The first ship of the season has arrived in Goderich.
The CSL Laurention sailed into Goderich Sunday and Captain Joe Pero signed the traditional top hat Monday morning and noted arriving during daylights hours with no wind and no ice made their arrival much easier.
The trip was a little different in that they were taking their cargo to Goderich Elevators rather than from the salt mine.
Pero explains the cargo was originally loaded last fall in Thunder Bay for Goderich but due to the ice and congestion in the port and the temperatures, they ended up laying up in Sarnia.
So the boat sat there with the grain on it for the winter and left for Goderich on Sunday.
Pero says ice wasn't a factor.
“Lake Huron is mostly open water, there's a bit on the southeast shoreline, close to the shoreline so there's no issue coming up from Sarnia," said Pero. "St. Clair River is pretty much open water. I anticipate a problem in the St. Marys River and Lake Superior, they've still got some pretty heavy ice on Lake Superior.”
The CSL Laurention's arrival is the earliest since the Canadian Progress arrived on March 17 in 2011.
