New York waterways duties

Captains,

I visited several hard working New York Coast Guard units last week. Aids to Navigation Team (ANT) New York is located in Bayonne, NJ at the Bayonne Cruise Port and Ocean Terminal. ANT New York is responsible for maintaining nearly 600 aids and lighthouses in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The ANT's workhorses are two 49' BUSLs (upper right picture).

ANT New York is also homeport for cutters Katherine Walker (upper left), Hawser (lower left) and Penobscot Bay (lower right). CGC Katherine Walker is a 175' WLM responsible for over 300 floating aids in the tri-state area. CGC Hawser is a 65' WYTL and CGC Penobscot Bay is a 140' WTGB. Both have been very busy breaking ice in the Hudson River area.

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40 ships icebound in the Baltic Sea

Captains,

Shipping goes on in the Baltic despite severe winter conditions. A fleet of Swedish icebreakers go to the rescue when vessels get stuck. US and Canada may have to develop this kind of capacity some day if trade routes and energy exploration move into the Arctic.

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(CNN) -- Thirty to 40 ships -- including several passenger ships -- were stuck Thursday in ice off the coast of Sweden, said a spokesman for the Maritime Search and Rescue Center in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The area of the Baltic Sea worst hit by the ice were the waters bounded by mainland Sweden, the Stockholm archipelago and the Finnish island of Aland, said Tommy Gardebring, press officer with the Swedish Maritime Administration.

The center identified one of the passenger ships as the Amorella, with 753 passengers and 190 crew members.

Ice jam on the St Claire River

When the going gets tough, the tough 140' CG icebreakers get going through the ice on the St. Claire River near Detroit.

DETROIT–The U.S. Coast Guard is assisting a commercial vessel, in the St. Clair River, which has been delayed due to an ice jam in the vicinity of Algonac, Mich., Monday.

Three other commercial vessels, which were beset in the ice on Sunday, have been relieved from the ice jam.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutters Neah Bay, homeported in Cleveland; Penobscot Bay, homeported in Bayonne, N.J.; Hollyhock, homported in Port Huron, Mich.; and Bristol Bay, homeported here, are working together to break the ice jam and allow vessels to transit the area.