On the news for yesterday February 10 there were a lot of untruths spoken by Mr Peace when it comes to icebreaking on the Great Lakes.
Most of the delays Mr Peace talks about were caused by the CG's unwillingness to work at night. Some were caused by breakdowns, but not because of the age of cutters. The !40's were just all in shipyards for months to be rebuilt as part of their SLEP Program in last 5 years. I would argue that the CG has a management problem not an asset problem. With such a short Icebreaking season in recent years and to have 6 of 9 breakers down during that time, something is not right.
And tugboats like the Manitou, Erica Kobasic, and Jimmy L are able to break ice in the Federal channels and escort ships. We have with Manitou escorted thousand footers through foot thick ice in Straits of Mackinac, countless other vessels all over the Great Lakes and connecting channels. And we have also had to break out numerous vessels when the CG gave up on them.
The Alpena did not struggle with ice in Straits and had a pretty normal passage. In fact her one last trip for the season had very little delay. And what there was was waiting for CG assets to time with daylight only operations.
The only truth I can find in Mr Peace's article is that the icebreaking season got a late start this year because of warm temp's this fall.