Saturday, February 5, 2022

The Bristol Bay Making a Path

 The ship that I was really interested in catching.

I was hoping to catch this one as she passed Marine City but by the time I got there she had just passed.
When I got to St. Clair, I saw that there was more ice there, so I guess it was a good thing I headed up there too.  Made for better pictures, I think.
She was really pouring it on.  When I first saw the Iver Bright on Marine Traffic, they were pretty close but now there was a good half hour between them.
Fortunately, the Iver Bright can handle the ice as she has an icebreaking rated bow.
The Bay Class Cutters break the ice by pressing air up on the ice.  
I think you can kind of see that in this picture.
At any rate, it was cool to see a cutter.
The beam shot.  She's been pretty busy this season so far.
And she passes by.
You can see a little bit of her trail behind her.

I think she was heading up to Port Huron to dock and she would probably start again the next morning.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

The 140-foot Bay class Cutters are state of that art icebreakers used primarily for domestic ice breaking duties. They are named after American Bays and are stationed mainly in the northeast United States and the Great Lakes.

WTGBs use a low pressure air hull lubrication or bubbler system that forces air and water between the hull and ice. This system improves icebreaking capabilities by reducing resistance against the hull, reducing horsepower requirements.