Did anyone see the huge freighter Sunday 11/1?

As I was leaving the last day at Cedar Point, I looked up to take one final look at Camper Village and saw a giant crane looking mechanism. I soon realized it was on a huge freighter, and was confused, what would a big cargo ship be so close to the peninsula for. The only logical explanation I could think of was it was delivering parts for the new ride. Just curious if anyone else saw it or know what it was there for.

The freighters get pretty close to the peninsula routinely. When I used to work at Sandscastle if it was quiet enough (say during the week during September when the park was closed) you could hear the guys talking on the deck as the ship went by.

I don't think it was passing by, it looked like it was stopped because we pulled over to get a better look and didn't see it moving.

It may have been stopped, but it wasn't to drop off anything to the park.

Freighter traffic in and out of Sandusky Bay is steady during the ice-free months. Norfolk Southern runs a 24/7 dock in Sandusky and they pretty much run right up just before Christmas.

The Sandusky Register publishes the shipping schedule in its Daily Almanac. The ship you saw was likely the Motor Vessel Algolake.

Just as there are Cedar Point nerds, there are boat nerds. And, despite the fact that I grew up watching the freighters, I am not one of them. :) But it's still kind of cool.

Walt, why does your link have some sort of malware detected in it?

Well, Walt basically summed up this thread, lol. The ship in the diagram you linked looks like what I saw. I guess it's just my anticipation for the new ride and wanting to see the new parts getting here early. :)

We often times saw freighters when we went to Cedar Point by boat. And their speed can be deceptive. Looking at them from far away, it looks like they are barely moving. But get right up next to them and you see they are moving pretty quickly. With respect to CP docks, I am not sure there is a place where a freighter could dock because of lack of water depth.

I believe most of the bay is pretty shallow, and the shipping channel for the larger ships does pass really close to the park. It's pretty common to see large freighters passing by out there.

Loopy - both links look clean to me. I'm not getting a warning on either one. Is anyone else?

The average depth of the bay is a whopping 6 feet. Boats have to use the narrow channel between Cedar Point and Marblehead.

I got an warning message when it was first posted, but not anymore.

Its very neat to sit on your private deck on your cottage and watch the freighters go by sooo close

Yeah Walt, I got a malware warning using Google Chrome. Here is the message:

Warning: Visiting this site may harm your computer!
The website at www.algonet.com contains elements from the site js.tongji.linezing.com, which appears to host malware – software that can hurt your computer or otherwise operate without your consent. Just visiting a site that contains malware can infect your computer.

I don't get a warning message with either link.

Link removed to be on the safe side.

I saw it approach from the Wicked Twister queue. It is really an impressive vessel - I often ride my motorcycle along the St. Clair river and see similar craft traversing the channels.

Several times I've been almost overtaken by them whilst fishing on Lake St. Clair late at night.

The freighters are an impressive site while entering or exiting the bay. Then again, they pale in comparison to the size of container ships that you see at Ports in Newark and Los Angeles. Those are some impressive looking ships when you are next to them.

There're lots of freighters in that channel. I remember my first ride on Magnum I was too scared to look down, so I kept my eyes on a freighter entering the channel.

Depth of that channel is 30 feet: surrounding submerged sand bars are from zero to about six feet.

I have a sailboat that draws 4 feet and I actually ran aground just north of Millennium Force one evening.

Roz

I saw it! It was such a cool night at the Point last nigh between the beautiful sunset, the moon and that frieghter.

One of my storm chaser friends and facebook buddies is on the Wilfred Sykes. I've gotta say, some of the photos he's posted as a 'Mobile Upload' have been pretty darn cool. It would be pretty neat to take a trip inbound or outbound from the Sandusky Bay on a lake freighter, that's for sure.