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Editor's Logbook - cont'd. 2. food chowder, caesar salad, choice of salmon or steak, and apple strudel. Please send your early remittance to our Chief Purser and, when paying, please specify whether you would prefer salmon or steak as entree. Cheques payable to Toronto Marine Historical Society may be sent to William R. Wil­ son, 173 Glenrose Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4T 1K7. Tickets will be held at the door for all those who have reserved. Please Note that space is limited and this will be a popular programme. We must confirm to the restaurant the number of persons attending AND their dinner choices, so reservations, accompanied by payment, must be received by Tuesday, May 3. We regret there can be no refunds after this date. Please plan to attend and reserve early for you and your party. The dinner meeting always is a high point of our season and an evening enjoyed by all who at­ tend. Won't you please join us? And remember that the dinner price includes taxes and gratuities, so you get good value for the price. * * * * * * * MARINE NEWS Monday, February 28, was a lucky day for the City of Rochester. On that day, at the auction of the fast ferry SPIRIT OF ONTARIO 1, the city-created Ro­ chester Ferry Company was the winning bidder for the ferry with a bid of $US 32 million. The only other bidders were mortgage holders ABN AMRO bank and the Export Finance and Insurance Corp. of Australia, who opened with a bid of $29, 635, 400 simply to protect their interests. The city must now do a huge amount of work if it is to have the ferry ready for service by the U. S. Memorial Day holiday in late May. By acquiring the vessel through the bid­ ding process, however, the city obtains the vessel free from all liens and past debts of the Canadian American Transportation Systems. The Toronto Port Authority immediately said it would resume construction of the new Toronto cruise ship and cross-lake ferry terminal begun in 2004. The various lake and river canals will be opening soon for the 2005 naviga­ tion season. The Welland Canal will open for traffic on March 23rd, while the St. Lawrence and Soo canals will be opening on March 25th. It seems un­ likely that ice will be a major hindrance to shipping this season, and water levels are expected to be above last year's marks everywhere but on Lake Superior. After lying idle for the entire 2004 season in the North Slip at Sarnia, it would appear that the Grand River Navigation Company's 1929-built seIf-un­ loader MAUMEE, (a) WILLIAM G. CLYDE (61), (b) CALCITE II (01), will be re­ turned to service in 2005. Steel work is being done on her internals this winter so that she will be able to pass inspection in the spring. This is very good news for lake ship enthusiasts, who had generally assumed that MAUMEE would be scrapped and that Grand River would acquire another vessel to take her place. Last issue, we noted that Algoma Tankers Ltd. was acquiring two additional tankers to replace tonnage sold out of the fleet. We now learn that the 1998-built salt water tanker AGGERSBORG will become (b) ALGOSEA (iii) when she joins Algoma's east coast fleet. Meanwhile, GEMINI, the last unit of the Cleveland Tankers fleet, will become (b) ALGOSAR (ii) when she comes Canadi­ an on the lakes this spring. ALGONOVA, which Algoma previously operated on the lake service, headed to the coast just before the close of the 2004 sea­ son and, a single-hulled boat, she apparently will live out the rest of her life there. This winter, the Redpath Sugar plant at Toronto has only four ships with storage cargoes, namely ALGONORTH, CANADIAN PROVIDER, CANADIAN RANGER and CANADIAN LEADER. However, it had. two cargoes under tarps on Pier 51, dumped there in the fall by CANADIAN NAVIGATOR and CANADIAN RANGER. That was a lucky thing because on December 22, CANADIAN PROVIDER collided with the end