Russkis blow through Northern Sea Route in record time
Christophe de Margerie broke up to 5-feet of ice on her way through the NSR, making an average of 14 knots, which is pretty good for an LNG vessel the size of an aircraft carrier.
Lloyds reports that a Sovcomflot icebreaking LNG carrier zipped 2,193 nautical miles through the passage along the Russian Arctic coast from Cape Zhelaniya of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago to Cape Dezhnev at Chukotka, Russia’s easternmost continental point in six days, 12 hours and 15 minutes without any escort icebreakers.
As such, the route is reportedly 30 percent faster for goods from Asia to Europe than the more traditional Suez route and trades Somali pirates and Yemeni missiles for polar bears and the possibility of being locked in the ice until you go mad.
The SCF-owned, Cyprus-flagged Christophe de Margerie is brand new and weighs in at 128,806 grt, with an overall length of 981-feet.
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.jsInteresting, but that photo does not make sense, I’m looking at the bow, and there is broken ice in front, but then I’m looking at the stern and there is solid ice behind.
What am I missing? other then hearing General Buck Turgidson yelling “We have an Ice Breaker Gap!”
Hmm, perhaps he ice pack just closed in the wake, or she reversed into the channel. It’s possible, if the stern is reinforced, to break in reverse, which could be what is shown. Here is a reference: http://newatlas.com/nuclear-icebreakers-double-acting-ships-azipods/20903/
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.jsYou got it, she breaks the ice in reverse, one of the drawings on newatlass you linked to has a rendering showing the ice going under the stern. Thanks