Delivering Fuel To The Arctic – USCG’s Mission to Nome Complete

Coast Guard icebreaker Healy and tanker Renda have completed their mission to Nome, Alaska, after the safe delivery of an estimated one million gallons of diesel and 300,000 gallons of gasoline to the iced-in town.

Two hoses were used to complete the transfer of the much needed fuel across more than 500 yards of ice. Fuel transfer operations began Monday and continued until all the fuel was safely delivered to an on shore fuel tank storage facility.

“I grew up in a small town in Iowa, about half the size of Nome, and I know that it takes the community spirit and community cooperation to get a big job done,” said Capt. Beverly Havlik, commanding officer of Healy. “And working with all the partners that were involved in this mission to bring fuel to Nome – from the Native community, to the state agencies, to the federal agencies and then just a lot of interested volunteers – we got a big job done.”

The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Healy have broken the Renda free from the ice, where it was purposely frozen during the fuel transfer, and are now on their way back across more than 360 miles of sea ice to the open waters of the Bering Sea.  Click HERE to watch a time-lapse video of the Healy breaking the Renda free.

Safe travels for Healy and Renda’s crews as they head home and congratulations on a job well done!

If you missed Healy’s mission to Nome, check out Compass’ updates and rediscover their journey.

This post was originally written by LT Stephanie Young for CG Compass.

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