Forty ships stranded outside frozen St Petersburg, Finland issues warning

SAINT PETERSBURG (AFP) Jan 08, 2003

The bitter cold in Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg has left 40 ships stranded outside the city's frozen port, port chief Mikhail Sinelinkov said Wednesday.

Sinelnikov said a further 193 ships, including 87 foreign-registered vessels, were docked inside the frozen port.

A layer of ice nearly 80 centimeters (31 inches) thick is covering the waters, an amount not recorded since 1941.

The average thickness of the winter ice in the Gulf of Finland, the stretch of sea between Finland and Estonia which gives access to Saint Petersburg, varies between 30 and 50 centimeters, officials said.

Saint Petersburg port officials said they had despatched eight ice-breakers to the Gulf of Finland but had not yet been able to clear a safe passage for vessels wanting to enter and leave Saint Petersburg and all light ships would be banned from docking at the port from January 13.

The Finnish authorities meanwhile said the amount of ice covering the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland -- between 10 and 20 centimeters according to their figures -- was the thickest since 1979 and warned that the situation was likely to get worse.

Finland has dispatched seven ice-breakers to clear the country's territorial waters, the country's maritime administration said.

Two more ice-breakers were due to be despatched to Finnish waters later in the week, leaving Helsinki without the resources necesary to assist Russia and Estonia if they requested help.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2003

Answers

Officials said that without the lanes made by the ice-breakers, it would be possible for people to walk across the ice to Estonia and Sweden from Finland.

Ice roads have been created for the first time in 15 years to connect islands in Finland's southwestern archipelago to the mainland, enabling islanders to drive across the ice instead of taking ferries.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2003

I forgot about the ice roads. Now that's COLD!

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2003

uring Victorian times, the Thames was relatively frequently frozen enough that people could not only walk across but could also ride in carriages over it. Skating parties were held on the ice, complete with bonfires. That hasn't been true in my or my father's lifetimes, far as I know.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2003