This is another one of those storytelling posts where I’m not going to dump the photos all in one gallery.
I had a rough idea of when ISABELLE G was going to show up today. She must have made good time because when I checked the clock and then checked MarineTraffic, she was already here. So I grabbed the camera and jumped in the car and raced for the port. She was out at the anchorage. NACC QUEBEC was still docked. And… LAPRAIRIE was still docked. Odd. I kept peering over the fence to check LAPRARIE for signs of life. Nothing. Odd.
Looking off to the horizon I saw another tug coming. I thought it was SALVAGE MONARCH at first, but it wasn’t. It was OCEAN A. GAUTHIER who was once known by her previous owner as VACHON or simply COW. You don’t really understand why this tugboat was called COW until you see the size of it. It’s huge. Here are a few photos of OCEAN A. GAUTHIER.
Yeah. That third photo is OCEAN A. GAUTHIER beside NACC QUEBEC. I did that mostly to give you an idea of size comparison. She’s a beautiful tugboat and I won’t make any more COW jokes.
Moo. 🐄 Ok. One more.
So OCEAN A. GAUTHIER and ISABELLE G chummed around for a while. And then a while longer. And then a while longer. And I was beginning to wonder what the heck was going on. Eventually OCEAN A. GAUTHIER left ISABELLE G and came into the port and docked beside LAPRAIRIE. I have no inside information, but by the looks of it, LAPRAIRIE wouldn’t start.
When I left two and a half hours later… LAPRAIRIE still hadn’t started.
So I don’t know what’s going on. But I hope they’re able to get LAPRAIRIE going.
P.S. These shots are terrible, but with the zoom all the way out I could barely see CSL TADOUSSAC heading for Bowmanville.
With a lens like you have if you used it here in Prescott you would be able to see what is going through the checkouts at the stores I Ogdensburg. The Happy Ranger is being escorted by a tug because she has a broken bow thruster. I hope there isn’t anything seriously wrong with the Laprairie. Please keep me informed/
And the problem with my lens is that it’s terrible in low light. All the stuff I took after sunset is garbage. The iPhone stuff isn’t great either, but it’s better. What I “need” is going to cost me in the four figures range. Which isn’t happening anytime soon. Well. Maybe three digits. As a shore photographer I could probably get away with a short lens, but I’d be missing the zoom when shots like the one I got of Tadoussac yesterday came around. Remember those little Nikon digital ‘purse’ cameras? About the size of a deck of cards? That’s essentially what mine is, with a a giant telescope on the front of it. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not terrible. But I’m at the limit of what it can do and it doesn’t offer a lot of control.
More ramble.
I “got it” when I worked at the zoo. I was never more than 50 feet away from my subject, and there was always decent light.
Shooting ships is an entirely different ball of wax.
But at least ships don’t bite.
The verdict is the batteries died. And for some reason Gauthier was not able to jump start it. I see it’s pinging on AIS again this morning so I guess they drove the appropriate parts from Hamilton and fixed it. They often do that sort of thing and just send people and materials from the Hamilton office in a truck. Faster and cheaper than by tug. LOL.
With the size of the generator that Gauthier must have, I don’t understand why they couldn’t have just boosted it or hooked a line from the generator to the starter to get it going and then let it charge itself.