Toronto, Ontario — It can be frustrating when you order a book online and it arrives to you worn and dog-eared; it can also be frustrating when your car arrives to port completely encased in ice.
That was the scene in the eastern Russian port city of Vladivostok on Dec. 27 when the Sun Rio Ro-Ro cargo carrier pulled into town with a full load of car-cicles.
A crowd formed to watch the ship’s crane hoist ice-covered cars off the deck, many of which had an icy shell up to six inches thick.
While the -19C weather the ship arrived with is far from a tropical experience, ice forming on a ship is more specifically caused by humid sea wind combined with extreme low temperatures.
According to shipping union official Petr Osichanskiy, the ice was formed by sizable waves initiated by wicked winds.
Osichanskiy said December winds were “much stronger than usual” and “sailors aren’t used to it.”
Let’s hope the new owners of those cars have some pretty good scrapers.
