After seven months in dry dock in Baltimore and 10 days at sea for training exercises, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Grand Isle is finally home.
While repairs were only scheduled to take eight weeks and cost $1.6 million, the work wound up taking 30 weeks and costing $2.7 million.
So for family members waiting Friday at the Jodrey State Fish Pier, it meant the end, at last, of a difficult time away from the ship's host Station Gloucester.
"Just him being home," Saber Thompson said when asked the best part of having her fiancee Thomas Ciarametaro's ship back in port. Both of them live in Gloucester.
"I'm so excited," Thompson said. "It's been a long time coming."
Kelly Dolan, 5, yelled "Daddy, Daddy," at the 110-foot cutter as it pulled into port, straining to see which of the men on board was her father, Fred Dolan. "Daddy's coming home today," Kelly Dolan declared to the world.
There were signs of celebration and ceremony.
The Grand Isle's sound system played Thin Lizzy's "The Boys are Back in Town" as the ship sailed in through Gloucester's Inner Harbor, while the city harbormaster's boat sprayed its hose into the air in a salute Rear Admiral Daniel Neptun, commander of the First District, called a "nautical courtesy."
"You were way too long in the yard, and I apologize for that," Neptun said to Lt. Christjan Gaudio, the Grand Isle's commanding officer.
"You have a great boat now," replied Gaudio, who lives in Rockport. "She's ready to rock."
Gaudio's wife, Valarie, waited for the ship along with the couple's three children.
"We don't plan anything until we get the OK that it's going to happen," said Valarie. Nonetheless, Valarie said, Gaudio was able to come home for the holidays, marking the third year out of eight that the family has had the holidays together.
Friday, the crew and family members — joined by Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk, who welcomed the ship home — dug into a large cake emblazoned with an American flag and the words "Welcome home" in the mess area, the space where the crew regularly gathers for meals.
Kirk was on hand to see the ship in, along with Neptun and Capt. John Healey, commander of Sector Boston.
The 110-foot Grand Isle was away so much longer than expected due to the severity of damage to the cutter, Coast Guard officials have said. In some places, the hull was 85 percent deteriorated.
With that level of damage, according to Neptun, "You hit some rough seas and that could be it."
The entire class of ships the Grand Isle belongs to — Island Class cutters — is slated to be replaced in the next six years. The first replacement ship has arrived in Miami, but the Grand Isle is likely to stay in service until 2016, according to Neptun.
The Grand Isle's absence, which carried on for so long that more than half the crew changed over, put the First District in difficult waters, according to Neptun.
"We need all the resources we have because we have things for each of them to do," said Neptun. When one ship is out of commission, "everybody gets to carry a little more," said Neptun.
That officially came to an end Friday.
When the ship sounded the liberty call — meaning that the crew is allowed to leave — its 17 members broke into huge smiles of relief.
Stephanie Bergman can be reached at 978-283-7000 x3451, or sbergman@gloucestertimes.com.
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