Out and about on the water .. (part 2 of 3)
Thursday 9th March 2000

... continued

When you are travelling in IRB's, you have to wear special immersion suits which protect you from the cold water. The salt water is just below 0 degrees, and if you fall in without special clothes you will have only a few minutes before you become so cold that you may become unconscious. The air temperature is about 2 to 4 degrees, and when travelling at speed and in choppy seas water usually gets all over your hands and into the boat, so you also have to make sure that you stay warm and dry. Most journeys in the IRB's are quite short, ie 30 minutes, and they always travel in pairs in case one gets into trouble.


Wazza and Lisa travelling in the IRB to the East bay cliffs

While the IRB's are not ferrying passengers to Bechervaise, they are used for tours to check out the local ice cliffs and icebergs. One Sunday afternoon I joined such a "tour" of the East bay cliffs. Warren (Wazza), Lisa and myself went in one boat while Lyn, Nick & Leighton went in another.

We headed around to the East bay ice cliffs where the plateau ice ends. Sitting down in a small boat, and being close up and underneath the cliffs is a wonderful experience, especially when there are cornice's where the ice or snow hangs over and threatens to fall off.
The photos to the right show the heavily patterned Ice berg in East Bay. The patterns around the base reminded me of the H.R.Geiger style from the "Aliens" movie!
In a couple of spots, we drove the IRB's into some small ice caves to inspect the myriad of blue and green tones in the ice. Doing this is a little tricky since you have to make sure you are safe from falling ice and cornices! The photo to the right shows 'Checking out an ice cave. Note the snow cornice in the top left of the picture.'

Email continues in part 3