Depression is a weather event

This weekend there is a deep, intense low pressure system, or depression, south of Greenland.  Warnings were out that the north coast could expect high seas and surge.  Even the east coast would feel the swell where harbours opened east.

Lots of people were out getting pictures of the wild seas.  In this case, our paddle buddy Cathy was in Middle Cove.

Anywhere facing north was going to be problematic.  What to do?

I suggested deep in Conception Bay where I expected the swell seen at Middle Cove would be dissipated.  It was.

We put in at Holyrood.

 
The shore is not all that striking but it was on the water.  Heading north we passed the white tanks of the old Golden Eagle tank farm which melted into the white, snow covered background.

Typical shoreline as we made our way to our destination of Indian Pond.

A light northerly wind was in our faces but once we got going we hardly felt the cold which ...

... the presence of icicles clearly demonstrated it was cold.

The oil offloading station meant we were near Indian Pond and the ...

... oil fired hydro generating station that supplies most of the power in our area.  Two of the three stacks were belching smoke but they won't be for much longer.  The plant will be replaced in a couple of years by clean hydroelectric power from Muskrat Falls - our contribution to eliminating carbon emissions.

The entrance to Indian Pond is under the trestle bridge.  We felt the swell here as the water got shallower.  We managed to negotiate the entrance without incident, landed and had lunch.

After lunch we did a tour of the pond which supplies the plant with fresh water for steam generation.  The line between fresh and salt water was at the edge of the ice.

Exiting was so much easier as we could see what was coming.

It took us 90 minutes to paddle up but only 60 to return.  We packed up.  Dean and Derek couldn't join us for coffee but Cathy, Dave, Gerard and I enjoyed a post paddle coffee and chat.

Thanks to the gang for another wonderful day on the water.  A depression is a weather phenomenon, not a state of mind, at least not with a paddle in your hands.