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Sunday, May 18, 2014

Another paddle day, more icebergs

Yesterday Clyde, Dean and Gary had an iceberg paddle in Bay Bulls in sunny conditions.  I had other things to tend to.  Before I get to today's iceberg paddle I want to direct you to Dean's post from yesterday.


Where the guys had a sunny day yesterday, today Dean, Gary and I had a foggy day paddle.  It was cool but not unpleasant as we prepared to put-in at Middle Cove.


I knew there was an iceberg in Torbay 5 kms away but there have been issues with the put-in at Torbay so we used Middle Cove.  We left for Torbay exploring along the way.


Dean checks out a small cave.


When we got into Torbay we spotted one large iceberg and several small icebergs commonly called "bergy bits".  This one was a bergy bit just at the right height to lean on.



This berg was considerably bigger.  The water was so clear I could see the volume of ice submerged under water.  An iceberg at the surface is only 10% of the mass.  90% of its mass is under water.


Another small bergy bit with two "towers" to frame Gary on the other side.



All the while we were checking out the smaller bits of floating ice we had our eye on the main berg in the cove.  This one also had two towers with a seaway between them.


The same iceberg from a different angle.  The blue hues were incredible even in the foggy conditions.  Running diagonally across the top is a band of darker blue ice.  It was a fissure in the parent glacier that filled with melt water and refroze.  There are more air bubbles trapped in the white ice making it white and hues of indigo blue.


We bade the icebergs of Torbay farewell and paddled north to Flatrock where another large berg was reported.  We couldn't see it in the fog and we weren't sure how much further it was so we took out for a break in Flatrock and ...


... retraced our steps back to Torbay ...


... still in the unrelenting fog.


We bypassed this berg on our way to Flatrock because we had bigger fish to fry.  Having missed out on the big one Dean and I stopped to have a look at our last iceberg of the day.  It was floating just off the rocks but really bouncing around.  It looked like it was getting ready to roll but after prolonged scoping I made my way past it wasting no time.


We finished our paddle back at Middle Cove having logged 22 kms.

It was foggy but it was pleasant.  We can't control the weather so we have to take advantage of the opportunity to visit icebergs while they are around.  A southerly wind will blow them beyond our kayak's reach so we went.  It was my third day in the company of icebergs.

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