Ice floes float in Baffin Bay above the Arctic circle from the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent on July 10, 2008. Sea ice has been shrinking at an average rate of about 5 per cent each decade.Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press
About 40 passengers who spent more than two days on a ferry that was stuck in seven metre thick ice off Cape Breton have made it to port.
Marine Atlantic spokesman Darrell Mercer says the MV Blue Puttees docked in North Sydney, N.S., Friday around 7:30 p.m.
The Blue Puttees left Port aux Basques, N.L., with the MV Highlanders on Wednesday.
Mercer says the passengers were very understanding of the situation after seeing first hand the difficulties that a coast guard icebreaker had trying to free the ferry this week.
He says the Blue Puttees left North Sydney Saturday morning for Port aux Basques.
Mercer says ice conditions improved overnight Friday because the winds changed direction, but he warned that winds were expected to change back to easterly later Saturday as a low pressure system approaches Atlantic Canada and that may cause delays.