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The Summer Wind ships out of Dunkirk

OBSERVER Photos by M.J. Stafford Cranes in position to move The Summer Wind

When a big boat like the Summer Wind gets moved, you hurry up and wait.

The OBSERVER received a call shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday, strongly urging it to hurry to the waterfront and see the former Chautauqua Lake dinner cruise ship get removed from the parking lot it’s sat in for months. However, such a large ship wasn’t going anywhere quickly.

Mike Przybycien, the city’s deputy director of public works, said at the scene the work crew would raise the 130-passenger ship onto two giant cranes, after backing it up with a truck to the edge of Lake Erie. It would then go over the railing into the lake.

The ship is getting pulled by tugboats to its future home in Rochester — it will head to Ontario so it can transit the Welland Canal, then traverse Lake Ontario to that city. Its set to get an overhaul and eventually go back into service as a dinner cruise ship.

Workers installed slings underneath the ship so the cranes could raise it. They were clearly being extremely careful throughout the process of moving the ship, taking things very slowly.

OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Workers prepare to move the Summer Wind in Dunkirk Wednesday.

By noon, the boat had moved a few feet, into position for its deposit into the drink. It was still on the trailer used by truck to back it up. About 20 vehicles with spectators inside idled at the entrance to the nearby pier.

Workers tied ropes to the bow and stern and then attached buoys to them. Someone in one of the cranes used it to adjust a sling. An adult duck and a tiny duckling floated in the scum behind the nearby restaurant, pecking at lunch, not reacting to the activity 50 feet away.

Around 1 p.m., the boat was still on dry land — but workers were beginning to raise it off the trailer. Soon it was off and gently swaying in the slings.

It remained there for a while as workers appeared to be attempting to repair the ship’s rudder. Just after 2 p.m., the boat remained where it had been an hour before.

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