This is a nice game, and I like history allot, so it's nice to know another piece of it.
Can you imagine the nerve racking hell of doing this in real life, knowing that you could lose your life horribly at any moment from even one small mistake, or just fate, and never see your family or friends again?
They wouldn't even be able to find your body!
But of course if you don't, who will, and people will starve to death, (a much more drawn out death than falling through the ice and drowning) if you don't take this risk, the life of 1 for the life of many...
When I understood that 0 degrees is west in this game, it all got easier.
See, you are already facing west at the start, but the game makes it look like your facing north, so just drive forward.
You start at 75X, 0Y, the middle of the road, so if you turn west, actually now south, than you will go to the left side of the road and crack threw the thin ice there, because you will decrease your X past 25.
I wish the degrees were accurate, I honestly think the conversion makes it less intuitive, not more so.
Some tips.
Even at 15MS, you can easily reach the edges of the ice quite quickly, so turn as little as possible when avoiding the holes, and move back that way as soon as you can when you pass them.
So watch your coordinates closely when turning, and listen for the buzz sound that tells you your going straight again, holding shift will avoid turning too far to the right or left, but remember to release the arrow before releasing shift.
Also, remember that speeding up takes quite a long time, because every time you switch gears you lose some speed and then have to regain it, so if their is a stretch of ice ahead where you must go faster, than start speeding up well ahead of it.
You will not break through the ice by going too fast, only too slow. It will just be harder to avoid the holes do to having less time to react.
Someone asked how to check how many meters you've gone. Just press C, and the second number is that.
Press Q to find out the next dangerous stretch faster, but keep in mind that you must select one with tab and shift tab before hand.
Also, the islands might be confusing to some people who aren't as familiar with coordinates, I admit I first thought it was a typo in the readme when it said 125 to 1125 X.
So basically, they are both on the right side of the road, where the ice is usually thin, 125X, and the first one starts at 9800Y and ends at 10200Y, while the second one starts at 17800Y and ends at 18200Y.
It's easier to think of them like peninsulas or sand bars than islands, as they are long, thin strips that extend to the right aways.
To get to them safely, what you wana do is (right when you reach the start coordinates of one) turn quickly right while holding down shift until you hear the buzz sound, and make sure your facing 90 degrees, then slow down by changing gears downward (with Z) as fast as the truck will let you.
I would try to stop at at least 500X if possible though, to make it easier to get back out again.
exiting one is trickier; you wana start up your truck, and while remaining in first gear, turn left while holding down shift again, to around 300 degrees.
Once you've done that you should start speeding up to 15MS and checking your coordinates with C, until you get up to about 10100Y, or 18100Y, depending on which island your on, at which point you should quickly turn left to 270 degrees while holding shift.
Check your coordinates often, until you reach 125X (no sooner!) and immediately turn right to 0X while holding shift.
Good luck, and I'll edit this post if I figure out anything else or find better ways to do stuff.