fish story no2: it's cold. we cuss a lot

breaking ice

Do boats capsize often?

Many...many boats have rolled over due to ice accumulation. They used to just disappear without a trace. You'd hear em' on the VHS radio leaving the harbor and then never again. Ever. Maybe you were tied up right next to em'. Maybe you had a couple of beers with their Chief Engineer down to the Elbow Room last night or saw some of her crew at the Ship Supply getting new raingear and sundries. Then a week later you hear through the grapevine that their EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon) was found activated and floating up around Zemchug Canyon, but not much else; Spare bouys. Bait. A frozen ham. An empty life raft. It's like that.

What's bad is when the conditions are rough and cold enough that you build ice just jogging slow into the weather. Trying to not make big splashes that send the spray up to freeze on your boat. You’re making like 2 knots or something and you're building ice every minute of every hour. It ain't gonna stop. If you let it go, eventually the weight will roll the boat right over. Simple as. So you sit there in the wheelhouse holding onto your coffee cup and watching ice build on the rails and the crane and whatever else you have on deck (not excluding the deck itself or the house/superstructure or anything at all exposed to the elements). You coax that boat up the wave, taking it at a slight angle on the port bow. Pull the engines out of gear just before you crest (pshhhhhhh!! go the throttles) in order to ease over the top and back down the other side, but you can only finesse it so much and the wind keeps blowing and the seas are tall and the spray keeps sticking to everything and building up and nobody wants to go outside 'cause its cold af and swinging that club is brutally hard work after about 5 minutes and dangerous besides. But as long as the weather stays crappy, you're gonna build ice and the more you build, the more brutal it is getting it off the boat. You don't wanna send the boys out 'cause you remember how suck it was when it was you and besides, it's supposed to settle down some in the morning so maybe I can just wait ’til it gets light out and I don't gotta crap my pants as hard watching em' slide around by the rail and fall on their asses or lean too far over the side. And sure they talk shit about me if I’m not filling their pockets with the quickness and call me funny names and I hate em’ whining and bitching and moaning and their girlfriend's out riding around in their truck with some guy and they don’t make em’ like they used to and back in my day we woulda’ and blah blah blah and we fight sometimes but even so, I LOVE THEM. They’re MY BOYS. I don’t like it when they get hurt or they're hating their lives. It’s supposed to mellow out in a few hours and it’ll be light out and it'll be less dangerous to go outside…right?

So while you're waiting for it to start getting light out and start coming down, maybe you hear a mayday on the big radio (SSB). Next (and quickly) you hear the Coasties all over it. Responding. C130 up out of Kodiak. They’re mostly a bunch of pricks, but they’ll come for you. Not even kidding. They live for this shit. They will come for you in ANYTHING. Can’t even imagine what it’s like trying to get that big cutter up to 20kts or whatever into a hurricane, but those fuckers will do it. You think about your position. If you’re close enough to go help SAR. If you didn’t get the mayday on the little radio(VHS), probably not, but you check the positions given just to make sure. You check em' again. You’re still building ice. This continues. The ice doesn’t care. It just keeps getting bigger and heavier on your boat all the while. You keep an eye on everything just like always: The weather. The radar. The radio. The ice. Drink your coffee. Up. Down. Upppp...and down. Roll port. Roll to starboard.The engineer comes upstairs to raid your coffee maker and bs a little bit. Boat's good. All tanks that can be pressed up are. Not too much stuff flyin' around downstairs. The crew are catching up on sleep. Cook put out a big steak dinner and went to bed. He gets less sleep than anybody so good on him. Fine. Just starting to get light out now...

But it doesn't come down…it starts to get grey out and the wind is still blowing NE55 with seas to 30 feet. And the ice? Still getting thicker all over the surface of your boat.

Now what?

In a 30 year seafaring career dealing with ice is one of the spookier things I was a part of. Wouldn't give a minute of it back, however.....