Ice lines Islesboro ferry route
Worst icing since 1995, says skipperThursday, February 20, 2003
By DAVID GRIMA - ISLESBORO - The last time Capt. Rod Johnston of the state ferry service remembers ice all the way between LincoInville and Islesboro was in 1995.

Seamen Peter Stearns, left, and Pat Hanley bid farewell to a passenger stepping ashore at the mainland.

Then, last Thursday night, the ice began to close in again and the ferry Johnston has operated for 10 years, Margaret Chase Smith, found itself breaking ice both ways all day long on Saturday.

No sooner had the ferry's 160-foot hull plowed through, than the ice would begin to form again in its wake, the skipper said. Broken ice scraped red paint off the lower hull, and it looked as though the ferry was trailing blood across the bay. It was so cold the crew had to shut down the ferry's salt-water flushed toilets, because they no longer worked.

When the ferry was built in Florida in 1987, its bow was rein-forced with ice-breaking in mind. But Johnston said he still had to go easy through the ice because cooling pipes from the vessel's twin 600-horsepower diesels are mounted outside the hull and are susceptible to damage.

Island cut off
Seven Hundred Acre Island was completely cut off by the ice at first. At one point, the owner of Dark Harbor Boatyard, John Gorham, asked if Johnston would take the ferry and try to break through. But by the time the ferry skipper had called his head office to get permission, he said, Gorham had decided to postpone his business operations until the ice broke.

Five inches thick in most places across the bay, the ice lasted until Monday. Before going completely, the ice receded to about two miles, from Lincolnville Beach, leaving the final mile to Islesboro clear. By Tuesday, a 37-knot wind from the northeast broke it all up, pushing the remaining ice into small pockets along the Islesboro shore, but leaving the bay open all the way to Lincolnville.

Yet despite the need for caution, and the inconvenience of non-functioning toilets, this was by no means the foulest weather Johnston has seen on the three-mile run.

Ice cakes float at the Lincolnville Beach ferry terminal, the remnants of a sheet the covered the three miles out to Islesboro last weekend.

He said about the worst he remembers occurred at Christmas three years ago. The ferry was on an emergency run, taking the Islesboro ambulance to Lincoltiville Beach.

Under normal circumstances, the ferry waits in the Lincoinville terminal's pen until the ambulance returns. But this particular night the weather was so bad, with 45-knots winds from the southwest, that staying in the pen was impossible. Instead Johnston had to take the vessel out into the bay and wait there.

The strongest wind he ever recalls was a gust from the northwest of 80 knots last year, and there have been many 50-knot blows. But the crew takes them all in their stride.

Johnston said his whole family has been involved with boats. He served 13 years around the world on oil tankers, and he recalls some nasty weather in the Gulf of Alaska. He was a seaman with the state ferries for a few years until the Islesboro captaincy opened up.

Seaman Pat Hanley's maritime career began when he was a youngster, first working on small tour boats, then in the merchant marine aboard tankers and container ships for 14 years. He has been with the ferry service three years.

This photo was taken Feb. 15 by the crew of the ferry Margaret Chase Smith, showing complete ice coverage from Islesboro to Lincolnville.

Seaman Peter Steams said he met a sailor at a party when he was younger, and the sailor asked if he was any good with math. Steams said he was, and the sailor said "Boy, have I got a job for you."

Shortly thereafter, Steams wound up on a supply boat working in the Gulf of Mexico in the Louisiana oil fields. That job lasted only three weeks, and he later went aboard government vessels with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. He has been with the state ferries almost 11 years.

The remainder of the crew aboard Tuesday consists of engineer Bob St. Ours and seaman Frank Holt.

Tuesday's weather was no worse than wind and intermittent sleet, and reduced visibility. They say spring is just around the corner, and before we know where we are, the ferries will be filled with tourists again.

It is all part of the work of a Maine state ferry crew.
"This content originally appeared as a copyrighted article in the Thursday, February 20, 2003 edition of the THE CAMDEN HERALD and is used here with permission."