Show ships - vessels - boats - yachts - submarines - whatever ...

I was up at dawn Sunday and decided to see what a camera would see. All in town of the harbor and the Anchorage.


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This French cruise ship stopped here last week during it's journey from Toronto to Milwaukee. Today it stopped here again, I assume on it's way back to Toronto.
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...and here the first launch filled with cash, I mean tourists, comes ashore to sample the local wares.
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The annual Red Fox Regatta, held every Labor Day weekend on Lake Charlevoix had perfect sailboat racing weather this year. Saturday and Sunday both saw breeze in the 20 knot range at times and, being on a protected inland lake, flat water prevailed. Flat water, breeze and sun. Can't ask for mor than that! The atmospherics for pictures proved challenging at times, but you know what they say. 'Even a bad day for photography is better than a good day at work', or something to that effect.

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This French cruise ship stopped here last week during it's journey from Toronto to Milwaukee. Today it stopped here again, I assume on it's way back to Toronto.
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...and here the first launch filled with cash, I mean tourists, comes ashore to sample the local wares.
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Wow! Even in Traverse City. And that is no slam on Traverse City. We've been several times and like the area a lot, but B-I-G cruise boats?
 
The Great Lakes are deeper than they look and Grand Traverse Bay is a deepwater port, hosting aircraft carriers and other Navy ships in ww2 for training. Average depths of the West Arm of the bay are 300-400 feet. Lake Michigan plunges to around 1000 feet in spots. Traverse City is also currently home to a US Coast Guard Air Station which stays pretty active, and Great Lakes Enviromental Research Vessels.
 
The Great Lakes are deeper than they look and Grand Traverse Bay is a deepwater port, hosting aircraft carriers and other Navy ships in ww2 for training. Average depths of the West Arm of the bay are 300-400 feet. Lake Michigan plunges to around 1000 feet in spots. Traverse City is also currently home to a US Coast Guard Air Station which stays pretty active, and Great Lakes Enviromental Research Vessels.
d'Urville's 184 passengers make it tiny compared to those 5000-passenger behemoths operated by Carnival and Royal Caribbean.

I'm only speculating (actually, starting a malicious rumor), but perhaps it was an emergency stop to pick up some extra vino from the local wineries. :laugh1:
 
d'Urville's 184 passengers make it tiny compared to those 5000-passenger behemoths operated by Carnival and Royal Caribbean.

I'm only speculating (actually, starting a malicious rumor), but perhaps it was an emergency stop to pick up some extra vino from the local wineries. :laugh1:
Or lavatory paper for the almost inevitable ship wide gastroenteritis ...
Or COVID-19 ...

Only half joking ...
 
You are both right, although I was thinking not so much about the depth of Lake Michigan (or all the Great Lakes for that matter), but rather about the commercial reason for it to be there. (It should be said that I would have been very, very hungry as a marketer, e.g., "Who needs portable phones when people can reach me at home or the office?") My experiences of Michigan and the Traverse City area include loons calling across tiny inland lakes, quiet forests, lapping water from big lakes, the best sunsets I've ever seen, huge Great Lakes freighters off in the distance, wonderful wildflowers, a pleasant small-city downtown, and cross-country skiing in the winter. You could sell that to people jaded by big cities and even someone who just wants something different, but how you would get a shipload of people in zodiacs to a quiet north woods lake escapes me. Then again, you sell the fantasy and deliver reality - which in the case of cruise ship reality is something I've never wanted to experience.
 
You are both right, although I was thinking not so much about the depth of Lake Michigan (or all the Great Lakes for that matter), but rather about the commercial reason for it to be there. (It should be said that I would have been very, very hungry as a marketer, e.g., "Who needs portable phones when people can reach me at home or the office?") My experiences of Michigan and the Traverse City area include loons calling across tiny inland lakes, quiet forests, lapping water from big lakes, the best sunsets I've ever seen, huge Great Lakes freighters off in the distance, wonderful wildflowers, a pleasant small-city downtown, and cross-country skiing in the winter. You could sell that to people jaded by big cities and even someone who just wants something different, but how you would get a shipload of people in zodiacs to a quiet north woods lake escapes me. Then again, you sell the fantasy and deliver reality - which in the case of cruise ship reality is something I've never wanted to experience.
I watched about 40 people disembark one Launch that ferried them in to the Coast Guard dock from the ship. That launch is pictured above being lowered down the side of the ship, and in transit to the dock. If the number of passengers aboard is in the 200 range then it would only take 5 trips to transfer them all to shore. I know the ship had at least two Launches because I watched as they passed each other on the way to and from shore, so each launch would make 2 and a half trips. There were tour busses waiting onshore for the passengers, so there was a structured itinerary in place for those that chose to partake. The passengers I watched come in on the first Launch were ancient and probably not 'zodiacable'. Perhaps the later ferry's passengers were younger and still shaking off hangovers and cobwebs from the night before. Maybe they'd be up for a zodiac trip. I know they have them aboard because they advertise zodiac excursions in certain venues.

Traverse City has become a world class producer of wine. Vineyards pepper the area drawing tourists from every state in the union, and abroad. This town is exploding with development, becoming both a commercial and private real estate mecca. It is a vacation destination for tens of thousands every summer and boasts a substantial winter draw as well for area ski facilities. While driving today, I heard the local news state that Traverse City's Cherry Capital Airport has become the third busiest in the state, recently overtaking the State Capitol airport in Lansing as well as Flint's Bishop Airport.

This town is crazy busy. If it's been more than a couple of years since your visit here you will notice a change the next time you stop by. I've lived here 7 years now and the place seems to have doubled in size. Old roads are being widened and new roads are being built. They are paving paradise and putting up parking lots, as a famous song once reflected. Somehow it still manages to hand on to a small town charm, for now.
 
This is intriguing. There is a small plow anchor clearly visible in it's cradle on the bow, just below the pennant on the bow pulpit. There is also what appears to be a windlass, or electric winch, just behind it on deck to control that anchor. However, it almost appears that there may be a small danforth type anchor just above the water, below the painted blue bottom paint. Is that thing flopping around chipping holes in the fiberglass to convert their express cruiser into an underwater reef at the next stopover? Whatever it is it sure doesn't belong where it is.
 
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