I would be lying if I said I was entirely thrilled with my trip to Toronto today. One of the other photographers who works in the area said not to expect much and that I probably wouldn’t see anything “cool”. Well… I got a few photos. I think this trip is better as a blog post than a photo gallery.
Deacon and I had a trip to make to Woodbridge today. But we were told not to arrive there until the afternoon so we had some time to kill. I planned to take the Nikon down to Toronto Harbour around Polson Pier and see what I could find. The MarineTraffic map didn’t look super exciting. But there were a few dots, and I have a pretty good zoom lens, so… I figured I’d give it a shot.
Like a 🤬 idiot I went down there completely oblivious of the pandemic. My first planned stop was Cherry Beach (so Deacon could have a walk) and of course — it was closed. Although other locals seemed to be driving around the pylons I didn’t feel confident enough to risk it. On to Plan B.
I headed for Sugar Beach which I did not realize was the Corus building. I guess that explains why Jennifer Valentyne does all her remotes there for the Global morning program. It was wet. And it took me about three loops around the Corus building to figure out how to get into the outdoor parking lot. Then I tried to insert my $2.25 into the parking meter only to be informed that it only takes credit cards. Yeah, this day was in the nosedive to hell pretty quick.
I decided to risk it. It was raining and miserable and I figured no parking attendant in their right mind would be out writing tickets today. We made a single loop around the Corus building (and George Brown) and managed to get these photos of BLACKY. BLACKY is a bulk carrier from Cyprus 🇨🇾 that was dumping sugar (I’m guessing) at Redpath. Like a putz I forgot the Nikon in the car so these photos were taken with my trusty old iPhone.
I thought the geese nesting under the umbrellas added class. 🤷♂️
So… having had moderate success at Sugar Beach, I decided (since it was still insanely early in the day) to go back down Cherry Street and have another go.
Cherry Street is a real blast from the past in places. If the weather had been better I would have ventured out of the car to get photos of the old bank at the corner of Cherry and Villiers, or the Toronto Hydro-Electric System building. In my mind I already had them in black and white and was going to do a separate “architecture” gallery. But it was too wet. Another day.
So I went back to the drawbridge over the Ship Canal on Cherry Street. There were several tugs lining the channel. Some seaworthy, and some not. Along with a mix of… “other” vessels.
Let me just interrupt this train of thought to say this:
The most utterly terrifying sound in the world is a ratchet sound when you are walking over an unfamiliar drawbridge.
Eric Vice, May 2020
I parked the car and locked it and left Deacon to sleep and went back to the drawbridge since it would be a good place to shoot the canal. It didn’t help that the drawbridge operators booth was kind of grungy and the windows were not entirely transparent. But eventually I managed a closer look and realized nobody was in the operator’s booth. I was safe. But it was still making creepy noises.
When I first saw MISS MARY I didn’t know what to make of her. (If I’m not mistaken that’s her identical brother DAVID G up on the dock.) I’d never heard of a push boat before but apparently that’s what they are. The Great Lakes Tug site lists her as a twin screw push boat with 620 bhp. She is 25 feet long, with 14 foot breadth, and 6 foot depth. And she is truckable. Like I said, that’s her identical twin DAVID G in the background, while WILLIAM REST looks on. WILLIAM REST was retired in 2016 and replaced with IRON GUPPY who I hoped to see today, but did not.
The next few are painful.
She gets points for having a cool name. The website on the side of her is dead. And I think she is basically a booze boat. ENTERPRISE 2000 is currently owned by Olympia Cruise Line Limited. Maybe they just took the website down because of COVID-19. Who knows.
I got back in the and whipped down to the end of Polson Street. As I look at Google Maps to help me remember the order of events this morning, even the information they have about the businesses on that street are very outdated. I parked on the street in front of the Rebel nightclub and took a quick walk in Jennifer Kateryna Koval’s’kyj Park to see if I could see anything else. The weather was terrible. I’ll go back another day for a better photo. But I found where I’m going to get my next Toronto skyline shot. I only got the butt-end of JUNO from this position, but a butt is better than nothing. Except maybe when it’s a duck butt. 🦆
That was my trip today. It wasn’t very productive. But I know the spots I will go back to when the season is in full swing.
There are many push tugs around. They are usually paired up with a barge that has a v-shaped cut in one end where the push tug locks into. If you have a glance you will see 2 such pairs listed. You were right, the geese under the umbrellas add class. They knew enough to get in out of the rain. I love your photos and commentary about your trip and what you saw and experienced. In honour of my recent birthday and Mother’s Day, I think we should name the blue rust bucket tug Mardy, Look forward to many more of your adventures and photos. If I was a teacher and this was an assignment I would have to say I would give you an -A. I would have given you an A+ but I read a comment on The Prescott Anchor suggesting you didn’t take the advice of another ship enthusiast. Tsh, tsk young lad.