Saturday, February 27, 2010

The world must be flat

Now about 40 miles up the hill and the weather is getting better rather than worse (at times like this we don't ask why), it is midnight, and trying to see ice in the dark is next to impossible. The range of our boat's light is maybe a quarter mile and it is not unheard of for the "mother of all ice flows" to be a half mile off the side. Through the night we did encounter a few small flows, quarter mile wide by miles long, consisting mostly of "bergs" ranging from refrigerator size to VW bus size, but not large enough to move pots. Bouys can get tangled in larger chunks and drug across the bottom. We have had gear moved 10 miles in years past.



We continued our search north of the gear to access the ice and it's movement, and about daybreak, sure enough, there was a massive flow about five miles west of our gear. This patch of ice appeared to be of much larger chunks, the size of box cars or bigger, and stretching as far as the eye could see! Probably more than a couple miles wide.



We pulled into "the beast" and just sat a spell, trying to determine the speed and direction of it's movement (west at about one knot). Capt Keith thought it would be safe to set, providing the ice didn't turn around. We splashed the 100 pots we had on deck and it was "off to the races"! Hauling a steady 350 - 400 per pot for six days we were able to fill our tanks in a week.



The big storm never did show up and the weather for the entire trip was absolutely beautiful, I'm talking FLAT, not even a ripple on the water. Another trip to remember, flat calm while stacking the load on and a smooth ride toward home.



Capt Monte "Wizard Mouse"

3 comments:

  1. Awesome news!! I'm glad that the weather cooperated, you avoided the "beast" and you all are safe. Hope ya make it home in record time. Can't wait to see ya'll again. Come join us in chat when ya can...Tuesdays 9pm EST. Love and ((((BIG HUGS)))) to all!
    Kim (otter)

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  2. Wonderful! Glad you had "smooth sailing"...
    It's hard to conceive just how massive that ice pack can be via the tv.
    Heard you all arrived home safe and sound...good news all around.

    Take care,

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