Fuel-bearing ship just 6 miles from Nome

Fuel-bearing ship just 6 miles from Nome

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A Russian tanker hauling much-needed fuel across the ice-choked Bering Sea to the Alaska city of Nome was just six miles from its destination this morning.

The vessel reached the area late Thursday night but was waiting until daylight before advancing farther, U.S. Coast Guard official Adam De Rocher said.

Daylight doesn’t come to that part of Alaska until 11:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. PST).

The 370-foot tanker carrying more than 1.3 million gallons of fuel was shepherded through hundreds of miles of sea ice by a Coast Guard icebreaker.

Crews are waiting for light because it will be safer going through the ice and they will have a better idea of where to anchor to start unloading fuel.

The city of about 3,500 people on the western Alaska coastline normally gets fuel by barge. But it didn’t get its last pre-winter fuel delivery because of a massive storm and it could run out of crucial supplies before spring.

Officials of the Sitnasuak Native Corp, one of the companies undertaking the delivery, have said they settled on the Russian tanker delivery plan after determining it would be much less expensive and more practical than flying fuel into Nome. The vessel, which is certified to travel through ice 4-feet thick for long distances, normally delivers fuel to communities in the Russian Far East.