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Parry Sound-Based Ice Breaker Completes Arctic resupply mission

Normally calling Parry Sound home, the Coast Guard ship Samuel Risley has put on some big miles this summer.

The icebreaker was tasked as a support vessel in a resupply mission to the US Air Force base in Thule, Greenland.

Transiting through the upper great lakes and the St. Lawrence, the 22-person crew (9 officers 13 crew) traveled 5,100 nautical miles (8,200 km) to 1,200 km north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland before arriving in Nunavut on August 5th.

Participating in what was officially known as Operation Pacer Goose, the icebreaker escorted commercial resupply ships to the remote US airbase.

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For Captain John Cork it has been a big change from plying the freshwater Great Lakes to sailing in the Arctic.

“We saw thousands of icebergs big and small, whales, seals and other wildlife that we wouldn’t normally get to see,” said Cork. “The landscape of Greenland is truly spectacular with many active glaciers.”

A crew change was made in Iqaluit earlier this week and the Samuel Risley will remain on station in the Eastern Arctic for search and rescue, community visits and tending buoys in Hudson Bay.

The 69-metre long vessel is on its first deployment to the Arctic.

 

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