BATH — A Coast Guard ice-breaking mission on Maine’s Kennebec River was the shortest in recent memory. That’s because the Coast Guard found no ice whatsoever on the 22-mile stretch from Bath to Gardiner.
The Coast Guard had three 65-foot ice-breakers for Monday’s mission, which was aimed at breaking ice from Merrymeeting Bay to Gardiner to reduce the risk of ice jams and flooding as snow and ice melt.
Chief Warrant Officer Bob Albert, ice mission manager, says the vessels chugged up the river Monday morning but found no ice. The mission was declared over at 11:30 a.m.
Blame the lack of ice on an unseasonably warm winter. There weren’t enough cold days to create river ice that’s normally thick enough to support ice-fishing shacks.
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