new US Coast Guard icebreaker cancels icebreaking training

[Magogman]

The new U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Mackinaw, which has yet to be commissioned and which will replace a much older icebreaker of the same name, has cancelled icebreaking trials due to a lack of ice on the Great Lakes.  The record warm winter in the upper midwest of the United States has left North America's Great Lakes virtually ice free except in early December when ice created some problems south of Detroit and in the Welland Canal.

Instead of icebreaking the crew of the Mackinaw will continue to familiarize themselves with the ship's handling, especially in high winds and docking, and later in the spring will train on handling buoys which is one of its duties.

Your reporter, who admittedly has a large soft spot for the older Mackinaw (and all Coast Guard ships!), finds a rather large touch of irony in that this new icebreaker is not able to practice what it was designed to do!  And with the Welland Canal and the St Lawrence Seaway closed for another month the Mackinaw does not have the opportunity to seek out signigicant ice in other latitudes.