East Bound and Down!

[Ox]

Coming across the St. Mary's on Tuesday evening, we noted that an ice breaker had went through. 

I was shocked.

 

I asked the border guard about ice breaker movement. Did they not get the memo that the lakes were 95% covered?

 

He kind'a chuckled a bit and said that a breaker went through a cpl days prior and was headed to Duluth to fetch 3 boats bound for the auto sector downstate. Apparently they will have to break most all the way from Duluth to points south as their aint much open water anywhere yet. 

 

Sounds expen$ive!

 

 

So then we get down to The Bridge (Mackinac) and see tracks there as well, and ass_u_me that it was the mighty Mac that went to fetch them. Apparently so - per this here report:

 

 

 

 

Ice thick as season opens on St. Marys River

3/27 - Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. – A United States Coast Guard spokesman predicted a “challenging” passage for the icebreaker Mackinaw and two accompanying Bay class vessels as they open the 2014-15 navigation season on the St. Marys River.

Their escort of three ore carriers began in Duluth, Minn. on Monday night. Ken Curry, vessel traffic management specialist with Sector Sault of the U.S.C.G., expected earlier this week the ships would arrive at Whitefish Bay by Friday. Satellite images indicated their likely route would follow the Canadian shoreline, where last weekend’s strong northwest winds opened a passage.

The heavy icebreaker Mackinaw, 240 feet, and the 140-foot icebreakers Katmai Bay and Morro Bay, must deal with plate ice at 20 to 24 inches, topped with two feet of hard-packed snow and windrows of up to 12 feet in Whitefish Bay, Curry said.

The passage of the icebreakers and the barge, Presque Isle, owned by Litton Great Lakes, and two USS freighters, Cason J. Callaway and John G. Munson, both about 770 feet, should go comparatively well in the open water along the north shore of Lake Superior. The vessels contain taconite for delivery in southern Lake Michigan.

Allan Frappier, chief of lock operations at the Soo Locks, said the system would open Monday night. He expected the vessels late on the weekend. “There’s lots of ice up and down the river,” Frappier said, but “The locks are open and ready to go.”

The icebreakers arrived in the lower river on Wednesday, March 19 to work below the locks, helping to clear the gates, then locked through for Duluth last Friday, March 21, he said.

Sault This Week

 

 

 

 

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[skidooboy]

saw that friday afternoon on our way up. usually the lakes and locks open for business april 1st. so they are a week to 10 days ahead of schedule on the harshest winter in 35 years on the great lakes. Ski

[Ox]

Actually - from other reading on the site that I pulled the quote from - it appears that today is actually the official opening for the "2014/2015 season" as they refer to it. 

 

 

 

Soo Locks experience historically slow opening day

3/27 - Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. – The Soo Locks are officially open for spring, but for the first time in 20 years no ships are passing through. The extreme ice coverage on the Great Lakes is making it difficult for ships to travel and for the locks to operate.

"Normally at midnight when we open up there's a boat on the end of the pier waiting and then there's several in the system," Tom Soeltner, Soo Locks Lockmaster said.

Soeltner has been keeping a close eye on the progress of ships traveling on Lake Superior and Lake Huron, many of them carrying valuable energy resources like iron ore and coal. "I'm just watching the internet, hoping they get here sometime," Soeltner said. "It's going to be a while."

Soeltner might not see the first ship until this weekend. A full fleet of Coast Guard ice cutters have been working around the clock, trying to get traffic moving. "The ice is so thick on the Great Lakes that it's so hard to get through without escort from the Coast Guard," Allen Frappier, Soo Locks Chief of Lock Operations, said.

The ice is also a big problem in the locks. Workers have brought in extra air compressors to pump steam through the system, so the gates don't freeze shut once the ships are ready to come through. Even if everything runs smoothly, it is still a slow start to the shipping season.

It's not clear how much it will effect the economy, but this delay will make for a busier summer at the locks. "Vessels will have to make up for lost loads throughout the season, so it will probably be busier once the weather is a little nicer," Frappier said.

Up North Live

 

 

 

 

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