Baie Comeau leaving Duluth

A week earlier I happened to be down at Canal Park when the Baie Comeau arrived in Duluth. The Baie Comeau the last of four Trillium Class self-unloading ships of the Canada Steamship Lines . A week later my wife and I planned to go cross country skiing but it was -10 degrees with a additional wind chill so we decided to kill sometime in the morning by driving around Duluth and Superior looking for possible photo locations in the dock area. Our first stop was Rice’s Point Under the Blatnick Bridge. We walked out onto the old wooden Arrowhead Bridge which sticks out into the St. Louis River and took a few photos. Just as we were leaving we notice a tug boat upstream from Rice’s Point. It seemed to be working around a ship leaving the docks. We walked back to the car and drove to a better vantage point. There were two Heritage Marine tugs, the Helen H and Nels J, breaking ice and helping to turn the Baie Cameau.We watched for a while then drove back to the old Arrowhead Bridge where we could get some close-up photos of the tugs and the Baie Cameau as they navigated down the Saint Louis River under the Blatnick Bridge. The tugs were working hard to break up the ice ahead of the ship. We then drove back down to Canal Park to watch the ship exit the harbor and sail out into Lake Superior. It was one of the last ships to leave port. The shipping season ended a few days later.