After several days of being stranded in an icy trap, the Chinese icebreaker, Xuelong, finally managed to free itself.
Thanks to the improved weather conditions, the icebreaker was able to maneuver to open water. The Xinhua News Agency has reported that the sea vessel was able to break through heavy ice at around 6 p.m. last Tuesday, Jan. 7.
For about five days, the Chinese icebreaker has been stranded in heavy ice floes since last week. The China Central Television officially reported the successful escape of Xuelong Tuesday this week.
The sea vessel was conducting the 30th Antarctic expedition of China when it had to divert its course to rescue the passengers and crew of the Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy. The passengers and crew of the Russian vessel were successfully rescued and transferred to an Australian ship. However, in a twist of irony or perhaps just plain misfortune, the Chinese ship was also stranded.
Akademik Shokalskiy's 52 crew and passengers were transferred to an Australian ship Thursday last week using a helicopter onboard Xuelong. The Russian ship had been stuck in ice for more than 10 days. It also tried to maneuver out of the icy trap as the weather conditions improved.
Xuelong was stranded for five days because it was trapped in ice floes with thickness of approximately four meters, which are beyond the capability of the ship to break. The Chinese sea vessel is only capable of breaking ice floes that have a maximum thickness of 1.1 meters.
Based on the report of Qu Tanzhou, the director of the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, which is under the State Oceanic Administration, Xuelong started to breakout from the ice floes Tuesday morning this week. The westerly wind flow has loosened the ice floes, creating a favorable condition for sailing to open water or at least to areas with thinner ice.