Icebreaker Botnica freeing cargo ships in Gulf of Riga for 1st time
Estonia's most powerful icebreaker, Botnica, is operating in the Gulf of Finland for the first time as exceptionally low water levels and ice conditions have trapped cargo ships.
Botnica usually operates in the Gulf of Finland and made the journey to the Gulf of Riga for the first time to ensure ferry traffic to Estonia's largest islands at the weekend.
It also assisted dozens of cargo ships stuck in the ice.
Captain Andres Saar told Monday's "Aktuaalne kaamera": "One evening we looked and there were 36 ships here, of which four were moving and one of them was us. We directly serviced ships heading to Pärnu in accordance with work orders from the Transport Administration. According to maritime practice and good seamanship, you pass close by and they try to follow in your track. At one point, we had eight of them here."
The captain described this year's ice conditions as among the most difficult in Botnica's more than 10-year history in Estonian waters.
"In the Gulf of Riga there are very strong ice conditions and there has been heavy drift, and the problem is the layers. In places, it has piled up three or four layers on top of each other, creating something like a ridge, and if you try to pass through it, you get stuck. It is not possible at all for a cargo ship to get through there, and in places where it has piled up into three layers, there is well over a meter of ice," Saar said.
On Monday, the Marinetraffic map showed at least a dozen ships stationary or drifting in the Gulf of Riga. Latvia's icebreaker Varma was heading to assist them, and Botnica was also on its way to help.
"In some places, the ships get stuck. If you look and see, for example, a speed of 0.6, that 0.6 is not the ship's speed – that is the speed of the ice drifting there. One evening, it was very clear that all of them were moving at 0.6, but in reality, the ships were stationary and trapped in the ice," Saar said.
Worse and more complicated times may still lie ahead.
"The most difficult period will actually come when the ice starts to melt and it gets warmer and the ice begins to move more. That will pack ships in much more tightly than it does now," Saar explained.
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Editor: Helen Wright, Johanna Alvin
Source: Aktuaalne kaamera
