FOGGED IN.
Day 48 – Heavy, dense fog had rolled in this morning when we got up. We couldn’t see much beyond the RV. We are glad we made that drive yesterday and didn’t hold off for today hoping for better weather! The low last night was 37 degrees. It rained on & off most of the day.
We didn’t go out today except to do laundry. The laundry room was close to the RV, right across the campground road. It’s always nice to get the laundry over with. Rainy, foggy days are perfect for that. As the day progressed, several of the campers that came in yesterday left. We’d hate to be driving an RV in this fog! The high temperature today only got up to 41 degrees. The wind picked up; the rain & dense fog continued. We did see a Bald Eagle on an ice chunk in front of the RV. Rob rushed out to get a picture, but the eagle flew away.
Since we hardly had anything happening today, here’s some more information about Icebergs, from Moon Handbooks, Atlantic Canada, 5th Edition, 2009.
“ICEBERGS ON PARADE: The spectacular icebergs that float past Newfoundland and Labrador every spring & summer originate from southwestern Greenland’s ice cap, where great chunks of ice calve off the coast and cascade into the bone-chilling Davis Strait. The young bergs eventually drift out to the Labrador Sea, where powerful currents route them south along the watery route known as Iceberg Alley. The parade usually starts in March, peaks in June & July, and in rare cases continues into November.
Although no one actually regularly counts the icebergs, an educated guess has 10,000 to 30,000 of them, migrating down from the north annually. Of those, about 1,400 to 2,000 of those make it all the way to the Gulf Stream’s warm waters, where they finally melt away after a two-to-four-year 3,200-kilometer journey.
No two icebergs are exactly the same. Some appear distinctly white. Others may be blue, turquoise, or green. Sizes vary too: A “growler” is the smallest, about the size of a dory, and weighs about 1,000 tons. A “bergy bit” weighs more, about 10,000 tons. A typical “small” iceberg looms about 5-15 meters above water level and weighs about 100,000 tons. A “large” ice mass will be 51-75 meters high and weigh 100-300 million tons. (One meter = 3.3 feet.) Generally, you’ll see the largest bergs farther north, looking like magnificent castles embellished with towers and turrets. The ice mountains diminish in size as they float south and eventually melt. No matter what the size, what you see is just a fraction of the whole – some 90% of the iceberg’s mass is hidden beneath the water!
Occasionally, a wandering iceberg will be trapped at land’s edge or wedged within coves and slender bays. Should you be tempted to go in for a closer look, approach with caution. As it melts and its equilibrium readjusts, an iceberg may roll over. And melting icebergs often fracture, throwing ice chips and knife-sharp splinters in all directions.”