PETITE FORTE Waits in Port as Season's End Draws Near

Tug PETITE FORTE and barge ST. MARY'S CEMENT arrived in Erie on Wednesday at 0600, ducking in from a Lake Erie that was producing seas too high for the duo, on a voyage from Cleveland to Bowmanville, Ontario in ballast to load cement, to handle.

The pair anchored in Presque Isle Bay before moving to the Mounfort Terminal at around 1000 that morning, where they remained until noon today before departing for Bowmanville.

Due to the economic uncertainty facing this country, many vessels have reached the close of the Great Lakes shipping season. Already more than a dozen American-flagged freighters are in layup, and after unloading in Conneaut, Ohio tomorrow the AMERICAN SPIRIT is reportedly bound for Superior, Wisconsin to layup.

As far as winter layups in Erie, the PRESQUE ISLE and another of Great Lakes Fleet's vessels will spend the winter in port.

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PETITE FORTE/ST. MARY'S CEMENT at anchor in Presque Isle Bay on Wednesday morning.