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WINTER LA Y - U P L I S T I N G S 2. By the time you read these words, the 1993 n a v i g a t i o n season will be history for all but a few late-running ships. We hope to run our annual w inter lay up report in the Fe bruary issue and we shall be plea s e d to receive the a s sistance of our readers. Please go to your nearest port(s) and jot down the names of all vessels laid up there. Be careful to record the names correctly and do not guess as to the identity of a ship. If you include tugs, ferries, etc., in your list, please be certain to label them as such in your report so that we will know and can do likewise. Then send us your listing(s) as soon as you can. We hope that no readers will fall vi c t i m to the " S o mebody Else Will Do It" syndrome. While we do sometimes receive more than one listing for some ports this is of ben efit to us as it allows us to d o u b l e - c h e c k the a c c uracy of our information. If ev e r y b o d y sat back and didn't send a list because "somebody else will do it", then we would have no reports at all and we w ould not be able to print this feature which, we are told frequently, you all find so informative! Trad iti on al ly , we have had d i f f i c u l t y in o b t a i n i n g reports for certain ports on Lake Erie's south shore as well as for the ports of Lake Michigan. If you can assist w it h those areas, we w o u l d be pl eased to hear from you. We thank you all for your assistance and look forward to r e c e i v i n g your reports as soon as possible. (To speed the receipt of your report, you may fax the report to [416] 730-3913, but as this is a busy fax line in a large office, please be ce rta in to address them to the Editor by n a m e . ) * * * * * M A R I N E NEW S We are now able to give details of the p a ssenger ship o p e r a t i o n which will come to the Great Lakes in 1994. The service will be o p e r a t e d by Marine E x peditions, an affiliate of Blyth & C o m p a n y Travel Limited, of Toronto, and the vessel to be used will be one of three Russ i a n ships al r eady under charter to Blyth for Arctic and A n t a r c t i c cruises. The boat coming to the lakes is A K A D E M I K IOFFE, owned by the A c a d e m y of Sciences, Moscow, and built in 1987 by the Ho lm i n g Ltd. shipyard in Finland. She is lce Class 1A Super, C a n ad ia n Type B, and is 3 8 3 . 9 (overall) x 59 . 7 x 1 9 . 4, 6231 Gross. On the lakes, she will carry 79 passengers, and her crew of 53 will be Canadian, except for Ru ss i a n officers and engineers. Present sch ed ul ing calls for four seven-night trips (two each way) between Toronto and Duluth, with depa rtures from To ronto on J u l y 31 and August 15, and sailings from Duluth on August 9 and September 13. There also will be four five-n igh t trips between Duluth and Midland, Ontario, d e parting Duluth on August 24 and September 3rd, and sailing from M i d l a n d on August 27th and Septe mbe r 6th. The excursions will be sold as ten- and eig h t - d a y packages, in cl ud in g parts of three days in Toronto on all trips. M i d l a n d trips will include con ne ct io ns with Toronto. Trip themes will be the ge o g r a p h y and h i s tory of the areas to be visited, inc l u d i n g the "T urkey Trail" of Lake Hu ro n' s No rth Channel, M i c h i p i c o t e n Island, the Portage Canal through the K e w e e n a w Peninsula, Isle Royale and the Apos t l e Islands, and many of the n u merou s shore stops will be done by means of zodiacs. Fares will range between U S $ 1 , 295 and U S $ 3 , 295 plus some rather hefty port taxes, and bookin gs repo r t e d l y have been good to date, e s p e c i a l l y in foreign sales. We w i s h A K A D E M I K IOFFE and her chart e r e r s well in this new e n t e r prise, as it must succeed if any regular resumption of lake cruise o pe rat ion s is ever to be cons i d e r e d seriously. The port of To ronto has a very special wi n t e r visitor this year. Arriving just before Ch ris tmas and laid up on the south side of the Leslie Street slip off the Tu rn ing Basin is Algoma Ce ntral Ma rine's ALGOCAPE, (a) CAROL LAKE (87). This is the first time that this handsome 1960 -built steamer ever has vis ited Toronto.