With temperatures already dipping into the teens, ice season is officially underway in Northwestern Alaska. For the Port of Nome, that means a hard stop to boat activity before the sea freezes over. But for harbormaster Lucas Stotts, there’s still much to be done before winter.
“We have to move our floating docks out of the water for the season, make our annual repairs. We have to blow out all of our water lines to get all the moisture so they don’t crack and freeze and crack over the winter. We have all our vessels, large and small preparing to come out for the season or they will have to travel south,” he said Friday.
Coordinating the removal of vessels is often the most challenging task, said Stotts. Especially as waters fluctuate between freeze and thaw throughout the early fall.
“It’s always a concern of ours: folks freezing in the water, and then us having to remove them from the water or assist in that,” he said. “So we encourage folks to get out of the water sooner than later, before the ice forms.”
Stotts said it’s rare that a vessel actually becomes trapped in the ice–but it has happened in the past. And the port’s Tariff has been modified in recent years to hold owners financially accountable when a boat needs to be cut from the ice.
But for the most part, Stotts expects this season to close without incident. The floating docks that accommodate dredges in the summer are already out of the water, and wall fenders will be removed over the weekend.
After that, it’s just a matter of settling debts and cleaning debris while the last vessels make their way onto dry land. And while there’s no official deadline to get out of the water–Stotts expects the city to pull its vessels by the end of this week.
