The Winter Trip on the Pacific Endeavour in Russia

Ice Breaking - Part Two

Loose Ice From Plate Contact
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2007

By Ieuan Dolby

Conversational snippets and Russian mentality apart it is time to write about ice once again, it is after all something that I have never encountered before and is also the reason behind these high-tech boats being here in the first place.

I will at this point confirm that the statements made in the first 'ice' article remain true; the ice is typically white, boring and very flat. It remains as one large field, undisturbed apart form the lone seal who upon seeing what all the orange noise is about (and before I can get it in my camera sights) disappears into his ice hole! The breaking of the ice still causes sleepless nights for all onboard, sometimes I find myself drifting off to sleep and then scraping myself off the deck head above as some ultra thick lump of ice causes the vessel to bounce like trampoline on speed, at other times I just don't sleep at all as the cracking and banging drives all insane!

View at the edge of the ice fields
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2007

I am though getting used to it and maybe even liking it, partially a result of my serious attempts to obtain a good quality photograph of the stuff. Those that I have taken to-date could quite well pass as blank pages in a book! A non-initiated person looking at them would see nothing except an endless white expanse with a possible slight disturbance as the ice meets the sky! It is though looking as if I might get something more spectacular as time goes on!

Ice Being Broken up by the Bow
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2007

So far, and in layman's terms, there have been three major types of ice that we pass or have to break through! There is the pancake ice, typically round pan-caked shaped floating layers that stick to each other to produce a fully sea-covered and interwoven layer. This ice is generally not very thick and is easy to move through! Then there is the large white expanse that just stretches flatly over the horizon, a spirit level placed anywhere on this dessert would always show true! Here the thickness of the ice can be deceptive, the only real indication occurring when the bow of the vessel breaks the ice into pieces and a visual sighting can be obtained on some of the pieces that turn onto their sides. Sometimes ridges crop up, raised areas where large fields of ice have impacted against each other as currents and tides try to manipulate the coverings and here the vessel stutters and larger forces are required to break free.

Both of the above types of ice do not stir me to run for my camera any longer!

Recently we have encountered more interesting ice fields! It is hard to describe them without sounding like Neil Armstrong's report when he first stepped foot on the moon, so just imagine Britain suddenly being covered in ice and everybody has to start making igloos, but are rather inept in this skill so the results keep on falling down! For miles in all directions irregular sized blocks of ice are piled up high on large floating pancakes, not the ones of before but extremely thick (too much dough) and large ones that reduce the speed of the vessel immediately upon impact! This ice is picturesque; a run down to the main deck with the camera is my favorite occupation during such sightings! At main deck level I am no longer required to look down on a blank page, the ice scrapes along the hull like ten thousand children scratching cars with nails, I look up to the ice and should I so wish I could reach out and touch some lumps as they whiz past. Here the photographs become more interesting, from the right angle I might possible convince some person back home that we were passing an ice-berg, at least there is more to the page than just white emptiness!

Certainly, if I was to be cast adrift on an ice flow I would prefer the last type; at least I would have something to look at and if all else failed the means to start to an igloo to keep warm!

It is hard to get photographs though! Last week as we were steaming back to port a particularly thick section caused us to reduce our speed from happily smashing along at 8knots to a dead stop in the water! It was during the evening and I rushed to get my camera to see if I could get some nice ice-night shots. I didn't manage to get any! I got outside but for some reason my camera decided that the sudden temperature change, from 22 degrees to minus 38 was just a bit too much to ask of it! It did power up eventually, but by that time my fingers were frozen to the camera and I could not physically lift it up to the required position. I suppose I should have had the sense to put a coat and a pair of gloves on!

View to the Coast and the Mountains on Sakhalin

It is cold out there! To take a photograph outside really means dressing up carefully in everything from long johns to thermal suits! This takes time and effort and when eventually kitted out the seal, the bear or the ice shot has long since vanished behind us! My shots are typically a result of mad dashes out of the door in whatever I have on at the time and the session last as long as I can turn the knobs and push the shutter button down! I was actually caught in the act yesterday! The sister vessel, the Pacific Endurance was steaming into Kholmsk port, a meeting of two ships! I decided that this would be the ideal opportunity to get some excellent photographs as she entered the harbor limits and as she maneuvered herself alongside the wharf! I had though not prepared for the -20 knot wind-chill that was rushing through the harbor! The crew on the Endurance watched me on the bow of my boat as I madly dashed outside, snapped a dozen times, jumped up and down hysterically to try and get the blood flowing faster all whilst waving my hands in the air to prevent them seizing up totally! I think they thought I was doing a weird snow-dance!

Ice breaking is interesting! It causes sleepless nights, it is often boring and rattles ones bones out of their sockets and it often sounds like some amplified wheels on an ancient rail wagon that is being pulled along disused rail tracks- but its great! I wouldn't have missed this for the world!

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