Once upon a time I dated a fellow that was not Teapot. His parents had a yacht of sorts and we spent many weekends out cruising around the shores of Newfoundland. Behind the yacht, we always towed a small Boston Whaler that would act as a life boat if ever we needed it. It would take us hither and yon when we were exploring small inlets and bays too, but mostly we used it for picking up scuba gear after the guys had done their dives from the back of the yacht. The yacht that we cruised on would often meet up with other yachters and champagne breakfasts were often exchanged in the course of the weekend... other cocktails were often part of the weekend too. We had a hired hand to drive the yacht when drinking was part of the day... he never drank when driving so all was safe. Of course drinking in such circumstances required the very novel ice from icebergs.
Now if you know anything about icebergs then you will know that most icebergs hide the majority of their ice below the surface which means that the constant washing of the sea water makes them very unstable indeed unless they are grounded which means that they are actually so far in shore that they are sitting on the bottom of the ocean. If they are floating then at any time they will flip over and show a different part of themselves as a new portion becomes subject to the constant battering of the waves. Icebergs really are something to be steered clear of because when they flip it is like the titanic sinking and creates a undertow and will pull anything close by, under the water and take it down to the bottom. They always made me nervous. I have seen towering cathedrals of ice flip over in an instant with a crash that reminded me of something out of the"Poseidon Adventure". If a whale can give a boat a pretty good knock... and believe me they can... then one of these towers of ice can wipe you off the face of this earth with an ease and simplicity that is unspeakable.
One summer we had been out yachting every weekend for ages and each time we went out we passed a small bay in which there was an iceberg grounded. Slowly it was rotting away as the tides did their thing and broke it down little by little. Final we passed it one weekend and it was as close to shore as something so colossal could get... it was finally grounded after weeks of sliding in and out of this small bay.
Yachters have a voracious need to try the most crazy stunts in an effort to outdo each other so that they can pat themselves on the back for coolness. (Which resembled stupidity in some instances!) The father of the fellow who I had been dating was relatively sane compared to some of the yachters out there.... but being a heavy social drinker, he felt that some iceberg ice for their drinks would be awesome. And so he importuned my knight in shining armour to take the Boston Whaler in the small cove where the iceberg lay against the shore to see if there were any small growlers that we could pick up and put in the cooler.
Growlers are small chunks of ice that break off when and iceberg is battered enough by the waves that it flips... as the berg flips these great chunks of ice crack off and float away from the main berg... some can be as small as a dinner plate and some can be as large as a Volkswagon.... but generally they are not dangerous. The problem is that a berg that has grounded will have very few... a berg that has not flipped in a while will also have very few. The best time to get ice is when a berg has just flipped and is relative stable for a while.
Our goal was to take the Boston Whaler into the cove in search of growlers that had broken off the main berg. Not a difficult task except there was a bit of a sea on... waves were not bad but the tide was certainly there. The yacht was too large to enter the cove safely but the Boston Whaler was just fine for the task. The young fella and myself climbed into the Boston Whaler with the hired hand and headed slowly into the cove. The first thing we noticed was that the tidal waves were funneling into the cove and of course if you are aware of wave theory (I love wave theory) regardless of the area a wave takes up it has the same energy and the energy has to displace the same amount of volume. This translates to... the smaller the space for the wave, the larger the wave. The waves were pretty damn big in the cove. One minute we were facing the sky and the next minute we were facing the depths below us. However, we persevered knowing that once in the cove the waves would abate somewhat as the cove widened out fairly well. Still it was harrowing for a few minutes.
We could see the berg ahead and so we headed around it carefully staying fairly far away from it. By this I mean thirty to thirty-five feet. We could not see any growlers as the berg had been there for weeks and so we headed around for a second try.
Another thing you need to know is that you never circle an iceberg more than once because this will create waves too and will often knock a berg over if it has not been knocked over for a while.... but we felt fairly confident that that this berg was not going anywhere since it was so close to shore and surely was grounded.
After the second go round, we gave up on finding any growlers and so decided to head back out of the cove to the yacht awaiting us. That's when we heard it. There was the great sound of a horn waling from the yacht... a warning signal to let us know that we were not in a safe situation. This we had already worked out.... from previous trips. The lad I was with turned and looked over his shoulder and there high above us was the berg in the process of flipping....
We knew we were safe from the flip because we were far enough away from it.... what we knew we weren't safe from was the undertow that would be left by the vacuum of the flip itself. He gunned the engine and headed for the neck of the cove, which wouldn't have been so bad if the waves of the tide had not energized in the narrow opening, but once again we found ourselves facing the sky one minute and then the dark depths below us, only this time at speeds which were definitely not safe.
Obviously we survived or I would not be writing about this now.... but it was harrowing and scary. The berg flipped creating a huge undertow.... and then a backwash of waves rather a bit like a Tsunami. We did go back in and get the growlers that we wanted but I have never forgotten the sight of that berg towering over us... it so large and awesome.... us so small and fragile.
And there you have it... the story of one of my many life and death experiences.... but it was a beautiful day indeed.
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| After the bugger flipped. |
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