keeping the Niagara's bow positioned

The Tug Jimmy L pulling her in.  Notice the KORT Nozzle around Niagara's prop?

The Jimmy L. up close

SS to MO, into the evening Light

July 27, 2012

Kayak, SS to MO
Wind, none, water 80!
Launched at 8 PM

Passing the Graving dock of Bay Ship Building, I stopped to observe a guy welding on the A-Frame support for the self-unloading boom on the ex-Mary Turner, now the Ashtabula…her Tug is in the floating dry dock.

The Tug was the Beverly Anderson and now is Defiance…

It is a large Tug with twin screws, so the name fits.

Farther down the yard was the Kate Barker, blowing off some water and have some welding done on the stack.

Paddling on the Sun slowly sinks into the Western sky. Light changes from daylight blue into nautical twilight. The setting sun mellows the sky into pastel hues of pink, orange and blue.

There was an old school style motor yacht at Center Point Marine, dark blue, steel I think. It was from Milwaukee, vertical bow with stainless plates to protect the hull from the anchor. Twin Masts at each end of the large deckhouse, spinning ports on the bridge to throw off rain, snow and ice…it was tough looking, my kind of boat…they were cooking a delicious smelling meal too.

I went past Center Point to look at the rowing course set up for tomorrow along Memorial drive. I heard there will be over 90 participants with sculls ranging from singles to 8’s.

Falcon in the evening light

With the water so warm, a beautiful evening sky, no powerboats, calm seas, light wind…a perfect way to relax at the end of a busy week.

Steel Ships and Spring

Waiting to leave after some winter R and R

Back in February

Over several weeks in March the acrid smell of bunker fuel and the wail of ship horns signaled the start of another shipping season. Two weeks ago as I paddled to the Mo Bridge from Sunset Park, several ships were smoking steam, soot and moaning…sounds from some auxiliary machinery running down in the bowls of the steel hulls, warming up the habitable spaces, generators running, testing gear and such.

There is a local ordinance that a ship can only produce heavy smoke for 7 minutes each hour, I think left over from the coal and heavy fuel days...now that seldom happens although you can detect the unusual smell of burning oil once in a while as the boats fire up.  Most are diesel powered and a few still have steam turbines, but many have steam boilers for heating the populated spaces.

Anderson and Callaway

The Arthur Anderson was spiting steam, the prop wasn’t turning, but it was twitching…every few seconds moving an inch, so as I was doing a little photography I took care to not get too close.

The steam turbine powered Wilfred Sykes 

During the following two weeks, most of the fleet left…

I watched 6 leave on a drizzly Friday evening,

several more over the weekend. Currently about 6 ships are still in port.

Sharing water with the Big Boys



Now that the ICE has melted, I'll probably do some canoeing on the few local creeks...It is just simpler to get out on the water after work, I don't need the drysuit as I'm a few feet from shore and the water is only waist deep.  I guess, without the ICE to play in...it's just COLD water to me, to kayak now, means wearing a drysuit with many layers and feeling stiff and clumsy while paddling...I'll just let Lake Michigan and Green Bay warm some while I go creeking in a canoe and continue work on the Trap Skiff when I'm not Outisde.

Two Weeks ago I hung the Sheer Plank on the Trap Skiff, so the planking is finished.  So the hull is whole, but the boat is probably only a third complete. 

Trap Skiff...hull done!

Potawatomi State Park, Sturgeon Bay, WI

March 16^th, 2012

Looking North toward the Bay of Green Bay

Crazy warmth this week, 60’s even touching 70! On Monday the Coasties were out in the AIR and on the SEA after a report of two 4 wheelers abandoned on the ice near the Old Stone Quarry…it turned out to be two sunk and busted up ice shanties…chalk that run up to practice. Almost 20 fishermen have been rescued this winter because of the unstable ice conditions. Two weeks ago, after a strong 30+ mph wind from the SE blew for a few hours, an open lead started from Egg Harbor down to Dykesville, probably 30 or 40 miles long in what was solid ice…it is amazing what the wind can push.

I been watching the weather and waiting for the wind to die, but I’m almost finished planking the Trap Skiff…just the Shear Plank left and I want to finish this weekend, so what to do? Paddle; walk, or work on the boat? The weather was too perfect and the ice is melting fast so I went over to Potawatomie State Park looking for ice late Friday Afternoon…Sawyer Harbor was Ice free, but there was pack ice floating a quarter mile off shore between Potawatomi Park and Sturgeon Bay.

I launched on a cobblestone beach just North of the old boat ramp

 on the East side of Potawatomi State Park and headed toward the ice.

Red Nun #26 in ice

Warm, bright sun, the air was 60 degrees and the water 33. I pushed into a few leads, they were mostly so rotten the ice just crumbled under the hull, on some I rode up out of the water, and then sank back in. A Red nun buoy was cleaving the pack ice as the light wind moved it down upon the buoy. I Paddled about an hour, just poking around, the water was extremely clear, a lack of debris with no algae and lots of sun shining right down to the bottom …I could make out every detail on the lake floor 10, 12 feet below.

Looking toward Sturgeon Bay and the Ship Yard

That was refreshing, sometimes May isn’t this warm!

The next day...the ice was gone.

Paddle from Portage Park to Sturgeon Bay Canal Entrance Light

This weather has been wonderful. I have been able to get on the water several times during the past month.

Tug Michigan and Barge at Bay Ship.

Hope this keeps up. The past 4 winters were bad, with record breaking snow totals each year and cold temperatures. Last year at this time, we had 30 inches of snow, wind and frozen water everywhere.

Tug Oliver Moore, built in 1928

Now Sturgeon Bay is iced over, but not very thick. I launched at Sunset Park on Christmas Eve  and  Sawyer Park on the 30th for a trip to Bay Ship and back. Late on January 6th, I was able to get out to Portage Park with enough time for a trip to the Ship Canal Entrance Light before darkness took over the short day.

Portage Park to Canal Route

Portage Park to the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal entrance

Sturgeon Bay Entrance Light



Portage Park

Living here in the Midwest when winter arrives, the water freezes except out in open Lake Michigan. Usually it is difficult to find a decent place to launch because of the shore ice which can be a jumbled mess several feet thick.


Maybe the mild weather will keep up and we can get out next month just as easy too.

It Was a Rare Day in November

November 30, warm…almost 40 and sunny with light winds. As I walked out of school for lunch, the sun hurt my eyes, no wind…man, thoughts raced through my head...I should paddle today! At lunch I loaded the boat on the truck so we could get on the water quickly…there is less than an hour of sunlight left after work. Hopefully the sun would not be obscured by clouds, as it had seemingly been all month. It wasn’t. I still had sun on the way home. Quickly changing into a drysuit and water shoes, we launched at the small dock near the boat launch in Sunset Park.

Just did the typical route, passing the shipyard, around the MO Bridge, DNR building, Coast Guard dock, the Selvik Tugs, through the marina north of the Michigan Street Bridge , crossed the shipping channel and back a long the shipyard.

The Spirit of Chicago

The passenger-car-ferry Robert Noble

Along the way, were the Barge Innovation, the Spirit of Chicago, and the Robert Noble-a car ferry from Washington Island. All were in for repairs at the ship yard.

The Tug John Purves

The Tug John Purves and Fireboat Fred A Busse docked at the Door County Maritime Musem

Christmas Tree on the old Railroad Bridge approach

Looking at Christmas lights from a kayak was a cool way to spend the evening.

It was dark by the time I arrived back at the launch. I felt the need to hustle a bit as a tug was coming into town shining a BRIGHT spotlight my way from a quarter mile away. The light was flicking around all over, like they weren’t sure where they were.

I had a light on, but didn’t know where they were going and suspected they might head into the shipyard…which they did after I had arrived back at the launch…I just didn’t want to be in their way, so I hurried the last several hundred feet past the 1000' Burns Harbor (boom repairs) and into the shelter of Sunset Park

Burns Harbor-boomed out

Nothing exciting, just an evening paddle to renew my soul.

Maybe I’ll get lucky in December too.