Delaware Canal News

The crews of the Coast Guard Cutters Capstan, Cleat and Chock are working this winter to break ice and maintain navigable waterways from the Delaware River, through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, down to Tangier Island, Virginia. The crew of the Baltimore-based Chock traveled to Tangier Island to break ice and aid residents by delivering groceries and medical supplies. While assisting Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads, another crew was needed to take over the Sector Baltimore ice-breaking mission. The crew of the Cleat left Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay to assist Baltimore during the Chocks’ deployment to Tangier Island. “As the Coast Guard, we’re pretty limited in our ice-breaking assets,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer A. J. Pulkkinen, the officer-in-charge of Cleat.

Newport, Rhode Island – Nv-Charts, a global supplier of charting products for mariners and cruising sailors, has now extended its coverage and produced new chart regions for Chesapeake Bay, just in time for the 2012 cruising and boating season. The coverage is divided into two regions, North and South. The North region includes Delaware Bay and the Chesapeake-Delaware canal, coverage from Cape May, N.J., to the Potomac River; and the Southern region continues down to Norfolk and the surrounding environs.

The U.S. Coast Guard is proposing to establish a security zone around escorted passenger vessels operating on waters of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, and adjacent waters of the Atlantic Ocean within 12 nautical miles of the entrance to Delaware Bay. Other vessels would be required to operate at minimum speed when within 500 yards of escorted passenger vessels and would be prohibited from coming within 100 yards of such vessels. Comments on the proposal should be submitted by 28 July 2004. 69 Fed. Reg. 36032 (HK Law)

For the fifth consecutive year, the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office and Hampton Roads Maritime Association are sponsoring a safety seminar for crewmembers on commercial tugs. This year's seminar will be held at the Coast Guard Integrated Support Command in Portsmouth, Virginia, on Thursday, May 30 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Recent major accidents involving towing vessels highlight the importance of this unique effort to prevent accidents. The Seminar includes lessons learned from significant accidents. The agenda is modified each year to address new or developing trends. This year's seminar includes a session on navigation in reduced visibility as a result of two collisions last year that occurred in fog.

Coast Guard Cutters are busy all over the Northern Chesapeake and Delaware Bay areas breaking through the ice that Jack Frost left behind on the area waterways. Large patches of ice at least one to two inches have been reported as far south as the area around Tangier Island, Md., in the Chesapeake Bay. Several tributaries to the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay are frozen over with ice as well. One of the tributaries to the Chesapeake Bay that is being heavily monitored is the Wicomico River that leads to Salisbury, Md., which was last reported to be 10 percent covered with a one-inch thick sheet of ice. Salisbury is a leading supplier of home heating oil to the Del Marva Peninsula. The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal is completely covered with four to six inches of ice.

The Coast Guard, along with state and local rescue teams, is searching for survivors after an apparent collision involving three vessels that occurred in the Elk River, off the Chesapeake Bay in northern Maryland, early this morning. The vessels A/V Kastner, Buchanan 14, and Swift, were involved in an apparent collision on Monday morning. The tugboat Swift apparently sank while the A/V Kastner and tug Buchanan reportedly went aground. Rescue crews transported two injured crewmembers to Union Hospital in Cecil County, Md., and one injured crewmember was flown to the Shock and Trauma Center in Baltimore. The extent of the injuries is unknown. Two others apparently made it to shore in good condition.