Intracostal cruising on the Grande Mariner: American Canadian Caribbean Line's small ships offer unique views of America

Cruise Travel, Sept-Oct, 2002 by Theodore W. Scull

Can a gal and her fella find happiness aboard a 183-foot ship that does not offer floor shows, a gambling casino, shopping promenades, swimming pool, gym, or spa--not even a key to the cabin door? That setting may seem eerily empty, joyless, and even insecure, but our mood was clearly ebullient when my wife and I set out to join just such a ship--or is it a boat?--docked at a small Narragansett Bay marine yard in the wee state of Rhode Island.

Boarding the first train of the day at NYC's Penn Station, we were soon crossing the East River via the Hell Gate Bridge with the early morning sun reflecting off the Manhattan skyline from the Battery to the Bronx. Soon, we were speeding past tidal marshes glistening with morning dew, and the Long Island Sound we glimpsed through the train window would be our ocean highway in a few short hours. Detraining at Providence, we found a Cuban-born taxi driver to take us to Blount Marine Shipyard (now Blount Barker Shipbuilding) in nearby Warren. Here two low-slung cruise vessels bracketed a dinner boat, with a second one nearby under construction for a New York restaurateur.

Yankee entrepreneur Luther Blount developed the shipyard that bears his name. The yard in turn has built myriad vessels, including the three small ships belonging to American Canadian Caribbean Line, Blount's 40-year-old-company that revived U.S.-flag coastal cruising. We would be traveling aboard the newest, the Grande Mariner, completed here in 1998, for an Intracoastal Waterway trip that would meander through no fewer than 10 states.

Blount, nattily dressed in a tweed sports jacket, strolled over from his dockside house to give us a personal send-off. He pointed to the boat under construction saying, "That's number 303," then clucked at a raft of resident ducks that looked his way and clucked back.

The shallow-draft Grande Mariner does not take kindly to rough seas, so with a high wind forecast, we tied up at Newport until midnight. The delay provided the bonus of a crystal-clear daylight sail through New York's back door via the Hell Gate and East River, passing within two blocks of our apartment, sliding beneath nine major bridges, and pausing opposite Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty before heading south along the New Jersey coast.

After that rousing beginning, conversation at the captain's reception was upbeat, with more than half the 84 passengers ACCL repeaters (capacity is 100). The line does not sell alcohol, but does offer complimentary wine at receptions and celebratory dinners. Otherwise, it's BYOB with storage and free set-ups available in the observation lounge.

One deck below, the open-seating dining room provided all meals, with cold breakfast items at a buffet plus wait-served platters of eggs, pancakes, waffles, bacon, sausage, and freshly baked croissants and muffins. The set menu at lunch included a soup tureen and sandwiches or quiche, salad, and fruit. At dinner, plated meals featured entrees such as grilled salmon, chicken piccata, veal marsala, and filet mignon. It's strictly straightforward, well-prepared American fare, served by a cheerful young staff in small portions as preferred by the older clientele. One can also request larger portions and vegetarian meals.

Cabins vary from just below average size to tiny, and the best ones on Sun Deck have windows that slide open, a small writing desk, narrow closet, and four deep wooden drawers. Everyone's bath compartment is minuscule, providing a hot topic about how to manage. You can forget about phones, TVs, VCRs, minibars, and verandas, and no one minded the lack of keys for the cabin doors. Hey, the older ACCL ships didn't even have doors, rather accordion-type closures.

The ship's captain and first mate, Roy and Dixie Keith, form a popular husband and wife team who have 20 years' experience navigating U.S.-flag coastal ships. Their combined knowledge resulted in a richly rewarding commentary while passing through the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, approaching Baltimore's Inner Harbor, and sailing by the U.S. Navy facilities at Norfolk.

After leaving Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads, the inland water route slices through the Great Dismal Swamp, and rather than being bleak and forbidding as its name suggests, it proved to be a lovely cypress-tree wetland setting for brown pelicans, snowy egrets, great blue herons, white ibis, kingfishers, and laughing gulls. Occasionally, the bucolic settings were interrupted by dense condo developments, golf courses, and shopping malls--especially near Wilmington, North Carolina, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina--but soon it was back to nature.

We shared the waterways with a steady stream of motor and sailing yachts heading south for the winter, and they often were gathered at drawbridges awaiting timed openings. Being a commercial vessel, the Grande Mariner had priority, and at times we literally opened "doors" for them by advancing the bridge tender's normal schedule.

On most days we tied up at marinas by mid-afternoon, allowing exploration of North and South Carolina's well-preserved historic districts at Belhaven, Beaufort, Southport, and Georgetown. Residential styles reflected pre-Revolutionary America, the ante-bellum South, and mid- and late-Victorian periods, and many houses exhibited wide front porches, columned porticos, and double staircases. Some streets reflected the setting for the film To Kill A Mocking Bird, and others presented grand avenues shaded by an umbrella of live oaks. The line organized excursions by van, open-sided motor trolleys, and on foot for $6 to $12, and they proved most popular for taking in the expansive residential districts of Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia.