The ice in Conception Bay is still in but starting to melt and drift apart or away. Today was cool but sunny and absolutely no wind. It was Roy and myself enjoying what remains of the ice.
The sun made the ice seem whiter than white and brighter than bright, except where the colour was indigo blue.
When we first left the bits of ice were scattered and separated by stretches of open water without a ripple.
We began to see more ice as we made our way north and it was bigger. We paddled between the ice pans and the shore and in no particular hurry.
The past wave action of the past few days nibbled away at the ice above the waterline making interesting formations of white and indigo.
Paddling between bits of ice doing bow rudders and other close boat control strokes. And, otherwise avoiding collisions with bits of ice floating in the water.
Just as we came to Portugal Cove we hit a dead end. There was ...
... no way through this closely packed ice. At least, not without taking some risk to get cut off from a return to the put-in.
This was my fourth time paddling around the ice in the past eight days. The ice has stuck around for an unusual amount of time this year and I'm taking advantage of it while it lasts. It makes for great fun paddling but its also, in some ways, an indescribable scene. Everything seems so pristine, crystal clear and sharp in blue and white. Yes, that's the key word - pristine.
From here we turned south for the return, picking our way through the ice pack further off shore.
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