USCG Cutter Mackinaw arrives in Cheboygan after work and training on Lake Michigan
January 27, 08 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
By MIKE FORNES | Source: Cheboygan Daily Tribune
CHEBOYGAN - The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw was scheduled to arrive back at its Cheboygan homeport Sunday [January 20, 2008], concluding a week of training and ice work that began in the Lower St. Mary’s River and concluded in Green Bay, Wis.
The Mac stopped in St. Ignace briefly to load buoys left there last fall and bring them to the Cheboygan Buoy Base for maintenance work.
As the Jan. 15 Soo Locks closure neared, the Mackinaw traveled from the east end of the Straits of Mackinac all the way to the western shore of Lake Michigan assessing ice conditions and training for the upcoming icebreaking season. While transiting the St. Mary’s River last week, the Mackinaw trained on icebreaking techniques, held damage control and engineering drills, trained in ice rescue techniques and replaced a discrepant buoy.
The buoy, a green winter navigational aid, marked a shoal near Lime Island and had lost much of its paint due to the ice flow and was no longer serving as an efficient aid to navigation.
“With ice surrounding the buoy and temperatures below freezing, the Mackinaw’s deck force swapped the aid with a new winter mark to ensure safe navigation for vessels transiting the river,” said Cmdr John Little, the Mackinaw’s captain.
The ship completed its time at Green Bay by establishing tracks through 12-inch thick plate ice with six inches of snow cover. The job was done while escorting and assisting several commercial lakers bound for winter lay-up in Sturgeon Bay, Wis.
“This ice field remains very dynamic as strong southerly winds continually push floes together causing many two to four-foot thick windrows,” Little added. “By weeks end more than 15 ships will have gone to lay-up at Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay following the locks closure.”
Little said that the largest commercial ore-carrier on the Great Lakes, the 1,013-foot Paul R. Tregurtha was the last of the vessels due into lower Green Bay on Friday night [January 18].
“Iron ore continues to run, however, through the northern reaches bay of Green Bay as the port of Escanaba remains active with several ships hauling cargoes to plants along the shores of southern Lake Michigan at Gary and Indiana Harbor, Ind.,” he said.
