Opening up the river
The Thunder Bay is making slow but steady progress as it opens up the Penobscot River. While photographing the operation today I got chatting with a retired Coast Guard Chief Engineer who spent 16 years on the Thunder Bay before retiring he 2007. He said the boat was designed to break open ice up to 20 inches thick without stopping, this was not to be the case today as the ice was about 30 inches thick. The operation today was to go as far as they could until the bow came out of the water, back up and hit it again. They went less than 1/2 miles in approximately 5 hours.
Opening up the river
The Thunder Bay is making slow but steady progress as it opens up the Penobscot River. While photographing the operation today I got chatting with a retired Coast Guard Chief Engineer who spent 16 years on the Thunder Bay before retiring he 2007. He said the boat was designed to break open ice up to 20 inches thick without stopping, this was not to be the case today as the ice was about 30 inches thick. The operation today was to go as far as they could until the bow came out of the water, back up and hit it again. They went less than 1/2 miles in approximately 5 hours.