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The russians are coming! The russians are coming!

bill_105
bill_105 Member Posts: 429
So you had a tough delivery lately?

<img src="http://media.adn.com/smedia/2012/01/09/21/51/OneCJ.Hi.7.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="" />



<strong>Fuel tanker, icebreaker make progress in journey to Nome

</strong>FASTER: Speed picks up after ships stalled by Bering Sea ice.

By MARY PEMBERTON

Associated Press

By MARY PEMBERTON

Published: January 10th, 2012 08:12 PM

Last Modified: January 11th, 2012 10:53 AM



After being slowed and at times stalled by ice in the Bering Sea, a Coast Guard icebreaker and a Russian tanker were making "great progress" toward Nome on Tuesday, according to an official for the corporation arranging the fuel delivery to the iced-in city.

The delivery, which if successful would mark the first time petroleum products have been delivered by sea to a Western Alaska community in winter, remains challenging, said Jason Evans, chairman of Sitnasuak Native Corp.

"I think there continues to be a lot of pressure on the ice, so when they break the ice it wants to immediately squeeze together, or the broken ice wants to shoot back into the hole they just made," Evans said.

Coast Guard spokesman David Mosley said the tanker Renda and the icebreaker Healy were less than 100 miles from Nome at around noon Tuesday, having made it through 53 miles of ice-covered waters Monday.

The icebreaker is creating a path for the tanker through ice that is between 2 and 3 feet thick, Mosley said. The progress the vessels are making -- compared with earlier reports that they were slowed and sometimes stopped with ice pinching the sides of the tanker -- has to do with day-to-day changes in the ice, he said.

Shifting ice, described as dynamic ice, has slowed the progress of the vessels. The ice tends to close in, cutting off the path between the two ships. When that happens, the icebreaker doubles back and makes a relief cut to take pressure off the tanker and open a pathway.

"I think they continue to do well with the circumstances," Evans said.

He said the tanker and the icebreaker were expected to go through a large section of thinner ice and then encounter thicker ice again near Nome.

Sitnasuak Native Corp. arranged for the tanker delivery after a storm prevented a barge delivery in the fall before Nome became iced-in for the winter. The tanker is loaded with more than 1 million gallons of diesel and 300,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline. Without the delivery, Nome could run short of fuel before a barge delivery becomes possible in late spring.

Crews are working in Nome to be ready for the tanker's arrival, perhaps Thursday.

The Coast Guard and the Alaska Department of Conservation are in Nome setting up a safety perimeter and preparing for offloading of the fuel, Evans said. The ship is equipped with a hose of more than a mile for transferring fuel into Nome, where ice near the port is about 2 feet thick.

"I think that is good because if they do have to kind of stop in the ice, the thick ice will hold these ships in place for a safer transfer," Evans said.



Read more here: <a href="http://www.adn.com/2012/01/10/2256355/fuel-tanker-icebreaker-make-progress.html#storylink=cpy">http://www.adn.com/2012/01/10/2256355/fuel-tanker-icebreaker-make-progress.html#storylink=cpy</a>

Comments

  • BobC
    BobC Member Posts: 5,502
    great story

    That was one of the funniest movies I ever saw, Paul Ford was just perfect!



    That pressure on the ice pack can be a real problem, it would probably be better to use two large icebreakers but we only have the one. Perhaps we could borrow one from the ruskies?



    On another unrelated matter, did anyone watch the NOVA last night about the bombing of the German dams in the Ruhr during WWII? catch it when it comes around again, it's a great story about seat of the pants engineering.



    Bob
    Smith G8-3 with EZ Gas @ 90,000 BTU, Single pipe steam
    Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
    3PSI gauge
  • Paul Fredricks_3
    Paul Fredricks_3 Member Posts: 1,557
    no

    I skipped the Nova show for the Earth one about caves. I'll keep an eye out for the repeat of the bombing one.
  • LarryC
    LarryC Member Posts: 331
    German dam bombing

    Was that the one were the Btish used the spinning rolling barrel bomb to get it under the nets?  I was talking to a retired British engineer who worked for the guy who invented that along with some other off the wall war tricks.
  • LarryC
    LarryC Member Posts: 331
    edited January 2012
    duplicate

  • BobC
    BobC Member Posts: 5,502
    Spinning

    You should be able to watch the whole episode here - http://video.pbs.org/video/2184994583 almost 2 hrs long



    Watch it in full screen mode.



    BTW as we speak the Russian tanker is offloading fuel ashore to keep Nome warm.



    Bob
    Smith G8-3 with EZ Gas @ 90,000 BTU, Single pipe steam
    Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
    3PSI gauge
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