January 8, 2014 | Captains bLOG | 0 comments | Author: Captain Rob
Took a real short helicopter ride yesterday. Goal was to get 90 miles across Cook Inlet to view Iniskin Bay and surrounding area to check on ice before trying to take Dream Catcher over there.
Didn’t make it. Winds came up and the flight ceiling came down so we did an about face. Did make it past Anchor Point just 15 miles out from the harbor…too much ice. Never seen anything like it there before. One 46’ boat was caught in a large pan by the channel buoy 1 1/2 from the harbor entrance today. Spent two hours unable to move until a limit seiner left port to break them out and provide a channel back into the harbor for them.
We aren’t going over until we do a fly over and right now there is 945 ml bar low sweeping into the area with 50 mph winds. Harbor is a nice place to be!
I’ve a attached a few sat ice photos of Cook Inlet for you to view. You’ll be able to tell what is ice and how it is moving in from day to day. Keep in mind the ice is showing up from an orbiting satellite and Augustine is about 12 miles from Iniskin Bay. That should give you some presepective as to size of the ice chunks, fingers, and coverage. The first photo was Jan 15th, then 17th, 18th, 20th, and 24th. I have today’s as well but clouds are obsuring most of the inlet but there is less open water than the last one on this email.
Enjoy.
Rob