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Salty celebration

A top hat ceremony is a new experience for Capt. Stanislaw Sobol, but it’s a tradition he’s been a part of twice in the last week.
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MV Isadora was the first saltie to dock in Thunder Bay this spring. (Jodi Lundmark, tbnewswatch.com)

A top hat ceremony is a new experience for Capt. Stanislaw Sobol, but it’s a tradition he’s been a part of twice in the last week.

MV Isadora, owned by Polish steamship company PolSteam, was the first ocean vessel to dock in the Thunder Bay harbour for the 2013 shipping season.

And as the first saltie to arrive in the city this spring, Sobol and his chief engineer Rajmund Nowicki were welcomed to Thunder Bay with a top hat ceremony Wednesday morning at the Thunder Bay Port Authority office.

They were also the first saltie to dock in Toronto and were welcomed with a similar ceremony in the provincial capital.

“Before this time, I have never been in this ceremony,” Sobol said. “This ceremony is tradition in Canada. It’s a good idea.”

Although it’s Sobol’s first top hat ceremony, it’s not his first time in Thunder Bay. The Isadora has been to Thunder Bay 14 times.

“Thunder Bay is for the seamen a good city, friendly city,” Sobol said. “My company is Polish company and Thunder Bay has many Polish people.”

The Isadora arrived in Thunder Bay Tuesday morning and is loading with grain headed for Algeria.

The ship dropped off sugar in Toronto.

Port authority CEO Tim Heney said the magic of the seaway is that vessels can travel 2,300 miles inland to Thunder Bay from anywhere in the world.

“It’s quite an interesting thing for Canadian trade to be able to access those markets directly from Thunder Bay,” he said.

Ocean vessels have made up as much as 30 per cent of the local port’s traffic in a year and account for 10 per cent of the overall traffic over the last five years.

Heney said they’ve been seeing more and more salties.

“They can also bring cargo inbound, which we try to do with our new crane. It’s very important to us and diversifying cargo in the seaway, they’re key to that,” he said.

There are currently two other ocean ships in the port – MV Federal Hunter and MV Federal Nakagawa. Both are being loaded with grain.





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