William A Irvin Pilot House - 360

A view of inside the William A Irvin Pilothouse.

Sunrise 02/28/2019

While it is still a bit below zero on this last day of February, it's nice to know that ice breaking in the harbor will begin in a few weeks.

A walk on the Canal - Springtime in Duluth

With clean white snow, fresh cool air and a touch of Spring in the air, things will be waking up soon.

Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum - 360-Use your mouse/finger to look around.

This afternoon I took a short walk out to the strange looking building just offshore in Canal Park. I thought you might like a look.

Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum- was originally a sand and gravel hopper constructed in the winter of 1919. Harvey Whitney, a businessman from Superior, Wisconsin, funded its construction. The Harvey Brothers company moved gravel from Grand Marais and sand from the Apostle Islands to the port of Duluth via ship. The heavy traffic heading into the Duluth harbor basin lead to ships waiting to dock and unload. Whitney believed that the construction of a hopper would help save time in the delivery process. Steam-powered clamshell cranes from the scow Limit would spoon the sand or gravel into the hopper, and conveyor belts would then move the load onto trucks. (From Visit Duluth)

Lake Superior Shore Ice 2019

I have added Mary Beth Carlson's music - marybethcarlson.com

Sunrise at the Canal - 02/21/2019

Incredible sunrise this morning, it's a good day to be alive!

Brighton Beach fly-over - move view with your mouse or finger (test video)

This is a test of a drone flight over The Brighton Beach ice fields. The video is 360 degrees and you can use your finger or mouse to move the view.
I am doing this as a test and not quite sure how it will present on Youtube. I will do more in the future if it is acceptable. Also, you will need to give it time to load.

Moonrise from the North Shore

The ice fields on the North Shore are incredible this year. Here are a few images of the full moon taken at Brighton Beach, just north of Duluth.

Super Snow Moon 02/19/2019

The full moon rose over Lake Superior last evening exactly on time in keeping with it's appointed place in the clockwork of God's creation.

Super Full Moon Tonight at 17:50

Heads Up!  There will be a Super Full Moon Tonight at 17:50, you should be able to view it on Canal, GLA, Pier B and Hillside Cams

Canal Cam Fundraiser

Canal Cam Upgrade Fund Raiser Successful

We raised the $1500 for the Canal Cam Upgrade plus enough to pay the $700 streaming service for the two Silver Bay cams once they come online next month.

The new Canal Cam will be the Flagship of the Fleet!

This is unbelievable - thank you all so much, it took less than 8 hours to raise the funds.

Superior Sunrise 02/18/2019

St. Clair Fire

The U.S. Coast Guard responded to a fire aboard the freighter St. Clair on Saturday in Oregon, Ohio, just outside Toledo.  No one was aboard, and the ship carried no cargo. See story in Duluth News Tribune.

St Clair Fire -- Courtesy US Coast Guard

The 762-foot St. Clair, St Clair last visited the Twin Ports in November when it arrived through the Superior Entry.

Snowflake photos

Light snow and 15F temps make for some nicely formed ice crystals falling from the sky.
I took these images with my Iphone this morning on the hood of my car.

Sven and Ole Ice Fishing at Two Harbors - 2018

A rerun of the adventures of Sven and Ole ice fishing at Two Harbors last spring. (2018) - This was one of the most popular videos from last year.



These two fishermen (perhaps Sven and Ole) are the most determines guys that I have seen on the cams.  Saturday morning, after chopping a place for their boat, the two were finally able to launch and break their way free onto Lake Superior.

They returned six hours later.

A good example of ice fishing and breaking when needed.



Music by: Eric Matyas http://soundimage.org/

Ice Locked

With Spring right around the corner, things seem to be waking up, even though the boats are still quit ice-locked.

Lee A Tregurtha

William A Irvin

Keye E Barker

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Canal Cam Update!

Update 2/14/2019 - Camera seems OK for now.  I will defer an upgrade for a few weeks in order to keep testing its performance.

Update 2/11/2019 - 14:00 - I removed a thick layer of clear ice from the camera window.  Hopefully, it can maintain it's own now.

Update 2/11/2019 - 09:00 - I will be stopping down this afternoon to de-ice the camera -- we'll so how it goes.

Unfortunately, I think the internal heaters may have failed on the Cam Cam.  I will get down there this week and remove the ice, however, if the internal heaters have failed the ice will build back up fairly quickly.

If this is the case, I will have a fundraiser to replace and upgrade the camera and try and fix it for a backup with older camera parts.

The new/upgraded camera costs $1523 which I was thinking about doing later this year anyway.

The good thing is, Spring is right around the corner and I can replace the camera and have it operating quickly.

Silver Bay Marina

Here is a photo of the Silver Bay Marina I took back in 2017. We will be installing our new cams here once the weather warms up.

Needle Frost _ Duluth MN

The recent winter weather has created some amazing scenery around the area.  In particular, a buildup of needle frost on the higher elevations around the lake.

I have tried to capture some of the rather interesting scenes from the area on this video.



The music is by: Eric Matyas - soundimage.org

Ice cover on Canal Cam!

We have had three days of ice buildup on the Canalcam.  There is a small heater inside the camera that has been unable to keep up and melt the ice in the camera window.  Once the winds shift today the deicing should gain some ground.

If the camera window is not thawed out by next Tuesday (2/12) I will grab a bottle of deicer and help it along. With the incredible frost and snow, the hillsides around the area are a winter wonderland.

Two Harbors Ice Fishing 02/02/19

Two Harbors ice fishing is booming.

February Daybreak - 02/01/19

With the cold snap ending and the sun once again tracking north, it is a good time to be thankful.