The S.S. Badger at its dock in Manitowoc, ready for its first sail of the season, Michigan, May 11, 2018. PC: Fox 11 Online
(WTAQ-WLUK) — Trips across Lake Michigan on the SS Badger ferry will begin in mid-May.
Lake Michigan Carferry, the ship’s owner, says the season will begin May 16 when it departs Ludington, Michigan for Manitowoc.
Before that, the ferry will travel to Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay for repairs. The ship is tentatively scheduled to leave Ludington April 29 for the 12-hour journey. The Badger’s route will travel around the northern tip of the Door peninsula instead of going through the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal.
“This trip is being made under our own power instead of under tow because we are so close to our sailing season we will already have a crew getting the boat ready to sail,” Badger chief engineer Andrew VerVelde said in a news release. “It takes two to three weeks of ‘fit out’ prior to the season, which involves getting her engines and machinery ready. Since the crew is going to be aboard anyway we might as well steam her over. It has been done before, but not recently.”
At Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, the Badger will be put into dry dock and have a propeller shaft bearing repaired.
Meanwhile, one of the slips at the Ludington dock is being repaired; the slip was built in 1930 and still contained railroad tracks.
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