Got ice?

 Let me say this in the beginning, we were in no danger. Thank goodness these kinds of days are few and far between! We can now add IceBreaker to our resume. The dock was still frozen with thick ice this morning when we left Norfolk at 7am. The going was slow, we went under 5 bridges before we ever got out of the big harbor.  When we arrived at the I-65 Bridge, we started getting some ice on the water. At first it was a new adventure and then really fast, it became an issue. We called ahead to the lock we needed to get through, to make sure we would make it in time for the 8:30 passage through.  The lock operator informed us that there was some pretty thick ice and did we want to go through anyway?  We didn’t think it would be a problem so we we continued on.  The lock dropped us down about 30”, it was a super easy lock to maneuver.  As we slowly motored out of the lock, the ice became much thicker. David backed the engine speed down to idle.  Our normal idle speed is 3 knots, 600 rpm’s, but our forward motion was between 1/3 and 1/2 knots since we were breaking through 1”  to 1 1/2” of ice. Yes, I said, 1”  to 1 1/2” of ice. It took us 3 1/2 hours to go 1mile. It was finally decided there was no end in sight of the ice layer so we turned around and went back to a marina that we had passed 1 mile back (and 3 1/2 hours earlier, ha) to make sure we could tie up for the night.  Hopefully, the ice will melt and our path we carved out will not refreeze.  The noises in the master stateroom of the ice breaking were horrendous.  Make sure you turn you volume up for that video.  But at least for tonight, we will have power and maybe even get to top off our fresh water tank. We are not anxious to see what kind, if any, but probably, damage to the hull. We sure crammed a lot of adventure into this morning. Lots of ice pics to follow.

Sunrise on the Destroyer.

Sunrise.

Going under the first bridge.
Frozen lines and stiff power cords we brought inside to thaw. Can you see the line sticking up in the air?

Seagull sitting on the ice.

Breaking ice.

Hard to see the thickness of the ice.

My poor hull and brand new bottom paint.
Thinner ice.

Sunrise.

Swath of water we cut through the ice.


The glare from sunrise made it hard to see to navigate.

Really thick ice.

The swath again, thicker ice.

Sunrise reflection on a Destroyer.
Breaking ice noise.  Turn your sound up.

Oh yeah, it’s cold too.

We disrupted sooo many birds on the water


Bridge lift.

Ice games.

Make sure your sound is on. Ice noise from our stateroom.


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