THUNDER BAY – The shipping season has begun.
Capt. Scott Mogelin navigated MV Kaministiqua through some harrowing ice conditions on Lake Superior, arriving in Thunder Bay on Thursday, the first lake-bound vessel to arrive in the city this spring, berthing outside Richardson’s Current River elevator, where it will take on a load of Durum wheat.
“It’s great to be first. It’s good to see old friends,” said Mogelin on Friday morning, during the traditional top hat ceremony, held on the bridge of the 36-year-old vessel, that is expected to make as many as 19 trips across the Great Lakes this season.
“Loading the boat here is great, it’s a great elevator and the Port of Thunder Bay is a nice spot to be.”
It wasn’t an easy voyage, Mogelin added.
“Whitefish Bay is pretty stick this year,” he said. “Over by the Welcome Islands I found five to six feet of ice too ... The icebreakers are very important to open up the shipping channels and the canal. We got stuck. We spent an extra day in Whitefish Bay waiting for the icebreakers to come get us out.”
It’s always good to get back to work, Mogelin said, the shipping season at the port closing in late January and not opening until this week.
“We bring a lot of infrastructure in and out of Thunder Bay. I don’t know how many ships a year, but it’s got to be a lot of tonnes moved in and out. It’s good to be back.”
According to Port of Thunder Bay CEO Tim Heney, it’s about 400 ships and nine million metric tonnes of product that will be transported through the city this shipping season.
“Thunder Bay is the second-largest grain port in Canada. Of course it’s history is the largest, but now most of the crops are out through Vancouver to Asia. But we’ve increased about 25 per cent since the change of the Wheat Board and it’s held to that level,” Heney said.
“We’re trying to diversify cargo with inbound steel and rail from Europe destined for Western Canada, wind turbines and power transformers. So it’s been good.”
Heney said the first ocean-going vessel, laden with steel, is expected to arrive in port some time next week.
He said the top-hat ceremony is a tradition that dates back decades in Thunder Bay, to before amalgamation.
“I think in today’s world we don’t have enough (traditions),” he said. “So we’ve got to keep the old ones and the top hat has gone on for many, many years, so it’s partly tradition, partly celebration.”
MV Kaministiqua, owned by Lower Lakes Towing, arrived at 6 a.m. on Thursday to narrowly beat out MV Algoma Sault, which arrived on Thursday evening. The Kaministiqua will leave the city on Friday, destined for Port Cartier, Que.
