âWe just pulled in last night. This has refrozen into this. We pulled in at about 5:00 or 6:00 yesterday, so it was a little over 12 hours where you already have it refrozen to this again,â said Lt. Jason Stanko.  Welcome aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Mobile Bay â a 140 foot ice cutter. Designed specifically for breaking through ice during winter on the Great Lakes â keeping the shipping industry moving.  âWe also have a fairly high horsepower to size of the ship ratio so that really lets us get into the ice more than most 140 foot boats would be able to do.â  We joined the crew of 22 men in Saint Ignace. Lieutenant Jason Stanko gave us a quick tour of the cutter and by quick, I mean there wasnât much to see.  The boat is built to crack ice â not for crew comfort, but has just about everything the crew could need when out on the big lakes.  âWe have to get creative with where we store stuff, thereâs not a lot of space so pretty much every nook and cranny you look in around here is gonna have food in it. These guys are sitting on food and beverages right now, we have fruit and chips and everything tucked in everywhere on the boat.â  Next stop â the bridge where the final preparations are made before shoving off.  âThe plan today is weâll head out to the west and meet up with the motor vessel Peter R Cresswell and the Coast Guard Cutter Biscayne Bay,â explained Commanding Officer Lt. Cdr. Cary Godwin. âAnd weâll meet up with them and escort the vessel to the east and take them through the Straits of Mackinac and safely into Lake Huron so they can continue on their way.â  The Coast Guard cutters are equipped with reinforced steel hulls, shaped to a point on the nose and use low pressure air, bubbling out of the hull to efficiently cut through the ice sheer.  The bridge has every piece of navigation equipment necessary to get us to our rendezvous point, but with every pass through the straits â the Coast Guard cutters widen their path.  âThe track lines are already set in the ice but they refreeze nightly, so between us and Biscayne Bay weâll get through the ice and break it up,â said Stanko.  The plan is to run up one side of the track lines getting to the escorted vessel and then come down the other side. Hopefully widening the path enough for the Cresswell to fit through.  This is a tough job for the crew members and the cutter itself, this boat is cutting through two to three feet of ice, constantly and for the members its like being inside a drying machine, the constant whir of the engine the shaking of the ice and they have to do this for up to two weeks in a row sometimes, the only time seeing land is when they stop for supplies.  âItâs long, itâs stressful, thereâs not a lot of places to hide to get your own private time, our racks are the size of coffins,â said crew member Timothy Owen. âItâs tough, but we all have a good camaraderie on board, it works out.â  Itâs a long steady ride through the ice. It takes almost two and a half hours for us to carve our way from Saint Ignace to our meeting spot with the Cresswell and the Cutter Biscayne Bay just northeast of Beaver Island.  The Cresswell is a 750 foot freighter heading from Milwaukee to the Canadian coast in Lake Huron.  Every ship on the Great Lakes in the winter is built to withstand ice which is more of an obstacle than a danger.  âWeâre not real worried about ice piercing the hull,â said Stanko. âIt can happen, but most of the vessels at this point of the year that are out here, do have ice capable hulls so the concern is more just their forward progress being halted.â  Slow and steady. Even with the path broken for the Cresswell, the freighter still gets stuck twice during our escort. But with a little extra horsepower and help from the Biscayne Bay she is free and on her way.  And just like that, slowly but steady, the ship is making its way through. This one is normally hauling salt, but itâs empty right now, going back to the Georgian Bay to reload, all thanks to the Coast Guard.  Owen says, âitâs cool to be able to help out the economy to keep these vessels moving, a lot of people up depend on those boats a lot with what they are carrying to make it through the winter.â
As the Great Lakes freeze, freight ships need the help of the U.S. Coast Guard Ice Cutters to navigate the frozen waterways.