Ice vs New York Harbor

We've gotten through the worst of it, but In the past few weeks, you may have noticed, we've experienced quite a bit of ice. Not all boats and ice work well  together, unless you're an icebreaker of course. New York Harbor is filled with passenger vessels, from dinner cruise boats, tour boats, and ferries. Ferries like the New York Waterways boats and the East River Ferries, even the New York Watertaxi boats. All ferries aren't massive like the Staten Island Ferry. 

All these boats have a service to offer to the public, as part of New York's expanded maritime transportation system, but some of these services can't be met with these icy conditions. Watertaxi had to suspend their services for a day because they were completely iced into their own homeport, according to Capt. Luis Melendez . Other small ferries aren't able to keep up with these icy conditions. The ice floes in the Hudson are too much for the boats. They cannot break these thick sheets or ice nor can they go around them. There's just been so much ice around!

In conditions like these, advanced technology isn't always an advantage.  The Waterways fleet uses jets instead of propellers. This is a disadvantage in the ice. The strainers that suck in and then shoot out water get clogged with floating ice-- where a traditional propeller would just bat the ice aside.