Sailchaser and I ventured up along the St. Clair River to check out the ice jam. What ro we see in the river, but the CCGS Griffon breaking ice! It was pretty incredible watching her in action! Here are a few pictures we took:

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Thanks for the pics, Kat!!
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The pics look real smoky. :-) :-)

Thanks for the pics.
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Great shots... lots of respect for Old Sailor and the rest of the crew. :-)
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This picture shows how close to shore she was. It was snowing pretty hard.

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Very cool! Thanks for the pics!!
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Awesome Kat! Thanks for sharing. I think I saw Dave in one of the little windows!
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It looks foggy out there, was Dave smoking that many cigars? :-)
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Looks like the weather is rough and the Old Sailor is getting old.

He used to get a rope, walk out on the ice and pull the ship through.....





......or at least that's what he said he used to do.:-)
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Here is a few shots from the Anchor Bay and yes those are cars ,motor cycles, ice shanty's(used to keep you out of the wind during lighting of your cigar), snowmobiles,ice boats and even air planes on ski's
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The ice is about 1-3 feet thick and is called Brash Ice
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I talked with the USCG cutter Bristol Bay and she is head up at 1400 to help out the CCG out and relive the Back up. The ice dropped in the canal last night 14 inches and it sounds like a cannon going off.
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What does "ice dropped in the canal" mean?

I'm curious.
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Great pictures, thanks Kat!


:-)


Chris.....
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Great Pics brother, being land locked, we never get to see anything that cool here.
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Great pics...thanks for sharing Kat. :-)
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Thanks for the cool pic Kat. :-)
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did OS Dave at least wave to ya from the deck?
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We waved....we'll see if he saw us. :-)
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Awesome pics Kat. :-) Major props to OS and the crews of those ships.
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It happens when the water below the ice goes down. In our case the water is going out of the lake down the Detroit river into Lake Erie. The water is currently being blocked at the 3 main Chanel's that feed the lake Saint Clair from the north that comes down the St. Clair river from Lake Huron.the ice is actually blocking the downstream water flow like a giant dam of ice.The whole sheet of ice in the canal which is 55 feet across actually drops all at once in our case today dropped once 7 inches the it dropped another 6 inches.It also forms pressure ridges that can get to be 8-15 feet thick and that happens when the wind blows the ice in one direction and the ice literally pile up on its self.
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Awesome thread! Great pics you two.
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