For years I’ve wanted to be out at the Green Bay Harbor Entrance Light when a Great Lakes freighter passed by. Yesterday I had that opportunity. Emails from the Port of Green Bay that I subscribe to said the Alpena would leave the port at 2 p.m. so I zoomed in on MarineTraffic.com to watch her computer icon unberth from the dock at Lafarge North America. The 519-foot Alpena is the oldest active steamship on the Great Lakes. Built in 1942 to carry iron ore, she was converted to a self-unloading cement carrier in 1989. Her light grey paint job and distinctive forward bridge make her easy to identify from afar. In my estimation, for the Alpena to slowly traverse the 3 miles down the Fox River to the bay before getting up to cruising speed of 11 knots (about 12.6 mph) on the bay would take maybe 90 minutes for her to reach the harbor light. The water was warm, the marine weather forecast called for waves less than one foot, and I didn’t have anywhere else I needed to be the rest of the day. So this was the day. I prepared by staging my kayak and gear on our beach, then returned to the house to watch my computer screen. Finally around 2:45 p.m. I could see the computer image of the Alpena pulling away from the dock in Green Bay. I pulled on my water shoes, hurried down to the beach and launched my kayak at 2:50 p.m. From our house out to the light it’s a 4.3-mile paddle, which took me about 75 minutes paddling into a mild headwind. As it turned out I arrived in plenty of time. I bobbed around for about 40 minutes next to the 75-ft tall harbor light, waiting for the Alpena’s arrival. I finally spotted her when she passed Long Tail Point, about 5 miles away. I wondered if the Alpena’s wake could slam me against the huge concrete base of the harbor light. So when she was still more than a mile out I took up position about 100 feet east of the green buoy that marks the east side of the ship channel. From there I had a fantastic view of the massive ship passing by. Viewed from four miles away, Great Lakes vessels seem to travel slowly. But up close, their speed is impressive. The wave at her bow was maybe 5 feet tall but the wake diminished surprisingly quickly by the time it reached me, posing no risk of my capsize. Aided by a slight tail wind, I paddled home, feeling fortunate I finally accomplished greeting a mighty Great Lakes freighter at the harbor light.
