Posted on 01/09/2012 5:35:38 AM PST by thackney
A Russian tanker is inching through thick ice in the Bering Sea en route to delivering fuel to Nome. The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy is cutting a path for the 370-foot Renda, which is carrying more than 1.3 million gallons of fuel.
Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class David Mosley said the vessels were 170 miles south of Nome as of late Sunday morning. Mosley said the ships are able to travel only five miles an hour through ice up to two feet thick. The Coast Guard initially estimated arrival time early Monday, but Mosley says it's difficult to predict an exact time because of challenges of navigating through ice. Late Saturday afternoon the tanker carrying much-needed fuel for iced-in Nome was about 190 miles from its destination late Saturday afternoon and making slow but steady progress, a company official said The city of about 3,500 people on the northwest Alaska coastline didn't get its last pre-winter fuel delivery because of a massive storm and could run out of crucial supplies before spring without the delivery. The 370-foot tanker was carrying more than 1.3 million gallons of fuel and was being shepherded through hundreds of miles of sea ice by the U.S. Coast Guard's only icebreaker.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
Photo courtesy Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis / U.S. Coast Guard The Coast Guard Cutter Healy escorts the Russian-flagged tanker Renda 250 miles south of Nome Jan. 6, 2012. The vessels are transiting through ice up to five-feet thick in this area. 
Photo courtesy Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis / U.S. Coast Guard 
Photo courtesy U.S. Coast Guard 
ping for follow-up from previous thread
Ice-breaking Russian ship gets OK to deliver fuel to Nome ( Alaska )
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2827938/posts
The US Coast Guard is using the Healy to provide ice breaking for the Russian Tanker.
pictures of both together
What else, but an obvious glow bull warming example.
But we were told all the arctic ice had melted due to the EPA’s global warming? Maybe we should just fire up some more coal plants?
Pray for America
After all, the Profit Algore and his followers have decreed that the ice near the north pole has melted due to AGW, so it is not possible that a ship can be having that much trouble navigating the waters near/in the arctic circle...
Sara’s Fault.....can you imagine the News Merde would be doing to her if she was still Governor?
Actually, Early Sea Ice is affecting the Snow Crab harvest in the Berring Sea.
Sea ice hastens Bering Sea snow crab fishery
http://www.adn.com/2012/01/07/2251806/sea-ice-hastens-bering-sea-snow.html#storylink=cpy
The Bering Sea snow crab fishery is picking up earlier than usual as the fleet scrambles to pull up the catch before encroaching sea ice shuts them down. About 25 boats are out so far, soon to be joined by 60 or so more, with a weather forecast calling for frigid weather and high winds.
Time for Balto!
Five knots when you are breaking ice is a good speed. Two foot thick sea ice is relatively easy to break. One year old sea ice is about three feet thick.
No roads connect Nome to the main supply highways.
Nome is far enough south to be ice free much of the year.
This has to be a hoax. Everyone knows there is no ice in the north anymore, and the polar bears are drowning.
Are you telling me there is no shoreline or approach, where the trucks could get out on the ice?
Ahh yes,
Hardwater Sailors, warms my heart.
Coast Guard!
Even if you had shoreline at Nome with sufficient ice, where would you haul it from? It comes from the south and is normally barged in but early sea ice this year (combined with late orders trying to take advantage of falling prices earlier) got them too late for the barge.
There are no Alaska roads heading to the west coast from from the Anchorage - Fairbanks highways.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.