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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 JACK STOREY | Source: Soo Evening News

Barred from operating in the ice that currently chokes the West Neebish Channel, the [Neebish Island] ferry has not yet begun spring service.

When the ferry does begin crossings, [Eastern U.P. Transportation Authority (EUPTA) staff Director Chuck] Moser said it will make four crossings daily with a different schedule for weekdays and on weekends. He also reported that permanent hull repairs will be scheduled for the MCM Marine drydock as soon as possible once the ice is out of the St. Marys River.

Moser said the drydocking, inspection and repairs on the old ferry’s hull will require two to three weeks and possibly more, depending on the amount of hull work that is needed. He said EUPTA is currently attempting to find insurance or grant funding to cover the repairs.

Moser said MCM has agreed to take the Neebish Islander II as soon as the ferry is cleared to move upriver under Coast Guard restrictions.

The EUPTA director also indicated the authority is seeking a replacement vessel to take over Neebish Island service temporarily while the ferry is in the repair yard. Speaking of a so-called “bare boat charter,” Moser said, “A replacement vessel will not come cheap.”

… In his report, Moser also described EUPTA’s decision to retain the “winter” ferry schedule at Drummond Island through the month of April. A cost-saving measure, the “winter” schedule reduces daily ferry crossings by a number of passages each day, reducing the burdensome high cost of fuel.

Moser said he expects the schedule change will save EUPTA $80 to $100 per trip not made. He also confirmed that the EUPTA staff is looking more closely at the remainder of the Drummond Ferry schedule and the schedule at Sugar Island with the intention of possibly reducing low-volume ferry crossings.

“We have to look at the level of service compared to what we can afford to do,” he said.

Sasso appeared to be comfortable with service reductions on some runs at both crossings. Sasso suggested using EUPTA’s new ferry dock cameras to see across the DeTour-Drummond crossing to determine if vehicles are waiting before making an “empty run” simply to make the schedule.

Sasso also suggested returning to late night and early morning crossings on an “on request” basis as was once done on the Drummond crossing.

No action was requested on scheduling changes as Moser said the staff has not yet completed its review of the potential for reducing runs.

Much more to this story, read it all at the Soo Evening News >>

By JACK STOREY | Source: Soo Evening News

BARBEAU - A leak in the hull of the ferry Neebish Island II has been patched temporarily and the ferry has been cleared to resume restricted service, according to Eastern U.P. Transportation Authority Director Chuck Moser.

Moser said a repair crew from MCM Marine Inc. installed the specialized concrete patch on Thursday after EUPTA obtained the Coast Guard’s approval on a temporary repair. Moser said the ferry has been cleared to resume passenger and vehicle service once the patch cures but only under a set of rigorous conditions.

Moser said the restrictions will limit the number and timing of daily ferry crossings, but pledged that EUPTA and the ferry operator will follow the Coast Guard conditions strictly.

The EUPTA director said the ferry cannot, by agreement, operate so long as the West Neebish Channel is filled with ice. After that, he said, the Neebish Islander II will run on a partial schedule with fewer daily runs than its seasonal six-trip daily schedule.

More information, full story at the Soo Evening News >>

By NICOLE GERRING | Source: Port Huron Times Herald

A ship that supplies the Blue Water Area with coal will be featured on a Canadian TV series.

A TV crew from Exploration Production Inc. of Toronto is in the area today wrapping up filming of the Paul R. Tregurtha, the “Queen of the Lakes,” for an episode of a new series, “Awesome Ships.”

The Tregurtha makes regular runs between Superior, Wis., and Detroit Edison’s Saint Clair Power Plant in East China Township.
The television series is being produced for the Canadian division of the Discovery Channel, but could be aired internationally through the Discovery network, said Nick de Pencier, director of the Tregurtha episode.

All of the show’s episodes should be finished by mid-summer and will air next season, de Pencier said. Broadcast dates have not been determined.

Producers decided to feature the Tregurtha because of its size and design, de Pencier said. The ship, which is about 1,013½ feet long, is operated by Interlake Steamship Co. and is the largest freighter ever to work the Great Lakes, he said.

According to the company’s Web site, the freighter can carry up to 68,000 tons of taconite pellets or 71,000 tons of coal. It has a self-unloading mechanism, de Pencier said.

The ship was built by American Ship Building Company in Lorain, Ohio, in 1981. Formerly called the William J. DeLancey, the ship was renamed the Tregurtha in honor of one of Interlake Steamship Co.’s board members.

…. Crews hopped aboard the Tregurtha when the ship set sail from its berth in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., on March 23, said John Brian, a deck officer and pilot on the ship who accompanied the film crew.

The journey included a four-day stay in Duluth, Minn., when the ship needed repair because of ice damage, de Pencier said.

It was the first ship to sail through the ice breaks near northern Wisconsin in Lake Michigan, Brian said. Coast Guard cutters had to break the ship free for it to continue when it left Green Bay, Wis.

On Friday afternoon, de Pencier and his crew were looking forward to filming the ship when it docked at the St. Clair Power Plant on Friday night.

“For us to unload, the ship has to do almost a complete turn so her bow is facing back upriver,” he said. “There’s very little room to spare on either side.”

He’s enjoyed being able to capture the size of the ship in context, as it squeezes through tight spots such as the St. Mary’s and St. Clair rivers.

“It’s pretty amazing to see a vessel of this size navigate,” he said. “You’re basically going through people’s back yard in a ship of 1,000 feet.”

The episode about the ship likely will feature images of the Blue Water Bridge and the St. Clair River, de Pencier said. A filmmaker also captured images of the vessel from a shore perspective, he said.

Full story, photo at Port Huron Times Herald >>

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 JACK STOREY | Source: SooEveningNews.com

NEEBISH ISLAND - Isolated by seasonal St. Marys River ice conditions, Neebish Island may be cut off even longer this spring, after the discovery of a hull leak in the ferry Neebish Islander II.

Chuck Moser, director of the Eastern Upper Peninsula Transportation Authority, said the “pinhole leak” in the ferry’s hull was discovered during a routine oil change.

… The leak forced EUPTA to sideline the ferry indefinitely while the authority and Coast Guard marine inspectors determine how to repair the damaged hull and when.

Read the full story at the SooEveningNews.com >>

by Jacob Lammers | Source: Sandusky Register

Unseasonably cold weather delayed at least one major commercial ferry [on Lake Erie] this spring.

Miller Boat Line was supposed to start running March 21, but thick ice around Put-in-Bay has delayed its first run of the spring by a week.

The late start is especially unusual considering the ferryboats were running into January — and two years ago, the ferry boats operated year-round. Miller Boat Line serves Put-in-Bay and Middle Bass Island.

Miller Boat Line’s four ferry boats were locked in about 8-10 inches of ice in the island’s bay last week, but could float free if temperatures warm.

Kelleys Island Ferry Boat Line in Marblehead began operating Wednesday.

Full story, photo at Sandusky Register >>

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 >>

BOB VANDEVUSSE | Source: Holland Sentinel

The Soo Locks opened just after midnight last Tuesday morning, and the shipping season is now in full swing on the Great Lakes. The Cason J. Callaway was the first vessel to lock up to Lake Superior, but it had to work hard for the honor. While most of the open waters of the Lakes are easily passable, the bays and connecting waters are clogged with heavy pack ice. The Callaway took 14 hours to work through the lower St. Mary’s River, a trip that normally takes three.

Such rough conditions are hard on equipment and can contribute to mechanical failures and accidents. The Paul R. Tregurtha headed in for repairs at Duluth with a thirty-foot gash in the hull. Above the Soo Locks, the American Mariner lost its rudder and had to be towed back to the Soo by two tugs.

On Friday, the American Republic was stuck in the ice of Lake Michigan, west of the Mackinac Bridge. The Cason J. Callaway was moving through the Straits, bound for Gary, Ind., with a load of taconite for the steel mills there. It attempted to pass close to the Republic, in an effort to break it free, but the shifting ice pushed the two vessels into each other. The Republic was holed in its No. 1 ballast tank and is reporting to a shipyard, likely in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., for repairs. The Callaway sustained less damage and will proceed to Gary to unload before it, too, goes in for repairs.

By Linda Richardson | Source: The Sault Star

The U.S. Coast Guard continues to probe a collision that occurred Friday when a freighter went to the assistance of another vessel mired in ice in the Straits of Mackinaw.

Both the Cason J. Calloway and the American Republic were damaged, but neither took on water, Coast Guard Sector Sault Sainte Marie reported.

Marine inspectors checked both ships, and they were allowed to continue their voyages Saturday morning, said command duty officer Keith West.

Full story at the Sault Star >>

Source: USCG

The Coast Guard is investigating a collision between two vessels in the Straits of Mackinaw.

No injuries and no pollution were reported.

There was reported damage to both vessels, however neither vessel is taking on water.

On March 28, 2008, the motor vessel Cason J. Calloway and the motor vessel American Republic collided. Read the rest of this entry »

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 >>

By Jeff Alexander | Source: Muskegon Chronicle

Gale force winds whipped Lake Michigan into a fury this morning, producing waves up to 12 feet high, according to the National Weather Service.

The high winds generated by the front blocked the ballyhooed “first ship of the season” arrival.

The cement carrier ATB Samuel de Champlain/Innovation was scheduled to arrive in Muskegon at 3:30 a.m. today. But shipping company officials decided to wait out the storm in Chicago because of forecasts of 14-foot waves and 40-plus mph gusts.

The ship’s new schedule has her arriving in Muskegon at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday and departing later in the day at 10:30 p.m.

Read the full story at the Muskegon Chronicle >>