The imminent arrival of the 522-foot Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg in Key West is the top priority for city port officials, who are asking for flexibility from the cruise lines with ships scheduled to be in port over the next few days.

Still, the city may lose as many as two port calls, which average about $20,000 each in revenue for the city, as well as revenue for Duval Street businesses, Key West spokeswoman Alyson Crean said Friday.

The former military ship was off northern Florida on Friday afternoon, and is expected to arrive Monday or Tuesday, but estimates depend on wind and weather, which determine how fast the tugboat can pull the ship.

No cruise ships will be allowed in the main ship channel or docked in Key West Harbor while a legion of tug and pilot boats tediously guide the behemoth ship to its temporary mooring at Truman Waterfront's East Quay Wall, Crean said.

"The window to bring it into the harbor is tiny, and we're dealing with a huge, dead ship that has no power of its own," she said. "To bring it through the channel is certainly doable, but it's a challenge, and the crews have to do it in slack water so they're not dealing with currents."

Slack water occurs at high and low tides when the currents stop moving so dramatically.

Some cruise ships may be asked to leave a few hours early, while others may have to arrive a few hours, or a day, later. Currently, two cruise ships are scheduled for both Monday and Tuesday, and none are scheduled for Wednesday.

"Ideally, we could bring it in on Wednesday, but there are so many moving parts to this operation, which is taking priority," Crean said. "There is no way to make a firm statement about the time, because so much of it has to do with wind and weather conditions. I see, at the most, two port calls being impacted."

Crews estimate it will take three to four hours to maneuver the ship through the channel and to the East Quay Wall.

In addition to lost revenue from port calls, Julie Gully, an employee of Caribe Nautical, which supplies cruise ships, is upset about the planning and the priority that the Vandenberg is receiving, calling it "outrageous, unacceptable and unnecessary." She added in an e-mail to The Citizen that the team should wait until Wednesday so the city could accommodate its long-term cruise line clients.

It would not be prudent to definitively force the Vandenberg to wait off Key West until Wednesday because the wind could pick up, and there remains a good amount of work to be done on the ship before she is sunk as an artificial reef sometime before June 1, Crean said.

As of Friday afternoon, the Vandenberg had made its way south of Jacksonville, traveling at 6 knots, or about 7 mph.

The general public is allowed to watch the operation from the East Quay.

mbolen@keysnews.com