Touring the Soo Locks with Famous Soo Lock Boat Tours

something that famous takes a lot of pride in is making sure that every guest is is as comfortable as possible and that means every sense you know having comfortable seats not having too loud engine noise or or any of this and and we strive for that and our maintenance program is fairly stringent where you know if something isn't just right we're not going to send that boat out hello everyone and welcome back to Total Michigan where we interview ordinary people who are doing some pretty extraordinary things in our Michigan community I have been actually very fortunate to go north of the bridge up into the Upper Peninsula and spend some time in Sault Ste Marie getting to meet some really fascinating people that are up here in the area and of course you can't think about Sault Ste Marie without thinking about the Sioux locks and who better to talk to us about the Sioux locks than to talk to an actual Captain the person who's probably taken millions of us through the Sioux locks back and forth to really experience what it's like to see this Marvel of engineering so to speak so with that being said uh today we're talking to the general manager of the sulak's boats tours and that would be Captain Scott Labonte Scott how are you wonderful and and on a day like today who couldn't be I tell you if you're watching this right now on YouTube you are in for a treat because the weather today is just gorgeous you couldn't ask for a better day you really couldn't we're we're in the northern Paradise right now I believe and that would be the turn term I would use yes definitely so before we jump into the interview Scott because I actually have over the past few days become aware that some people aren't really familiar with the Sioux locks so before we jump into the interview why don't you tell us about the Sioux locks in general oh the sulox are a a fixture of both uh Commerce and history here in Michigan uh specifically the U.P uh they've been around since the late 1800s and they've provided a Portage between the upper St Mary's falls in the lower St Mary's Falls where there's a 21 foot difference in elevation prior to the locks being built boats would have to be pulled out of the water and basically rolled on logs down ported what we call now ported Street only placed back into the water so for what now takes say 15 to 20 minutes used to take three weeks or a month or even longer to accomplish so for the soo locks then a boat goes into a man-made Channel correct okay and then talk to us what happens from there once the boat is in the channel uh we get moored to one side or the other depending on on you know what the the locks crew deems necessary uh and it might be more than one boat uh we fit uh a small freighter when I say small I mean about 600 650 feet uh we've been in the lock itself with a small freighter as well as maybe two or three other tour boats and a few private boats so they'll try and fill the lock as much as possible anyway as soon as they get the lock as full as they want it to be with the vessels in the area they will close the other the the gates behind us and those Gates closed in a dovetail fashion meaning they close inward to keep the water pressure out of course once that is concluded they will put some safety gates down or safety uh standards or however you want to put it and and these safety gates uh lower with a large cable underneath them and these cables it's like an arrest and cable to keep boats from crashing into the gate walls okay so at this point the boats are inside the doors are closed the safety rails or safety gates are down now at this point uh one of the engineers will then open some valves and these valves will allow water to enter the lock from the Lake Superior or high side and merely just using Gravity the water will enter the lock and fill it or let water out to the to the level that we're trying to achieve depending on if you're coming in or out correct yeah we we like to say upbound or down bound so if we're heading east from the from the upside we'd be downbound and just the opposite for the other way certainly and then so the these gravity fed pumps would either fill up or like you said take down but let's let's keep it simple fill up correct and then once it's full what happens from there once it's full it's really the same process in Reverse um the uh the the safety gates will open or the the safety cables will raise up out of the way um the the gates themselves the big doors will then open and uh will become detached you know we'll let our more lines go and then we're free to go nice perfect thank you for that so let's talk about you okay so tell us a little bit about where you're from and where you grew up I grew up on the on the western end of the upper peninsula in the Kiwana area I was born and raised in Calumet Michigan um where I lived uh up to the age of 18 uh which time um I decided that firefighting was My Chosen profession uh I attended Lake State along with my my now wife uh Jennifer and we both went to Lake State for four years in that amount of time I received a bachelor's degree in fire science as well as a minor in paramedicine and law enforcement uh from there I was hired before I graduated with the city of Sault Ste Marie fire department uh where I've worked for about 22 years uh with the last uh six years uh being the fire chief of the city of Sault Ste Marie um you know there was a time when kovid wasn't so fun and I hate using the c word that way yeah it just it just wasn't a fun time there was a lot of uh you know a lot of stress and whatnot and like many other people my age or even a younger or older decided that I needed to change and um I I I'm very lucky and count my my stars every day my lucky stars that uh you know and knowing uh the both the Brawley family as well as you know this business to a degree that I did I was able to reach out and say hey I'm available for work do you have anything for me and right away they you know the the board as well as the Brawley family said yeah we are actually looking for a general manager uh to take over for the current general manager at the time which is Rich Brawley who was also the the corporation's president and uh so this past March 31st I took over four rich as general manager for famous sulak tours Incorporated Okay so your title is general manager correct but you're also a captain I am okay so I want to explore that okay because you just don't take a quiz online or watch a YouTube video and say oh that's how you Captain a boat well I'm a captain no you are a licensed Captain correct and from what you were sharing with me before we hit the record button you've actually been on the water all your life so talk to us about that I I started at a very young age um working with my grandfather I was very fortunate to have a grandfather who also liked the water and so do my parents but my grandfather was this an avid user he was around it his whole life as well uh not only in assisting him with his uh vessels and whatnot and fishing trips and doing all sort of that that sort of thing but also uh with the Coast Guard auxiliary and assisting with the Coast Guard in the Houghton or Portage area uh with their operations so you know it helped me out a lot not only did I get to learn a lot mechanically but also navigationally and in operating uh vessels uh you know starting at the age of 16 you can just start accumulating hours as well as long as they're documented you can start accumulating hours towards your license which is something your grandfather did he absolutely didn't uh again I'm lucky that between my my uh now past grandfather uh and grandmother they kept very uh good documentation of of all of the hours that I spent uh both with the Coast Guard and on their boats talk about the gift that keeps on giving absolutely now I have heard that getting your captain's license on the Great Lakes is actually a really really badge of honor because a lot of people don't know this before but navigating the Great Lakes is extremely tricky and there's lots of difference in uh you know depth it's underneath the water you got to know exactly where you can place your boat where you can't talk to us about the process of getting your license um the process itself requires well not only the the hours that you put in beforehand I mean I've got hundreds if not thousands of hours of experience beforehand uh but also going through an accredited educational program and mine was through uh was through a company called just Great Lakes out of uh I think it's Battle Creek Michigan uh and I spent a little over a week at I want to say 10 to 12 hours a day and uh basically going through a crash course uh educationally anyway which culminated into multiple uh written exams uh you know all which you had to pass with a a great degree in order to finally get the license in and that's you know uh the exams were difficult but not only that once you're done with that then the application process to the Coast Guard is a whole new ball of ax it's a whole nother thing so you got to get certified with the Coast Guard as well yes oh wow once you go through this program then you have to go through a complete vetting with the Coast Guard drug tests um uh all sorts of things and the pro that process can take three or four months to get through wow now just to keep in mind for audience two we're talking about your captain's license for commercial true yeah yes we are and for what it's worth there are many um I call them grades or levels to a captain's license which all begins with what they call what the Coast Guard calls a six-pack meaning you can have as many as six people in your boat and charge money for whatever service you're providing on the water uh from the six-pack license then uh you go to a 25 ton license and then there's a 50-ton license then a hundred ton license which is what I have and then from there 200 ton 500 ton thousand ton unlimited um and even in there there's some extra grades because you want to be able to take as many passengers as you can which then requires a masters Captain license uh which is something I achieved through this this program as well which will allow me on our particular boats to take up to uh 150 passengers at any given time and apply for more if we need them so just to get a little bit of an idea you said you're certified up to as a hundred tons uh yes 100 tons 100 times correct give us an idea as to how long of a boat that is is that like a 50-foot boat a hundred foot boat well it goes it's not necessarily boat weight it's in in the amount of displacement so I guess if we were talking a steel boat um the the boats that I drive just about every day are about 70 tons and they're 70 feet long and there's no correlation between tonnage in length because again it goes you know there's fiberglass boats there's steel boats and whatnot um so you know the the largest boat that I could that I could drive in theory would be about 90 feet on average okay all right so when you get your captain's license you've been made general manager of this place and your qualifications move across the board I mean because you you were the fire chief for six years so managing people and stuff like that so you've you've got all those skills in place now the question I got for you is what was some of what was some of the challenges you had to go through leaving the fire department versus now coming into something first off that's primarily tourism um that's a great question because being a part of a fire department is is like having another family and you know granted I was the fire chief but I had a lot of brothers and sisters there so that you're fighting side by side fighting I I'm I'm putting my life in their hands and vice versa um so it's not that I necessarily divorced myself from that family but it was tough moving to another family which I have now um which I still keep in contact with all the guys downtown and and uh and whatnot and and uh it was it's it's a different a different ball of wax I mean granted yes there's employees there's that sort of thing but really I think it was uh um oh should I put this maybe looking at camaraderie a different way okay not necessarily unhealthy or bad just different sure sure for our audience we're going to take a quick break to thank our sponsors when we come back we're going to talk more about what the sulak boat tours has to offer and how you can take full advantage of it we'll see you after the break hey if you are enjoying these great interviews just take a moment and go to totalmichigan.com join and you can get these episodes sent directly to your inbox because there's a lot more great stories coming see you there hello everyone and welcome back to Total Michigan I'm your host Cliff devinois today we're talking all things Sue locks and the sulak boat tour company and no better person to do this than the general manager and Captain Scott Labonte I'm going to start calling you Captain oh all right that's fine okay Captain so talk to us about the Sue locks boat tour company when did it get started why did it get started talk to us about that uh the famous sulog boat tour started around 1959. uh it's been going with the same vessels ever since uh we have both the Nokomis as well as the lavoyager were which were both built in Wisconsin at around the 1959 Mark and like I mentioned have been serving us ever since uh you know ever since uh history goes back in in speaking to our prior general manager uh We've offered uh you know our normal lock tour which lasts about 90 minutes to two hours and and typically we'll go through both an American Lock as well as the Canadian lock uh on top of that we've always also offered a uh tour of the lighthouses in the immediate area which that's about a four to four and a half hour tour and it showcases some of the lighthouse to our West or in the in the Brimley area uh and then comes back you know again through the lock so that tour is a little I don't want to say exclusive but a little neat because not only do you get a taste of the locks but you also get to see some really neat uh features as far as light lighthouses go so still around so let's go back and unpack a couple things here so first off talk to us about the general tour like if somebody was coming here and they're like you know I want to take this tour of the school the suit I almost said sue locks what is it that what is it that they can expect well what they can expect is a uh a comfortable ride uh on on one of our two boats um and you know with options I don't know if you want to get into this right now but uh we do have uh basically a restaurant right on site as well as a full-line gift shop so they can they can hang out in our lobby and grab a wonderful lunch at Sugar Daddy bakery and cafe or pick up some gifts in our in our gifts by the way for our audience is really cool make sure you check that out uh so that's where they can spend their time waiting if there is a is a weight but generally like people to show up about 10 or 15 minutes before a voyage goes out um other than that they can sit on our grounds anywhere and enjoy enjoy the scenery enjoy the the things as people are doing here now uh once the the boat is ready to take off we give a boarding call uh and we'll board the boat at that point in time takes about 10 to 15 minutes tops uh and once we're boarded and ready to go uh the captain will sell the horn to release the stern line and off you go the tour itself is about 10 full miles again they're spending about five miles in the upper river and five miles on the lower River uh depending on the day and the traffic in the area because Sue Harbor is fairly busy um the captain might choose to go through the Canadian lock first versus the American Lock first um you know so they are they are playing a little bit of chess with trying to keep the tour on time sure um but once that choice is made then they'll head to the the lock of choice and and they'll call the the lock master and get permission to come in and that usually is a pretty fast process go through the lock uh and then either way they go they'll wind up up in the Algoma area or Algoma steel and take a look around in that area and the narrator gives awesome just an amazing amount of information of as far as what's going on up in the the Algoma area and as they come around you know they'll see the opposite side with us Canadian or American and and come back through a lock and and then they'll do a tour of the Lower River uh both on the Canadian side as well as the American side uh going as far as the uh the Canadian bush plane Museum which is a museum that showcases old Canadian uh fire planes uh do that over there then they'll come over to this side you take a look at lssu see free center from the water as well as a few other attractions including the Ojibwe which is a supply boat in the area and supplies Freighters as you may see behind us shortly I was just thinking that's right passes perfect time um so the Ojibwe is uh that will come alongside a boat and whatever they may have ordered whether that's groceries or maybe a new washing machine or dryer they'll offload from their boat onto the freight or whatever supplies that are needed so that you know that takes place not three quarters of the of a mile down from the end of our our Dock and then typically we'll finish up with the the Sue hydroelectric plant that's been in operation since uh the early 1900s uh giving a lot of information on that and then we'll come back to our dock nice so one of the one of the questions I had because you mentioned before and you know if you're watching us on the YouTube channel you just saw this big freighter like go by us so it's kind of like you said it's like a little bit of a game of chess right figuring out you know where's the traffic who's going through the locks right now Etc one of the things when I was taking my sulak tour coming through was one of the Freighters coming out was I think I think they said like a thousand four feet or something like that one question I got for you is like how vital is the locks to just the economy in general because I know there's a lot of goods in here I don't know if you know numbers off the top of your head but just like how vital is it how much do you know like how much money is coming through here as far as products Goods delivered that's a great question Cliff um you know as far as the amount of money I think that fluctuates quite a bit I guess the best way to put that is that if at any given time our locks were not passable for whatever reason that may be the entire U.S economy would be affected

within as few as six months or maybe even sooner uh the amount of commodity that goes through here between steel products uh wheat grains that sort of thing um as well as many other things uh that get that go through here uh like I said it would I don't necessarily I don't want to use the word but our economy would be affected in a short amount of time certainly certain which is actually what's really driving the the need for the new lock certainly now some of the things that I that I was paying attention to when I was going through my tour and yes I was paying attention because it was a fantastic tour is that uh first off what really caught me by surprise is the fact that any boat can use the locks and it doesn't cost them a dime just have to go through talk to us about that sure I'd love to uh and that always hasn't been true way back in the day um when the state of Michigan owned the only lock they used to charge and I believe it was 25 cents a ton and when the federal government took over the locks via the Corps of Engineers that charge went away okay and for what it's worth neither the Canadian side or the American side charge per passage so they're both ways are free and any boat any kayak can go through the locks great question uh anything that's unmotorized must go through the Canadian lock okay uh the American Lock due to their size uh would make a rescue a little bit more difficult so the American locks require a vessel to be I believe over 12 feet or over and have a motor whereas the Canadian side kayak paddle board whatever you've jet skis whatever and go through there because somebody who's loves kayaking I was really surprised when they made the comment like yeah kayakers go through the logs oh that is incredible it is so what I'd like to do is talk more about the boats the one thing that really impressed me with the boats was the fact that it didn't even feel like a boat I mean it was like a smooth Glide there was no like Roar of engines that was in the background I mean you there's going to be some noise on a boat sure and I totally acknowledge that but it wasn't overpowering I mean I could like somebody's like standing 10 feet away from me and I could actually hear them talking so talk to us about the boats how do you how do you achieve that how do you how do you maintain it because these boats are 64 years old they are um and I have to say that this is something that's gone way back obviously far before me in in the maintenance program and something that famous takes a lot of pride in is making sure that every guest is is as comfortable as possible and that means every sense you know having comfortable seats not having too loud engine noise or or any of this and and and we strive for that so uh you know as a as a company and our maintenance program is is fairly stringent where you know if something isn't just right we're not going to send that boat out uh to make sure that we get it right everybody will get an equal fair chance to have a wonderful tour one of the things that I would like to explore a little bit is let's say that I'm coming to the area maybe I'm new maybe maybe I've never taken a boat tour before I've got a family maybe some little ones what are some things that I should be thinking about if I'm going to come over here and do a tour um if you're gonna come over and and go on a tour um dress for the weather I mean we our lower cabin on each boat is climate controlled so there is heat for the colder days um it's a little bit difficult and I shouldn't say too difficult but you know if it's extremely warm out you definitely like I said want to dress for the weather so you don't want to be overdressed I think is the best way to put it um in doing that you know prepare the kids for being out for an hour and a half maybe even even two hours you know if the if the river is extremely busy um we have board games and and coloring books and things aboard the boat for times when a child might not be all that interested in bathrooms as well and bathrooms as well each boat is it has has bathrooms and they're all wheelchair accessible our boats are wheelchair accessible um so we accommodate everybody that way as well um but you know just being ready for an hour and a half ride and and this isn't necessarily something that somebody can say okay I'm done I'm getting off you know you have to be prepared to be out there for hour and a half two hours man certainly so let's talk a little bit about because I I know that primarily when people would think about the the famous uh sulak boat tours is you know getting about taking a tour but you do other things you have events on there like special occasions like Talk Like a Pirate Day right what still cracks me up right so talk first talk to us about events uh I'm so proud of our events because it's something that's evolved over the last few years and I've really been happy to be a part of it so on top of our regular tours our regular lock tours and our Lighthouse tours we also offer group tours uh so on any given day we might have a few tour buses come in and and you know they will have their own special opportunity to go out uh we offer a French tour uh once or twice a week where we actually have hired a uh uh a bilingual person to give a whole entire French narration and these are typically people coming over from Canada on a bus tour but a complete French narration for the whole for the whole lot I might have to check that out that's pretty neat uh in fact your next guest Paul is our narrator for that event so he can give you a piece of that oh okay um on top of that you know like I mentioned we we have a lot of fun with Talk Like a Pirate Day either the captain or the narrator uh I plan on being a part of that this year and dress up in a pirate costume having a lot of fun on that day um and we're also looking at something for Halloween and although we're not open uh the end of October we you know we are going to be shutting down operations here on October 16th or 17th we'll probably have something a little sooner uh during a normal operation season where you know we'll have kids get on board and dress up in costumes and take a bunch of pictures and just have a really fun time with it play you know Halloween music and have a great time aside from that um we offer Charters private Charters uh and on these Charters people are pretty much free to have a charter for whatever reason they want we've held weddings on boats we've held Memorial services on boats uh uh Employee Appreciation cruises customer appreciation cruises um you know any any reason why somebody wants you know just their people on a boat on top of that something we added last year something we call a sip and sale and we have a full bar actually we have two bars on board uh and typically music of some kind whether it's provided by a DJ or live music throughout the entire tour and we'll either go up River or down river and just kind of sail and have a good time and and relax and enjoy the music and the sights at the same time and and we'll be offering four of those this year January I'm sorry July August September and October one a month typically the third Thursday of each month certainly so when it comes to because like we're talking about Advance like is there like events where it's like if you wanted to have like a midnight Cruise could you set that up as well is there certain hours that we have to play in we like to keep it we like to return and it happens when we're returning in the dark uh you know I'd like to say that we do our best to accommodate somebody the absolute best that we can however I will say that we prefer to get back around dusk just due to safety reasons but we are capable of of of entertaining in the dark after certainly and because you have a galley set up on the boat and stuff like that you're able to accommodate food as well we can uh if you if our guests would like to order food uh up at Sugar Daddy Bakery Cafe in our ticket office they're welcome to bring that that food along with them you know whether it's sandwiches hot dogs sausages whatever they offer there but we also offer light snacks uh on the boat as well as some alcoholic beverages such as beer wine and seltzers right right aboard the boat all the time certainly certainly captain if somebody's listening to this interview and um they want to check out more about the famous boat locks what you got going on what's what's the best way for the you know website social media what's the best ways for them to find you number one would be coming to our website we have a awesome website and that is located at famoussulocks.com f-a-m-o-u-s-s-o-o-locks.com it's because people pronounce or spell Sue a little differently depending on where you're at right so famoussulocks.com number two would be our Facebook page which again is famous Soo locks uh you search that uh you know you'll find us and the important thing there is adding the word famous uh that's that's the biggest descriptor there um and what I hope was just captured was one of our tour boats signaling and basically saying hello to one of the Freighters so with a system of horn blasts both short and prolonged blasts they commune Kate back and forth so that was our tourboat saying hello welcome to the harbor and the freighter answering back nice I don't know if my microphone captured that but I hope it did because it was pretty cool it was actually pretty cool and um so in a quite a clarifying question so for the website if somebody is thinking about coming here ahead of time can they get tickets to your website or only through the office uh no uh tickets are absolutely available online through our website um where they can go there or you know if they would prefer to come into our office they can buy tickets that way too right here on site wonderful [Music] Captain Scott and I need to say that Captain Scott thank you so much for taking time to chat with us today really do appreciate it thank you very much and for our audience you can always roll on over to totalmichigan.com click on Captain Scott's interview and you can see all the links that he mentioned above we will see you next week with another great episode of another story of an ordinary michigander who has pretty extraordinary things we'll see you then

2023-07-22 13:29

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