Preparations & Precautions while Navigating in Ice:
- A large area of floating ice formed over a period of many years and consisting of pieces of ice-driven together by wind, current, etc. also called as ice-pack.
- Ice is an obstacle to any ship, even an ice-breaker, and the inexperienced navigation officer is advised to develop a healthy respect for the latent power and strength of ice in all its forms.
- However, it is quite possible, and continues to be proven so far well-found ships in capable hands to navigate successfully through ice-covered waters.
- The first principle of successful ice-navigation is to maintain freedom of man oeuvre.
- Once, a ship becomes trapped, the vessel goes where-ever the ice goes.
- Ice Navigation requires great patience and can be a tiring business with or without ice-breaker escort.
- Experience has proven that in ice of higher concentration, four basic ship-handling rules apply :
- Keep moving – even very slowly, but try to keep moving,
- Try to work with the ice-movement,
- Excessive speed almost always results in ice damage,
- Know your ship’s manoeuvring characteristics.
- Navigation in pack ice after dark should not be attempted without high-power search-lights which can be controlled easily from the bridge.
- In poor visibility, heave to and keep the propeller turning slowly as it is less susceptible to ice damage than if it were completely stopped.
- Propellers and rudders are the most vulnerable parts of the ship, ship’s should go astern in ice with extreme care – always with the rudder amid-ship.
- All forms of glacial ice / ice-bergs, bergy bits, growlers in the pack should be given a wide berth, as they are current driven whereas the pack is wind driven.
- When a ship navigating independently becomes beset, it usually requires ice-breaker assistance to free it. However, ships in ballast can sometimes free themselves by pumping and transferring ballast from side-to-side, and it may require very little change in trim or list to release the ship.
- Masters who are in-experienced in ice often find it useful to employ the services of an ice-pilot / advisor for transiting the Gulf of St. Lawrence in winter or an Ice-navigator for voyages into the Arctic in the summer.
