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By Terry Judd | Source: Muskegon Chronicle

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw and the Canadian Coast Guard ship Samuel Risley — both of which are on display at this year’s Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival.

… Aboard the Samuel Risley, there is a casualness not found on U.S. Coast Guard ships. Because the Canadian Coast Guard is a civilian agency, there is no military protocol. Crew members are not required to salute the captain; military titles are not used; and guns are nowhere to be found.

And that is much the case throughout most of the Canadian Coast Guard’s civilian fleet of 114 vessels. With the exception of three cutters dedicated to national security, much of Canada’s maritime national security is handled by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

… He said the primary missions of the Coast Guard in Canada are similar to those found in the United States — aids to navigation, icebreaking, environmental response and search and rescue.

Read the full story at the Muskegon Chronicle >>

Source: Congressman Bart Stupak

U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) presented testimony on Wednesday to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation regarding the need to increase ice-cutting capacity on the northern Great Lakes.

Stupak urged the committee members to enforce congressional intent by requiring the Coast Guard to replace the decommissioned Coast Guard Cutter Acacia in Charlevoix. “It is important that a new Coast Guard cutter or similar asset be stationed in Charlevoix to replace the Acacia and continue the Coast Guard’s long-standing presence in the northern Great Lakes,” Stupak said. “While the Mackinaw is now stationed in Cheboygan, ice breaking capacity in the northern Great Lakes has been reduced from two cutters to one, threatening the Coast Guard’s ability to meet its operational responsibilities on the Great Lakes. The Coast Guard fleet is down one hull, but the scope of its icebreaking mission is still the same.”

The Acacia was decommissioned on June 7, 2006, after more than 60 years of service. The Acacia provided essential navigational and search and rescue services in the northern Great Lakes, tended to nearly 200 buoys and lighthouses, and kept channels open by breaking ice.

Stupak, who was scheduled to testify in person before the committee, submitted his written testimony instead.

Stupak was pulled into a strategy meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to discuss pending legislation on energy speculation, which Stupak is playing a leading role in crafting.

The committee heard from additional witnesses who spoke on the Coast Guard’s icebreaking mission on the Great Lakes and other regions.

Stupak noted the frustration he has faced in working to replace the Acacia.

He included language in the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2006 that would, in effect, require the Acacia to be replaced.

Efforts to force the Coast Guard to do so have been ignored.

“I have written the Coast Guard multiple times requesting that they follow congressional intent,” Stupak said. “Unfortunately, the commandant of the Coast Guard continues to insist that the Coast Guard will not follow the law Congress wrote, leaving northern Michigan without a replacement for the Acacia.”

Stupak continues to work with Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) to replace the Acacia.

By Dan Bellerose | Source: Sault Star

Nearly a month into the commercial shipping season, a small fleet of United States Coast Guard icebreakers continues working the upper approach to the Michigan Soo Locks.

The 3,500-ton heavy icebreaker Mackinaw and three 660-ton icebreaking tugs, the Katmai Bay, the Biscayne Bay and the Neah Bay, re-established commercial shipping tracks Wednesday on ice-clogged Whitefish Bay.

Nine freighters, six downbound and three upbound, were delayed overnight Tuesday due to deteriorating conditions.

“Large ice floes of significant thickness broke loose from the western shore (of Lake Superior) earlier in the week and collapsed previously-laid shipping tracks,” said Mark Gill, operations manager of USCG Group Sault.

Plate ice was up to 75 centimetres [about 29 inches] thick, he said.

…“Whitefish Bay is the last significant ice left to deal with on all of the Great Lakes,” he said. “Our work, if all goes well, should be done for another season in a week to 10 days.”

More quotes, explanation of ice and Coast Guard operations the Sault Star >>

Source: USCG and local reports

The US Coast Guard has advised that the cutter Hollyhock will be breaking ice and clearing tracks in the lower bay of Green Bay.

The week’s local Notice to Mariners continued to state the CGC Mobile Bay, home ported in Sturgeon Bay, would be breaking ice. The work was expected over the past three weeks. However, the Wednesday marine broadcast over Coast Guard VHF radio stated the ice breaking and track cutting would be performed by the Hollyhock.

Satellite photos and local reports indicate the the upper bay north of Chambers Island has cleared of ice. However solid “fast ice” remains in both Little Bay de Noc at Escanaba, as well as from just south of Chambers Island south to the city of Green Bay.

Resources:

• Satellite photos of Great Lakes
• Ice Analysis by NOAA
• Current Printed Notice to Mariners

By MIKE FORNES | Source: Cheboygan Tribune

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. - Heavy ship traffic is reported in the vicinity of the Soo Locks, St. Mary’s River and Whitefish Bay as the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw and other icebreaking vessels are hustling to assist those in need.

The Mackinaw has been actively conducting icebreaking operations in Whitefish Bay and the lower St. Mary’s River over the last week.

Cmdr. John Little, the Mackinaw’s captain, said Wednesday that conditions of plate ice from 12 to 30 inches thick with brash ice of more than six feet remains in most of Whitefish Bay.

Little said his ship and crew have conducted more than 50 vessel assists to commercial shipping within the last few days alone while also conducting five direct assists to ships beset in heavy ice, freeing them to resume their transits.

“Some of these assists came within the narrowest portions of the lower St. Mary’s River in the turns of Winter Point, Johnson Point and Stribling Point,” Little continued.

Also conducting superb efforts as a part of “Team Taconite” are the cutters Biscayne Bay, Katmai Bay and Neah Bay; all three 140-foot ships are assisting vessel transits in the lower river while Mackinaw works in very thick shifting ice in Whitefish Bay.

“Tuesday’s weather has really thrown Operation Taconite a curve as winds in Whitefish Bay were at 40 knots from the north and previously established tracks are rapidly closing,” Little added.

More quotes, details to this excellent story at the Cheboygan Tribune >>

By NICHOLAS DESHAIS | Source: Times Herald (Port Huron, MI)

Wind from the south emptied the St. Clair River of any ice yesterday, but don’t expect the water to remain clear and blue.

“This Lake Huron ice, it’s going to be with us until the end of the first week in April,” said Ron Morrow, an ice specialist with the Canadian Ice Service. “I’d say we have another week or ten days.”

Read the full story, photos at the Times Herald >>

Posted By Linda Richardson | Source: The Sault Star

Ice congestion in the Straits, which connects Lakes Huron and Michigan, 87 kilometres south of Sault Ste. Marie, is heavy.

“Depending where you are at, it’s a couple of inches to 18 inches of ice,” said West, who indicated there wasn’t much shipping traffic in the Straits Sunday.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard ice breakers continue their battle to clear a shipping channel in the St. Mary’s River.

The upper river, from the locks to Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior is 100-per-cent covered by ice, with up to 30 inches of plate ice (a solid piece), West said.

The lower St. Mary’s is 80-to-100 per cent covered with six to 24-inch thick ice.

From a story about the Cason J Callaway/American Republic collision at the Sault Star >>

Source: Erie Shipping News

Overnight, two ships, the CANADIAN ENTERPRISE, bound for Conneaut, Ohio to load coal, and the CEDARGLEN, bound for Ashtabula to unload titanium slag, became stuck in ice off of Erie. Both vessels remained there throughout the night, requiring the assistance of U.S. Coast Guard cutter NEAH BAY to get underway this morning.

Yesterday, the Rt. Hon. PAUL J. MARTIN became stuck off of Long Point and required assistance from NEAH BAY all the way to Ashtabula.

Full article, more details at Erie Shipping News >>

Monica Isley | Source: Lake County News Chronicle

On Sunday the Edwin Gott pulled in–but not before anchoring for a while out in the lake to take care of mechanical problems.

Don Wirt, assistant manager on the Two Harbors docks, said the Gott’s motor had been rebuilt over the winter, and after leaving Duluth, a problem with the head gasket was discovered.

The first boat in at Silver Bay was the Indiana Harbor–but it had to do its own ice breaking, according to Penny Rogers at Northshore Mining.

…Once in the harbor, it unloaded 60,000 tons of coal for the company’s generator plant, and then loaded up with 52,000 tons of pellets.

Check out the story at the Lake County News Chronicle; there’s a mystery to be solved that we haven’t mentioned here >>

See Also: New fleet, boat safety on Coast Guard chief’s list - Detroit Free Press

Source: TradingMarkets.com

Angular chunks of ice leap from the water like live beasts suddenly wakened from sleep, groaning and bouncing in dark water.

Cracks ripple across untouched ice. The buoy deck — near ice level — shudders underfoot.

For hours every day in the final weeks of winter, the Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw, the behemoth of the Great Lakes icebreaking fleet, grinds through plates of ice 2 feet thick, methodically cutting a path for the return of big ships to the Sault Ste. Marie locks, which open Tuesday.

About 60,000 jobs in the United States and Canada depend directly on the movement of cargo — iron ore, salt, coal and limestone — on the Great Lakes. The shipping season is 42 weeks, 12 of which require icebreaking. It’s crucial that the shipping industry restart traffic on time after a 2-month winter shutdown.

Some 800 oceangoing vessels move cargo through the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes each year; another 62 freighters ply Great Lakes ports exclusively. Together, they carry billions of dollars worth of raw material and steel more cheaply than can be transported by rail or truck.

Full story at TradingMarkets.com >>

by Dan Bellerose | Source: The Sault Star

“[Ship t]raffic is moving but it’s moving slowly. . . . We have more ice than resources to deal with it at present and it has slowed movement to a crawl.”

…The ice itself isn’t abnormally thick, but it’s the second-largest ice-cover accumulation in the last dozen years, according to the U.S. National Weather Service, and the difficulty is getting the broken ice to flow downstream rather than congest, Gill said.

Icebreakers are encountering 46 to 76 centimeters (18 to 30 inches) of plate ice throughout the length of the St. Mary’s and up to 96 cm of brash ice.

… Usually, three 660-ton Bay-class icebreaking tugs patrol the lower St. Mary’s during breakout. But only two are available this spring and one of them, the Biscayne Bay, out of St. Ignace, has seen limited duty this week due to propulsion problems.

The Mackinaw was relocating from Whitefish Bay and the upper St. Mary’s to the lower St. Mary’s on Wednesday afternoon to assist the Katmai Bay, out of the Michigan Sault. Its hoped the Canadian Coast Guard light icebreaker Samuel Risley will be downbound from Thunder Bay in the coming days.

Ice congestion in the lower river system has upbound traffic moving in two- to five-vessel convoys, with an icebreaker escort, and three such convoys had moved since Tuesday. But there has been no downbound traffic and five vessels were waiting to move out early Wednesday afternoon.

More to this excellent story at the Sault Star, click to read >>

by Jack Storey | Source: Soo Evening News

Ships in the river overnight hove-to or tied up where they were to await daylight and the resumption of icebreaker escorts, starting with two thousand-foot self unloaders making the first downbound trips of the season.

Coast Guard operations manager Mark Gill said the 1,000-foot Indiana Harbor and Edwin H. Gott opted to lay over the nighttime hours at the Soo Locks pier wall after locking down late Tuesday. Gill explained that while the commercial ships waited, two Bay-Class tugs completed the initial opening of the often-troublesome West Neebish Channel in preparation for the two wide-bodied vessels due down early today.

He said Coast Guard ice escorts are suspended during nighttime hours because of very limited visibility and safety concerns. However, an extra hour of daylight in the evening and a bright moon overnight aided the tugs Katmai Bay and Biscayne Bay in their joint channel-clearing operation at West Neebish.

Downriver of that passage on the upbound side, a cluster of four ships waited in the ice overnight at Mud Lake before resuming their first upbound passages of the season in heavy ice conditions. Stewart J. Cort, James R. Barker, Algorail and Canadian Transfer were all expected to get underway early today after waiting out the night in the ice.

More to this excellent story at the Soo Evening News >>

By Joe Knaapen  | Source: Oshkosh Northwestern

STURGEON BAY — The winter fleet at Bay Shipbuilding Co. has begun the annual spring migration to the Soo Locks.

Four freighters — the 1,000-footers Paul R. Tregurtha and Edgar B. Speer, and the 767-foot Arthur M. Anderson and the 806-foot Charles M. Beeghly — left Sturgeon Bay Sunday in the race to be first through the locks at Sault Ste. Marie.

The freighters ran into heavy ice on Green Bay, and were delayed despite tracks cut by the Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw and maintained by the cutter Mobile Bay and commercial tugs.

The freighters coming out of Bay Ship lost the race to the Cason J. Calloway [sic], which sailed out of Erie, Pa., and was first through the Soo.

“There’s plate ice out there a couple of feet thick,” said Lt. Cdr. Matt Smith, commander of the Mobile Bay, which makes its home port in Sturgeon Bay.

After the Mackinaw cut a track south to Sturgeon Bay and returned back north to the Soo, Smith said the Mobile Bay was assigned to keep the path open for commercial traffic. Temperatures turned cold over the weekend, however, bringing ice back into the cut.

While the commercial tug Erica Kobasic out of Escanaba handled close escort work, the Mobile Bay widened the track north from the Sherwood Point light at the mouth of Sturgeon Bay to the Rock Island Passage, which connects Green Bay to Lake Michigan between Rock Island and Michigan’s Garden Peninsula.

Starting Tuesday, the Mobile Bay began cutting a track from Sherwood Point south to Green Bay, opening its port to ship traffic, Smith said.

…. At Bay Ship, the ship movement means the crew of about 700 workers are under pressure to put the finishing touches on myriad details needed to put the winter fleet — 18 ships this season — back to work.

Nine freighters remain in port and most are expected to be gone by the end of March.

The phrase “winter fleet” applies to all the ships — from ferry boats to superfreighters — that make Bay Ship their home for the winter for repairs, inspections, surveys or offseason docking.

“We had a lot of late arrivals, boats coming in in mid-March,” said Todd Thayse, who manages repair services at Bay Ship.

By the end of the week, he added, all but three ships will have cleared the yard in Sturgeon Bay.

“There was heavy cargo demand, so they stayed out for an additional trip,” Thayse said of the ore carriers. “The steel industry is strong, so the demand is there for them to get back out there.”

Since mid-January, Bay Ship has worked three shift, seven days a week to get the repairs completed on time for captains and owners who are anxious to resume moving cargo, Thayse said.

“Everybody is trying to get out,” Thayse said. “They have to be careful because there’s heavy plate ice out there. The winds can move the plates, and take the ships right along with it.”

Demand was so heavy, Thayse said, that three freighters — the 1,000-footers Burns Harbor and Stewart J. Cort and 728-foot Jo[seph L.] Block — wintering in Milwaukee under the Bay Ship umbrella left earlier this month to haul taconite out of Escanaba.

Heavy ice conditions on Green Bay are helping convince some captains to use the ship canal and go east out of Bay Ship through Sturgeon Bay to Lake Michigan, Thayse said.

The captains are weighing the time savings and risks of traveling on low water through two downtown bridges and the Bayview Bridge over State 42-57 compared with potential delays in heavy ice by going west to Green Bay and north to Rock Island.

Read the full story, photos at the Oshkosh Northwestern >>

GLSW Exclusive

During the early morning hours of Monday, March 24, conditions changed and the freighters PAUL R. TREGURTHA, ARTHUR M. ANDERSON, CHARLES M. BEEGHLY and EDGAR B SPEER were able to free themselves from the ice near Sherwood Point, and head northward through the bay of Green Bay.

The trip was long and arduous.

By 6:30 AM, the TREGURTHA and ANDERSON had arrived west of Porte des Mortes passage in northern Door County, with the BEEGHLY and SPEER shortly behind. The four vessels stacked in a line waiting for the USCG cutter MOBILE BAY and tug ERICA KOBASIC to clear a track through the ice north of Washington Island, through Rock Island Passage.

Rock Island Passage is a narrow stretch between Rock Island and the U.P.’s Garden Peninsula, and where an LCA shipping lane connects the bay of Green Bay to Lake Michigan.

Although a tongue of seemingly open water stretched from Porte des Mortes about 0.25 mi into the bay of Green Bay, Porte des Mortes passage was full of loose ice chunks and sheet ice, which the Coast Guard did not want to disturb for fear of blocking transit of the Washington Island Ferry. The ferry makes daily trips across Porte des Mortes passage.

After several hours of ramming, cutting and clearing, the TREGURTHA was the first cleared to enter the track and exit into Lake Michigan. By early afternoon, all four vessels had cleared the passage and were headed eastward across the lake toward the Straits of Mackinaw.

The BEEGHLY transited Round Island Passage in the Straits at about 11 PM Eastern time Monday.

Meantime, three more ships departed Sturgeon Bay’s Bay Shipbuilding on Monday. Tugs were seen assisting the KAYE E BARKER as early as 6:30 AM local time, and the JAMES R BARKER departed later Monday morning. The KAYE E BARKER and PHILIP R CLARKE also left Bay Ship on Monday, heading north into the bay of Green Bay.

The northerly wind was now replaced by a building southerly wind which obliterated most of the tracks cut by the MOBILE BAY and ERICA KOBASIC Sunday.

The JAMES R BARKER reached the northern end of the bay of Green Bay at about midnight Monday night. As of 3 AM Tuesday, the tug ERICA KOBASIC had suspended ice breaking operations, and the PHILIP R CLARKE had dropped anchor in 140 ft of water near Washington Island. The CLARKE and KAYE E BARKER both experienced handling difficulties in the rapidly moving ice on the bay of Green Bay throughout Monday night and early Tuesday morning, transiting northward with the ice floes at 0.5 MPH for much of the time.

The KOBASIC plans to resume ice breaking operations at daylight Tuesday. The CLARKE and KAYE E BARKER both intended to seek shelter from the gale force winds and high waves on Lake Michigan Monday night and into Tuesday.

Source: GLSW

The Great Lakes Fleet’s 767-foot long Cason J Callaway was the first ship to lock through the Soo Locks on Tuesday, March 25, 2008.

The Callaway may have been an unlikely recipient of the honor, after having become stuck in the ice off the Port of Erie for 9 hours shortly after her departure from winter lay-up last weekend. The Callaway and fleetmate Presque Isle then also became caught in the ice near Lime Island in the St. Mary’s River on Monday. The ships were freed from the ice by the USCG Cutter Katmai Bay, and continued north to the Soo Locks, arriving late Monday evening.

The Callaway was not the only ship headed for the Soo and hoping for the ‘top hat’ honors on Tuesday. The vessels Paul R Tregurtha, Arthur M Anderson, Charles M Beeghly, Edgar B Speer, James R Barker and Kaye E Barker were all upbound for Duluth, having left layup in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin on Sunday and Monday. Three of those vessels had been expected to arrive at the western end of Lake Superior before the Callaway, but were delayed by thick ice in the bay of Green Bay for over 12 hours.

The first ship expected downbound at the Soo is the Edwin H Gott, a 1,000-footer fleetmate of the Cason J Callaway, carrying iron ore from Two Harbors, MN to Gary, IN. The Gott is expected at the Soo Tuesday morning, weather and ice conditions permitting.

GLSW Exclusive

The best-laid plans were brought asunder by a stiff northerly wind and cold temperatures over the weekend, which stacked and re-froze thick ice on the bay of Green Bay, in western Lake Michigan.

By 11 AM, the lakes’ largest ship, the PAUL R. TREGURTHA, had departed Sturgeon Bay’s Bay Shipbuilding and was struggling against the ice in the shipping channel at Sherwood Point. The ARTHUR M. ANDERSON was moving out of her berth, and the EDGAR B. SPEER and JAMES R. BARKER were in the queue, getting ready to go.

And then the TREGURTHA became stuck in the ice.

The USCG Cutter MOBILE BAY was on-hand to assist with breaking the ships out of the ice, but it became quickly apparent that the ice breaking efforts the MOBILE BAY had completed throughout the past 72 hours in the bay of Green Bay, had been jammed shut and stubbornly refrozen by the recent turn in the weather.

Tug ERICA KOBASIC assisted the MOBILE BAY in breaking tracks northerly through the bay all afternoon and late into Sunday night. The MOBILE BAY spent much of their time attempting to break ice at Washington Island’s Boyer Bluff, reporting that it was “very tough, very very tough” and finally conceding to the KOBASIC that it might be better to route ships around the Boyers Bluff ice, transiting them farther north towards Little Bay de Noc, and then turn them easterly toward Rock Island Passage, to gain entry to Lake Michigan.

The MOBILE BAY and ERIC KOBASIC suspended ice breaking operations at 11:15 PM, and planned to resume their efforts again at 8:00 AM Monday.

In the meantime, several freighters remained stranded in the ice off Sturgeon Bay.

Although the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal and Lake Michigan was clear of ice, and seemingly a clear egress for the vessels departing Bay Shipbuilding, the water depth near Bay Shipbuilding is insufficient to turn the vessels. The waters on either side of the 200 ft. wide channel are also still covered by thick, non-navigable solid sheet ice. Additionally, the brisk northerly winds would have created a crosswind situation for the freighters, which are sitting high in the water while ballasted. Such conditions would have made transiting the three bridges through the city extremely difficult.

More ships are scheduled to depart Bay Shipbuilding on Monday.

The vessels are also attempting to beat a high pressure system which is causing winds to swing westerly, then southerly and increase to gale strength Monday night into Tuesday. Sixteen foot waves are forecasted for northern Lake Michigan on Tuesday, which are sufficient height to cause most sub-1000 ft. freighters to seek shelter in calmer waters along lee shores.

BOB VANDEVUSSE | Source: Holland Sentinel

Ice-breaking operations on the Great Lakes have been under way for about two weeks. U.S. Coast Guard vessels Mackinaw and Biscayne Bay started by working in the St. Mary’s River below the Soo to get things going. With winter maintenance completed, the Poe Lock was filled Thursday and the pair locked up the following day. The Mackinaw broke tracks across Whitefish Bay and is keeping them open while the Biscayne Bay proceeded to Duluth to assist the cutter Alder, which was already working to open the port of Duluth-Superior. Ice in the port is reported to be between 20 and 36 inches thick. It then returned to the Soo for work in the St. Mary’s River and is working its way back to its home base in St. Ignace.

Cutter Katmai Bay will groom tracks around the Soo Locks, and the Hollyhock, up from Port Huron, will assist the Biscayne Bay in opening the Straits of Mackinac after receiving propeller repairs at Cheboygan. When it is finished with ice operations, it will head to Chicago to begin switching out winter markers and replacing them with lighted buoys. Cutter Mobile Bay has been working in Green Bay. With a more normal winter after several mild ones, the Coast Guard is finding it resources stretched, so another Bay-Class cutter, the Penobscott Bay, based in New Jersey, has been sent up to assist with operations on the St. Lawrence River and Lakes Ontario and Erie.

Up in Duluth, the Mesabi Miner made a number of coal deliveries to Lake Superior ports this past week. On Thursday, the Welland Canal opened, with the captain of the Canadian Progress as the recipient of the honorary top hat. Friday, the Montreal to Lake Ontario section of the St. Lawrence Seaway opened as well, with the Canadian Miner being the first upbound vessel. When the Soo Locks open for commercial vessels Tuesday, the new season will be fully under way.

Full story at the Holland Sentinel >>

Friday, March 21, 2008’s report from Erie Shipping News:

CASON J. CALLAWAY, after a three-hour delay from her original planned departure time, departed Erie at 1830 this afternoon bound for Two Harbors, Minnesota to load taconite. The crew of the CALLAWAY had spent most of Friday completing last minute fit-out tasks before departing the Old Ore Dock and proceeding slowly past fleetmate PRESQUE ISLE. The vessels exchanged three long and two short whistle blasts - a master’s salute - as CALLAWAY picked up speed to get a run for the ice outside Erie harbor.

Video of departure, courtesy Erie Shipping News:

Alana Toulin | Source: Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal

The Coast Guard ice cutter Samuel Risley had barely arrived to clear out the harbour Saturday before the freighters docked at Keefer Terminal started clamouring to leave.

“They‘re all chasing and they‘re all ready to go,” said Dale Ryynanen. The owner of marine repair company Fabmar Metals was working at the harbour Saturday as the crew from the Wisconsin-bound Algowood was preparing to leave. “It‘s all revenue – every day is money lost, that‘s why they‘re so excited to get them out of here.”

The eagerness to head out was a good thing for Gerry Dawson, tug boat operator and owner of Thunder Bay Tug Services. He and his three boats – the Miseford, the Glenada, and the Point Valour – headed out onto the water Saturday to help some of the ships get to their destinations.

First up on their agenda was the CSL Laurentien. Loaded mainly with grain and iron ore, the massive red freighter was destined for Superior, Wisc., and needed quite a bit of help getting turned around and pushed out through the large chunks of ice that bobbed around in the dark water.

“It‘s hard on the equipment when it‘s this icy,” Dawson said, pointing out the loud noises the ice makes while hitting the propellors. “One year, we did $100,000 in damage while icebreaking. We got a $50,000 deductible and we probably only made $20,000 icebreaking, so there‘s not a lot of money in it.”

However, things will get easier once the weather warms up and the ice is gone. In the summer, only one tug is usually needed to get a laker out instead of three.

Full story at the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal >>

Source: USCG

ESCANABA — The U.S. Coast Guard will be expanding ice breaking operations in Little Bay de Noc as well as the Fox River and lower Green Bay, Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal and the entrance channel into Marinette and Menominee.

Everyone is reminded the 2008 shipping season will be commencing and vessel movements are expected in these waters beginning Monday. All anglers are reminded to remove ice shacks. Recreational ice users should plan activities carefully, use caution near the ice and stay away from shipping channels and the charter Lake Carriers Association track lines.