The Renda and Healy are out of the ice. After more than a week of cutting through ice up to 4 feet thick, both the tanker Renda and the Coast Guard Icebreaker Healy crossed into open water around 1:00pm Sunday.
As of earlier today, the tanker was transiting on open water outside of Dutch Harbor. The Renda is now making for her home port of Vladivostok, while the Healy returns to Seattle.
The tanker was escorted to Nome by the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy to deliver 1.3 million gallons of fuel earlier this month. After the fuel delivery was completed and the ships began their transit south, the sea ice had grown more than 60 miles.
Ben Matheson is a contributor with the Alaska Public Radio Network.
Matthew Smith is a reporter at KNOM in Nome.
