Houston, We Have An Icebreaker!

Many folks that read this blog are Ice Folks, or at least interested in
Antarctica, so they were aware that the United States Antarctic Program
was in danger this year of not having a fully running operation. Why?
Because there wasn't a world class icebreaker available to break open
the channel of McMurdo Sound. This has to be done so that the fuel
vessel and supply vessel can reach McMurdo to deliver their payloads.
Without them, the program as a whole would be handicapped. This
would also affect New Zealand's Scott Base and the Amundsen-Scott
South Pole Station, which also receive supplies and fuel because of
these vessels.

Years ago, the USAP depended on the Polar Star and Polar Sea U.S. Coast
Guard icebreakers to do the job. However, the Polar Sea is being
decommissioned and the Polar Star is being retrofitted and is not
available for a few more years. The past few years, the Swedish vessel,
The Oden, did the job nicely. However, it's been called back to the
Baltic Sea by the Government of Sweden and isn't available either. This
left the USAP without an icebreaker.

Today, it was announced that the Russian icebreaker, "Vladimir Ignatyuk"
has been contracted and will be performing the task. Most folks with the
program are very relieved. Everyone that was supposed to have a job,
will have a job. All the science projects that were supposed to be held,
will continue and overall a big sigh of relief was had by all.


Here is information about the icebreaker from the Murmansk Shipping
Company, which owns and operates it:

Diesel Icebreaker "Vladimir Ignatyuk"

SHIP DETAILS:
Ship Name VLADIMIR IGNATYUK
Built JUL 1983
VICTORIA YARD, BURRARD YARRROWS CORPORATION, CANADA
IMO No. 8127804
Ship Type MULTIFUNCTIONAL ICEBREAKER-TOW
Flag RUSSIAN
Port of Registry MURMANSK
Class KMICEBREAKER7 [1]
Classification Society RUSSIAN MARITIME REGISTER OF SHIPPING
Ice class ICEBREAKER7 (at d < 7.7) Features ANCHOR HANDLING STANDBY-VESSEL FIRELIGHTING CAPACITY HELIDECK - BELL 214 DESIGN HELICOPTER BERTH TOTAL 34 TONNAGE / DIMENSIONS DWT 2 076 Length (OA) 88 GT (Gross Tonnage) 4 391 Length (BP) 75 NT (Net Tonnage) 1 317 Breadth extreme 17.82 DISPLACEMENT 7 077 Depth moulded 10 Draft 8.3

MACHINERY
MAIN ENGINE (4) Stork Werkspoor Diesel. 5600 hp each
RPM 600
PROPULSION POWER 23,200 hp
AUXILLARY DIESELS 2 x 750 KWT each
THRUSTERS BOW/AFT Abt 1100 KWT/CPP 500 HP
FRESH WATER MAKERS 15 tones/day
PROPELLERS 2 C.P.P 4 blades
BOLLARD PULL Over 200 tones
AUX POWER 2 shaft generators. 1000kw each
2-750 kw diesel generators

CAPACITIES
AT DECK DIMENSIONS 37m x 13m
DECK CARGO CAPACITY 800 tones
BULK BARITE/CEMENT CAPACITY 34 m3 x 3 = 102 m3
MARINE GAS OIL, DMA (90%) 1760 m3
BALLAST WATER 1432 m3
DRILL WATER 194 m3
PORTABLE FRESH WATER 41 m3
LUBOILS TANKS 48 m3

DECK EQUIPMENT
TUGGER/WINCH 2 x 10 tones pull
CAPSTAN 2 x 12.5 tones pull
TOWING AND WORK WINCHES Complete Van der Gessen Electric winch package. Tow winch has a no­mi­nal bra­ke holding ca­pa­ci­ty of 450 ton­nes and is equip­ped with fric­ti­on rol­ler­set. Tow wire is 77mm diame­ter and is 1500m long. Doub­le an­chor handl­ing winch can ge­ne­ra­te 200 ton­nes line pull (all stall). Unit has a wa­ter cooled high speed bra­ke.
DECK CRANES 2 x 5 tones SWL Hagglund (can be rigges for limited 10 tones lifts)

LIFE-SAVING
LIFE BOAT Enclosed Watercraft Model 7.8 m
RESCUE BOAT Rigid Bottom Inflatable Lucas Model 700 D

CONTACTS
If you need more information, please, Contact Chartering / Operations Department.
Tel.: +7 (815 2) 48-10-78
Fax: +7 (815 2) 48-10-65

SCHEME

Craaaack

The big news today is that the Ice Pier has cracked
in half. Not just a small crack that I have actually
stepped over before, but a huuuuge crack that you
actually have to jump over. Now it's two separate
pieces, one actually higher than the other. They're
trying to keep it together because now that the Oden
is gone, there's no way to either push it back together
or as a last resort, tow it out to sea so that a new
one can be built. This Pier is 10 years old and the
only one I've ever known to be there. I'm not sure
what they're going to do.

It's Offload Time

The M/V American Tern is anchored at the
Ice Pier again this year and has already
been relieved of much of it's cargo (notice
how high it's sitting in the water). We're
not supposed to get as much cargo this year
so that's not surprising. What is surprising
(at least to me) as how smoothly everything
nautical is going this season. The Oden made
it in on time and cut a clear path to McMurdo.
The Paul Buck steamed in, unloaded it's cargo
of fuel and as quickly as it arrived, it left.
Now the American Tern finds herself here and
everything is going like clockwork. In the
past, it always seemed like there was some
sort of issue slowing things down. One year
the ice was too thick so the tanker couldn't
make it in, causing all the fuel to be
transported for miles via hose. Another
year one or more icebreakers broke down, causing
all sorts of problems for the other boats.
Another year, a crane broke on the cargo vessel,
slowing down both the offload and onload process.
Here's knocking on wood that everything continues
to go smoothly.

More Open Water

It's ironic that during one of the coldest times
of the season, more and more ice in McMurdo Sound
and Winter Quarters Bay gives way and brings a sight
we don't see very often. Open Water. Granted,
it took the Oden Icebreaker to begin the process,
but over the last few days, more and more water
is visible. Over the past few seasons, very little
ice left McMurdo Sound. Although I doubt it will
happen this year, the Sound has been blown completely
free of ice. The last time this happened was over
a decade ago. McMurdo's site was actually chosen
many years ago because it was the farthest point
south on the continent where a sea-faring vessel
could anchor. That still holds true, and this
year's ships have had no problem getting to us.

Ships on the Way

Our department manager regularly keeps us up to
date regarding when the ships will be arriving in
the McMurdo area. There will be three ships here
this year:

USNS Paul Buck - Fuel Tanker
MV American Tern - Cargo Vessel
IB Oden - Icebreaker

The Oden is already here and we found out today
that the Paul Buck will be here on January 25th.
The American Tern will be here less than a week
after that. It is going to get very busy around
here very soon.

The Return of The Oden

Yay! It's back! Everyone's favorite icebreaker...
The Oden! It's been on the horizon for a few days,
slowly plowing through the ice and cutting a channel
from here to Cape Evans and now it's making large
circles where the Ice Runway once was. I got some
good views of it after work from the Carp Shop, high
above town.


While at work, I got this shot of it steaming right
past town. It looks close enough to touch...if you
didn't get electrocuted by all the wires running
through town!

The Oden's Back

A gaggle of Swedes wandering around McMurdo can mean
only one thing. The Icebreaker, Oden is back in town. It's
also the sure first sign that the summer season is coming
to an end. Just over a month left til everyone but the
winter crew is out of here. I haven't heard yet, but I'm
hoping that the Oden will be giving tours this year like
they did in the past. Not often you get to walk around a
world-class icebreaker.