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Ice floes block waterway to Arctic Chukotka’s port Pevek, icebreaker Admiral Makarov leads ships through ice to port

The real winter with the frosts of minus 20 degrees Celsius set in at the port of Pevek
Photo ITAR-TASS/Yury Ilienko
Photo ITAR-TASS/Yury Ilienko

VLADIVOSTOK, November 1 (Itar-Tass) - The ice floes have blocked the waterway to the port of Pevek in Russia’s Chukotka, the icebreaker Admiral Makarov of the Far Eastern sea shipping company began leading the ships through the ice to this Arctic harbour on Friday. The icebreaker is leading a large motorship Vasily Burkhanov from the port of Pevek, meanwhile, five ocean-going vessels, which have brought different cargoes for Chukotka, are waiting for convoying to the port on the Northern Sea Route, the sea shipping company told Itar-Tass.

The real winter with the frosts of minus 20 degrees Celsius set in at the port of Pevek. The ice floes near the harbour are 35 centimetres thick, constant hummocking ice hampers the ships to sail. The navigation to the port Pevek used to end on October 25. But this year a large amount of cargoes for the ore mining industry in Chukotka from different countries arrived at the port. The motorships, which are pending unloading in Pevek, were trapped in strong storms and delayed on their way to the port. The icebreaker Admiral Makarov has the task to provide for the navigation in the eastern sector of the Arctic, including the convoying of the ships to the port Pevek.

The Admiral Makarov is one of the most powerful diesel-powered icebreakers in Russia. The icebreaker is 134 metres long, with a water displacement of more than 20,000 tonnes and the power capacity of 36,000 horsepowers. According to the captains, who worked onboard The Admiral Makarov, this ‘Arctic giant’ can sail through the ice two metres deep.