Friday, August 3, 2018

THIS WILL COOL YOU OFF !

     In many places this has been a very hot summer. I for one don't like hot weather. I know many other people don't like hot weather either.

    People have many ways of keeping cool. Air conditioning! Fans! Shade! Cool drinks! Swimming! Ice cream! I think this list could get very long.

    I quite often think back to my summers in the Arctic. Yes, we had some pleasant weather. I even water skied above the Arctic circle! Believe me that water was cold . You didn't want to fall. The lake water was very, very cold.

   What I think about most often is when I lived on the coast for two years. I lived on a beautiful bay that was 24 miles long and the widest point was about 7 miles.  There were very high tides...45 feet. That was a lot of water going in and out of the bay twice a day.  At the mouth of the bay there were fast currents. When bay water met strait water there were some interesting waves.

    Now the bay didn't freeze until November because of the tides. Once it froze the ice got very thick. There were huge house sized rocks on the beach. When the tide went out in the winter the ice lodged up on the rocks. At times we would find a hole in the ice, stick a ladder down and walk under the ice picking mussels. Google this one and you should find some articles and photos.

    However, (are you ready for this?) one summer the ice went out on July 22. Now does that cool you off? I'll bet it did.

    The bay was completely covered in ice. We knew that the ice would be taken out with the tides but didn't know what day. All of a sudden you look out and you could tell the the ice was moving. In a few hours the ice would be gone. Everything stopped and we met on the beach to watch such an exciting spectacle.


    One year a hunter was on the ice and of course the ice leaves the shore. There was quite the excitement to get him off. At a place where the ice was near the shore another hunter took his kayak and got the guy off the ice.

    So if this doesn't cool you off, I don't know what will!