By Mary Drew at Pasty Central (Mdrew) on Thursday, April 9, 2015 - 11:11 am:
Today's first photo is not something you see every day on the shores of Lake Superior, snow skiing with three freighters in the background. Jim Solko snapped this shot of his wife, Brenda Leigh as they were skiing on what Brenda calls good "Copper Country crust", which is an expression for very hard, frozen snow. She said the ice out there on the Big Lake is still in good shape and is keeping everything completely iced in. The three freighters in the photos were at a standstill this past Saturday, awaiting help from the USCG Cutters.
Brenda snapped the two photos of the boats "stuck" in the ice and reported to me that in the Whitefish Bay area on Monday, there were 10 freighters stuck in the ice, with four cutters already there and a fifth one on the way to try to get these boats moving again.
In a report on Monday by Mark Gill, director of vessel traffic services for the US Coast Guard, he said that,
"Eight of the ships will continue further up Lake Superior, while two are planned to travel downbound and through the Soo Locks.
Gill likened Lake Superior to a bathtub, where Whitefish Bay would act as the drain where much of the loose ice flows. The last couple of days we've had a strong westerly wind, which acts like tipping the bathtub, so we have a clog.
It's problematic, but nowhere in comparison to what we were dealing with last year, he said.
The Coast Guard has asked shippers to delay initial voyages this season by a week, a request that most companies complied with, Gill said.
Gill anticipated the Coast Guard will cease icebreaking by April 30th."
Spring on the shores of Lake Superior, can be quite brutal!
