As of 10/8 the American Spirit after unloading at Torco in Toledo is showing an AIS of Marquette again.

I see on AIS this morning the American Spirit is about to enter the St. Mary's at Detour again showing a Marquette destination.

In recent years it's been taking 2-3 days to load a thousand footer at some of the more 'modern' shuttle conveyor iron ore pellet docks around the Lakes. Perhaps the people involved with decision-making are thinking, "Well in that case, what's the difference?"

It takes longer to load at Marquette because they can only load one side of the ship at a time because the chutes can't reach the centerline of the ship. As a result the American Spirit has to be kept ballasted as she's loading (to fit under the chutes and have the proper angle of those chutes), then de-ballasted slowly on the side they're loading her. Then they have her shift to the other side and continue the loading and de-ballasting. Time consuming and a reason why she rarely loads in Marquette.

BTW, the ore dock in Mrquette has the highest hinge point (from water line to the hinge point of the chute) at 43 feet of any of the gravity ore docks.

Hardly seems worth the trouble to load a 1000 footer there when it takes 3 days or longer to get loaded. What’s the advantage to doing this?

It looks like the spirit is approaching her 3rd day at the dock. This seems like a long time even with recharging, how is the load going?

The American Spirit has loaded at Marquette several times over the past 3 decades, so the dock personnel and the ship's crew should be fine.

I'm absolutely certain that load in Marquette is going to go seamlessly and isn't going to be a complete disaster.

They are due to unload also in Toledo at the Torco Dock in the next few days a very rare trip and visit for them to Toledo. I don’t recall but I’m sure that they’ve unloaded here before but it has to be a very long time ago if they did!

I heard she is expected to make a 2nd trip there after

I just noticed on AIS the American Spirit northbound on Lake Michigan on 9/12 showing a destination of Marquette.