I did approach them just this fall with this very question. Issue is they remove their vessel from the Inlet for the winter in the first week of November. Sometime, in the near future, the lake water levels are lowered and no deep-hulled vessels can traverse the Cayuga Inlet. Plus, the unpredictability of icing in area waterways or harbors, the additional cost of keeping a vessel operationally winterized, and the relatively low likelihood of tourist usage during the winter months, makes it economically unfeasible to keep open for the winter.
There are some operational vessels, but they are small, and often aren’t available because their operators depart this area for a warmer clime during the winter. If there were enough interested persons to go out in late October, the cost per person for a group of 10-15 would amount to something like $75 per person for a chartered 8-hour day – those numbers are probably off a bit, but it was something like that. I can see a very specialized charter after the passage of a very uniquely situated hurricane or tropical storm; but it would have to occur prior to them pulling the vessel from the water. Sincerely, Chris T-H On Nov 17, 2015, at 3:11 PM, Geo Kloppel <geoklop...@gmail.com<mailto:geoklop...@gmail.com>> wrote: Hi John, you wrote: A Cayuga and/or Seneca "pelagic" would be a fun fall/winter cruise. Yeah! Fun to dream, anyway. A few weeks ago I dropped some friends off at the dock for an Ithaca Boat Tour on the HAENDEL. I hadn't previously been up close to that steel-hulled vessel. It reminded me of the old LAKE DIVER IV over on Seneca Lake, which used to take research parties out weekly in all kinds of winter conditions. Pretty frigid sometimes (though there was a good-sized heated cabin)! Seeing the HAENDEL made we wonder if anyone has ever approached Ithaca Boat Tours about a winter birding charter? -Geo -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ -- -- Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes Field Applications Engineer Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850 W: 607-254-2418 M: 607-351-5740 F: 607-254-1132 http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
