USCGC Biscayne Bay

This is the US Coast Guard Cutter Biscayne Bay (WTGB-104) - leading the way for the sailing vessels during the Tall Ships Festival last week.

click on the cutter to enlarge

The ship in the photo is a Great Lakes workhorse.

A Bay-class Cutter - it is a 140 feet in length and equipped with twin Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines. These vessels are named after American Bays and are stationed mainly in the Northeast United States and Great Lakes. These are multi-mission craft tasked with maintaining navigational aides - buoys - search and rescue, law enforcement as well as keeping the shipping lanes open in winter.  They are ice-breaking tugs.  Equipped with a low-pressure-air hull lubrication or bubbler system that forces air and water between the hull and the ice the resulting reduction in resistance from the bubbler improves the ice busting capabilities of these boats.

Stationed in Saint Ignace, Michigan the Biscayne Bay is charged with keeping the shipping lanes open in the Straits of Mackinac and the St. Marys River. She ranges from the St. Clair/Detroit River system, Green Bay, Duluth, Minnesota, and all the way to Thunder Bay, Ontario. 

Tidbit:  Coast Guard ice breakers traditionally have red hulls.  White-hulled vessels perform maritime law enforcement and other safety-at-sea missions.  A black hull signifies a multi-mission vessel - or a multi-tasking working boat.

Cool video clip of the cutter in action...