Browsing: icebreakers

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, 42-years-old, Reaches Antarctica, but with Problems

The aging Cutter Polar Star, the Coast Guard’s only heavy icebreaker, just reached Antarctica, cutting through ice up to 31 feet deep, but it ran into some problems along the way. The 399-feet long, 42-year-old ship with a crew of 150, completed its mission, leading a support vessel with 400 containers to resupply McMurdo Station, the main U.S. logistics center in Antarctica. But the Polar Star developed a leak from the prop shaft, and it also experienced several electrical problems while in deep ice. The crew had to halt icebreaking operations to send a scuba diver in the water to repair…

Cruising Life
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Trump Budget Cuts $1.3 Billion from Coast Guard, Hurting Drug Interdiction and Arctic Exploration

Although the Trump Administration wants to increase spending for some parts of the military, the President’s new budget cuts $1.3 billion from the Coast Guard, which has already been suffering from previous cuts. The new cuts would particularly affect the Coast Guard’s efforts at drug interdiction and its presence in the Arctic. Admiral Paul Zukunft, the Coast Guard Commandant, said that last year the service had been very successful in drug interdiction, seizing more than 200 metric tons of cocaine, the most ever. But it also had to ignore 500 other “events” – signs of possible drug smuggling – because…

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Coast Guard Icebreakers Start Clearing the Great Lakes

So you think it’s cold where you are? Take a look at the ice beard on the crane on the Coast Guard Cutter Alder, above. And that’s before the 225-foot Alder and other Coast Guard vessels start their annual ice-breaking duties on the Great Lakes. They’re starting on northern Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, and then will move south (relatively speaking) as winter sets in. The Coast Guard urges recreational boaters to use caution in the area. See the story, and more  pictures, here: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2016/12/coast_guard_begins_ice_breakin.html