Re: [Paddlewise] Winter paddling and ice

I want to second Ralph's comments and add an extra.  I often
paddle in the winter.  In front of where I live I have about a 50
metre expanse of ice which I slide across, then, where the current
is always strong, there is a narrow passage of open water out past
an island to the main channel.  Last winter I was out one day
where there was a fairly strong offshore wind.  I didn't worry
about it much since I was sheltered by the trees on the shore. 
Unfortunately the wind shifted while I was out.  A great deal of
the broken ice, which had been pushed to the other side of the
river by the offshore wind, suddenly came back and started to jam
my passage to home.  This was grinding, crushing, loose pans of
ice anywhere from 1 metre to 10 metres in diameter. If I had been
caught in it it could have crushed my kayak easily as the pressure
from wind-pushed and current-pushed ice is tremendous.  I would
not have been able to seal land (what is the opposite of seal
entry?) onto the hard, regular ice if I couldn't have gotten to
it.  Fortunately, I saw what was happening and made a fast paddle
home and just made it before my passage closed in.  If necessary,
I could have landed several hundred metres up river and walked
back, but I'm glad that I didn't have to.

John

ralph diaz wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> Just an added caution in paddling in ice...make certain that there are
> no Coast Guard icebreakers around.
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