This Port should not be closed to ships

Boat watching took a new turn last week when a large commercial vessel that was not one of the usually seen 1,000-foot bulk carriers sailed northbound past Port Washington. The sleek 665-foot long ship visible on the horizon was the cruise ship Viking Octantis.

Cruise ship passengers are discovering what people living on these shores have long known—that the Great Lakes are some the world’s most beautiful waters. Nine cruise ship companies are operating vessels on the Lakes this year.

The Viking Octantis, launched just last year, is the newest of those vessels. It left the Port of Milwaukee on a voyage that took 378 passengers and 256 crewmembers up Lake Michigan to Mackinac Island, through Lake Huron’s gorgeous and pristine North Channel and Georgian Bay, then back north through the Soo Locks to the final destination, Thunder Bay on Lake Superior. Passengers paid $5,995 each for the experience.

What if the ship, instead of steaming past Port Washington, had turned in to the Port harbor and moored along the city’s large commercial dock to give its passengers the opportunity to visit this charming port?

That may not be a likely scenario at this point, but it is a possibility for as long as the city remains a deep water port, with a harbor entrance and dock made specifically to accommodate large vessels.

The city’s recently approved downtown development plan calls for changing both the harbor entrance and the dock in ways that would eliminate any possibility of ships calling at this port.

The cruise ships that ply the Great Lakes are more compact than the behemoths used for ocean cruises, those monstrosities that look like floating high-rise buildings and can be occupied by as many as 10,000 passengers and crew. The 378-passenger Viking ship, though the largest on the Lakes, is modestly sized by comparison; others are smaller, scaled to carry around 200 passengers.

Still, these are deep-draft vessels, and Port Washington is one of the very few small-town freshwater ports than can accommodate them.

The Port Washington downtown plan’s focus on the harbor and the dock at Coal Dock Park stems from the dubious notion that the marina must be expanded. The marina functions well and rewards the city handsomely with revenue and economic benefit to the downtown at its current size. In fact, it is so successful that the activity it generates can stress marina district parking that has been limited by development, which apparently is a motivation to expand the marina to Coal Dock Park.

The plan proposes constructing launching ramps, a marina building and parking lot on the parkland. This would require demolishing a portion of the deep-water dock and, to calm the breakwater basin enough to allow safe launching of small boats, reconfiguring the breakwater entrance in a way that would make it impassible for large vessels.

This looks like a mistake on several counts. Cluttering Coal Dock Park with a large parking lot for boat trailers and pickup trucks, a building, the ramps and the traffic they would generate is not the future that was foreseen for this site, now enjoyed by walkers, runners, fishermen, birdwatchers and lake lovers of all kinds, when it was leased from Wisconsin Electric in 2009. And compromising the dock and shutting off the harbor for ships would amount to squandering a resource.

Another feature in the downtown plan concerning the harbor, however, has merit and should be pursued. The pedestrian bridge it proposes to span the harbor from Rotary Park to Coal Dock Park is needed. The connection would make Coal Dock Park, now perceived to be somewhat remote, part of the downtown, while making the park’s natural assets more accessible and its space more appealing for events that would enliven the downtown.

And then imagine this: A cruise ship comes slowly through the Port Washington breakwater gap, as folks on shore and in small boats watch and the ship’s passengers gaze from its decks at the pretty port they are about to visit. The ship eases up to the Coal Dock Park dock and its crew secures thick mooring lines to the bollards once used by coal freighters. Boarding ramps are deployed and several hundred passengers alight on the dock and stroll across the pedestrian bridge to enjoy the shops, restaurants and sights of Port Washington.