China's first domestically made polar icebreaker Xuelong 2 has successfully sailed through its first floating ice area in the Southern Ocean, which it entered on Friday during its maiden voyage for the country's 36th Antarctic expedition.
The Chinese icebreaker, also called Snow Dragon 2, crossed the westerlies a few days ago and jointly sailed with its partner, Xuelong 1, for several days.
The ship has been sailing steadily along the outer parts of the region due to proper decisions from the crew members.
To avoid floating ice, Xuelong 2 has been sailing towards the west along the 65th parallel south around the outer parts of the Antarctic circle.
"We have been sailing towards west around the outer parts of the floating ice region. If we meet a large area of floating ice, we might divert to the north. Xuelong is in front of us. They have already diverted to the north to avoid the floating ice area in the front," said Guo'an Boyu, a weather forecaster from China's National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center.
The reasons for such decision was taken as a result of the potential dangers, such as low visibility, icebergs and floating ice in the region.
"Every ocean area has its unique features. The westerlies have strong wind and waves. After we pass the westerlies and enter the Southern Ocean, first we need to consider the poor visibility here and also floating ice and icebergs. So it is rather risky to sail in such a situation, especially considering that some icebergs are mixed with floating ice, but common radar has limited capacity to distinguish between them," said Zhao Yanping, captain of Xuelong 2.
The fact that the Xuelong 2 is equipped with advanced ice radar and an omni-directional sonar system to identify iceberg and floating ice has also facilitate the successful crossing.
The vessel is expected to sail into the floating ice area north of Prydz Bay by Nov 19. It will then take a proper route according to the latest ice map to sail south towards China's Zhongshan research station.
Source:cctvplus
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Xinde Marine News.
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