Like many other places, the Bering Sea was hit with some late winter cold. The sea ice moved farther south than it has for several years. The captain tried to avoid it by going down into the Gulf of Alaska but, the fishing was bad and the reports from the ice edge were promising so we headed up to the yellowfin grounds.The ice was mostly broken up and long flows of broken sheets formed up. The boat would pass one flow and then find open water again. It took me about two days before I got up to the wheel house at the right time to see ice.
The atmosphere in the wheel house was tense exitement. Cruising among the ice flows is something that doesn't happen often, and while it is not really dangerous, one has to be careful not to hit the really big chunks, and one never knows when the weather might turn and pile the ice up trapping the boat between flows. First Picture: The America No. 1 crossing a large ice flow.
Second Picture: The edge of an ice flow through the rail
