'Parked' in Antarctic Sea Ice

The Marina Svetaeva "parked" in fast sea ice, East Antarctica, viewed from a helicopter. The ship was able to make its way through the pack ice behind it, but was stopped when it (intentionally) sailed into the edge of the fast sea ice in the foreground. The ice was about 2 metres thick and passengers were able to walk around safely on it. Later the ship was able to reverse out.

The current difficulties with ships in Antarctic sea ice appear to have been caused by easterly winds forcing pack ice tightly against grounded icebergs - this results in "pressure ice" and removes the gaps in the sea ice needed to be able to push the floes aside to enable progress.

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