The ferry was enjoyed by almost everyone who sailed on it. That, in spite of the fact that it did not save that much time as apposed to driving to Toronto. The terminal at Toronto had not even been started and tents were being used. The price also was not cheap. For an adult to walk-on it was $28US. A car cost $40US with an additional $20 per adult and $10 for a child aged 5 - 17. Plus while being inspected by the US Coast Guard it was determined as the ship was flagged as being from the Bahamas, that it would need a pilot to enter US waters. That was an additional $6000 per trip. And Canada also added a customs fee of $2500 per trip. Those costs were passed on to each passenger as an additional $4 per person. So a family of four with a car would cost $122 for a one-way trip.

On June 26^th an engine overheats and trips are cancelled which stranded a few people in Toronto. CATS did supply a bus for those that were inconvenienced.

Photo by Dick Halsey

By mid-August 2004 work was just beginning on the terminal building in Toronto. There was two sold out trips on Aug. 24^th because of a baseball game of the Blue Jays verses the Yankees. So all appeared to be going well.

It came as a big surprise on Sept. 7^th when CATS ended service. They said was because of the additional costs of fuel, pilot and custom fees. The next day there were some people that came to the terminal that had not heard that service had been suspended. Emergency meetings were called between between EFIC (the Australian lender) CATS, Rochester officials, Toronto officials for September 15 - 20. Then the cards started to fall when on September 28^th the ferry was impounded by federal Marshals for oweing $370,000 to Amarada Hess for fuel. Then EFIC demanded the money that they were owed. Negotiations fell apart and everyone would be headed to court.

Mayor Johnson finally came up with a plan to have the City of Rochester buy the ferry and run it as a separate entity. That entire plan is linked as a PDF file so if you go to that page, you will have to use your "back button" to return to this page. In the meantime, it is decided in Federal Court that the ferry will be sold at auction to pay off the debts. Mayor Johnson finaly gets a verbal agreement with EFIC in mid December that they will loan the City of Rochester $40 million to buy the ferry. On Dec. 21^st City Council OKs the deal with EFIC.

As the auction gets close, on Feb. 7, 2005, representatives from the Turkish government toured the ferry as possible bidders. The very next day, it is revealed that the ferry has a cracked fuel tank.