Chapter 13 ice tour

What a blessing in life, Meng Hai favored him until now.The first is the dormitory of Chinese University, the balcony is facing the sea, and the water of Tolo Harbor is glistening. Ten years have not seen enough, and it is hard to leave.Fortunately, when I returned to Taiwan, I did not go back to Taipei, but came to Kaohsiung, and the sea was able to continue.The balcony of the dormitory of Sun Yat-sen University is actually connected to the water and the sky. Inside is Kaohsiung Port, but beyond Qijin, outside is the strait.My research room also has huge long windows, from which you can have a panoramic view of the sea, watching a long arc along the slightly raised mirror of the ocean, taking away the fireball of the setting sun.

Forever and ever, the fate of being neighbors with the sea day and night is not a high climb but a "broad friendship".Including the half year of studying at Xiamen University, my sea life has been as long as 32 years, accounting for two-fifths of my age, which is really wide enough for people who love the sea.Of course, people like me are only close to the sea, and we can’t say that we are close to the sea.As for deep friendship with the sea, one can only envy sailors, sailors, fishermen, divers, and frogmen.As a compromise, there is still a way for people on the shore to get close to the sea, and that is sailing. As long as you don’t get seasick, it’s still very interesting.

In recent years, with the development of air transport, people who travel long distances take the plane instead of the boat.Flying is more convenient than sailing, but in turn, it loses the ease and ease of sailing.Flying is like a superficial touch, but it is a busy and tense airport.Sailing is different. Anyway, everything is handed over to the ship, and of course the ship is also handed over to the sea. As a long-term passenger who has settled in the sea, he can ignore the troubles on land for a few days or even weeks, and can escape reality with peace of mind.Let the world shrink into a horizontal line, and let the sun, moon and stars accompany you to walk leisurely. There is no place in the world that is more convenient than a long deck for thinking about things.Compared with the vast sea and sky on the deck, flying by plane is like being in a prison, which is even more crowded than a prison. When eating, a man can only bend and dare not stretch, and go to the toilet, forget it.I deeply miss the days when I had boats.

People of my generation certainly took boats a lot.Not to mention river boats, the first voyage was when my parents took me back to Fujian from Shanghai.The second time was when my mother took me to Vietnam from Shanghai to Hong Kong during the Anti-Japanese War.The third time was from Shanghai to Xiamen during the civil war, and from Xiamen to Hong Kong half a year later, and finally came to Taiwan by boat from Hong Kong for the first time and landed in Keelung.The farthest and longest trip was in 1959 from the United States on the China Merchants Freighter "Shanghai", crossed the Pacific Ocean, stopped in Yokohama, bypassed Eluanbi, landed in Kaohsiung and returned to Taiwan. It took nearly a month.

I haven't been on a sea boat for a long time after that.During this period, I used to ride the wind and waves, from Calais in France to Folkstone in the UK, or drive on a boat from the west coast of Scotland to the Isle of Skye, which can only be regarded as short-distance crossings, not long-distance voyages. So in the eleven years in Hong Kong, every time I saw an ocean-going cruise ship berthing at the Tsim Sha Tsui pier, I was very pleasantly surprised.The shadow of the milky white boat makes the entire Victoria Harbor brighten up suddenly, and its elegant and superior posture reminds people of a white swan, which can learn from the water. The "Elizabeth" came to berth in Hong Kong, and I was on the revolving restaurant at the top of Victoria Peak, overlooking her gracefully and peacefully berthed at the pier with a sweeping height, and I was very happy all day.When the Soviet cruise ship "Gorky" was docked on the shore, Guobin and I read it out in Russian pinyin. We ran along the ship in excitement, as if we wanted to see through the depths of the Iron Curtain.The atmosphere was different from that of the "Elizabeth".

2006 is the golden wedding year of our husband and wife. Our four daughters are already ready to move, and we can't wait to discuss how to celebrate.Drinking water and thinking about the source, they should be concerned, because half a century ago, if the mother hadn't put on the wedding dress for the father, how could they report to the ancient houses on Xiamen Street one by one densely, and it was a grand event full of laughter and laughter?But the discussion meeting for the golden wedding celebration was not simple: the four sisters were far away from each other, the near ones were in Kaohsiung and Taichung, and the far ones were in New York and Vancouver.The four sisters have all grown up and become "mature women". Each of them has a big "ego", so it's not always easy to get married.In the end, there are two roads to choose: the land road is to drive to the Canadian Rocky Mountains to visit Bangfu or Jasper Park, and the water road is to take a large cruise ship to Alaska to see the glaciers.The starting point is also Vancouver.

The waterway is my choice, and I have never wavered.My reason is: the land route may be more flexible, and the plan can be revised at any time, but the price of freedom is the constant search for hotels and restaurants for three meals. It is inconvenient to communicate with the car, and the complexity of the luggage, the trouble of loading and picking up the car, is even more annoying.There are so many women, and they have to wait until they are ready to go on the road every day, and it will never be before ten o'clock.Tossing and going like this, you can swim if you swim, but not necessarily if you are free and unrestrained, hard work is inevitable.Li Bai said a long time ago: "People who are far away from you, come here for nothing!"

Conversely, if you go by water, you can be safe and carefree, and leave everything to a ship, a huge ocean-going ship that can accommodate everything, including hotels and restaurants, and the itinerary itself is her own. The largest palace in the world that travels far.The nine-person trip of the three generations of grandparents and grandchildren was all taken by her easily, and she didn't need to pay for trivial changes: she paid for all of them with one ticket. As a father, I will explain Qili in detail, not to mention that there are really huge and beautiful glaciers rising majestically from the bow of the boat.Mom thinks the same.After all, we are the two protagonists of the golden wedding. How can the four daughters add up to the real gold that has not been exchanged for fifty years?Our daughter and son-in-law couldn't resist us, so there was such a huge ship waiting for us in Vancouver.

The gate of the elevated volley Lion Bridge has passed, and our trip to the glacier finally started.The whole journey was 1,987 nautical miles, equivalent to 2,285 miles, and I lived on board for seven nights.There are only three ports on the way. The first port, Sitka, does not arrive until noon on the third day. Therefore, the first section of the water journey of more than 800 miles has always been home on the boat, and the passengers on the boat can only devote themselves to everything. to the sea. The excitement of sailing and the freedom of the sea and the sky keep the passengers on the deck, and return to the cabin to rest if they don't want to.What's more, in mid-August at a high latitude of nearly 50 degrees, dusk comes very late, and there is no sense of dusk on the endless water surface.Tired, a little tired.It’s not how chaotic it is when boarding the boat, because what passengers should know or prepare for has already been explained in detail when the ticket is pre-sale, so when boarding the boat, the pier is in order, first pick up the luggage, then board the passengers, and divide them one by one According to the number, the steps are clear and smooth.The passengers were guided by the attendants and lived in their respective cabins. An hour later, the luggage was delivered to the door.Everything is much simpler than expected.So you are sure that the whole service must be first-class.

I was a little tired because boarding started at one o'clock in the afternoon. After rough planning, all passengers must participate in life-saving training before sailing.When the alarm bell sounded at five o'clock sharp, more than a thousand passengers had to gather in separate areas, put on life jackets, and rush to their respective lifeboats with the ship's officers and wait for instructions.Although this action is just a preview, it also makes people a little nervous, and can't help but think of the "Titanic".After the preview, at 5:30, our cruise ship "Infinity" (Infinity) sailed on time.

For seven days in a row, the "Infinity" we depended on for our lives: built in France in 2001, with a tonnage of 91,000, a length of 964 feet, nearly a fifth of a mile, and a combustion engine Steam turbine (GTS), twenty-four knots, equivalent to forty-four kilometers.Like all voyage cruise ships, she is also a high-rise ship with eleven floors and ten elevators.As for the carrying capacity, it is also massive, with a capacity of 2,038 passengers and 950 crew members.The officers are all Greek, and the captain, first mate, and chief engineer were all born in Piraeus, a seaport in Athens.The cabin and restaurant staff are very international, coming from more than 50 countries; the arrangements for various activities are mostly in the charge of American staff. Of course the kitchen is buzzing.For seven days in a row, 3,000 people have to eat everything, and the reserves are also very impressive.Speaking of beef alone, we have prepared 9,250 pounds, not including 2,250 pounds of veal.Fish brought 6,000 pounds, chicken 3,000 pounds, vegetables 26,000 pounds, and fruit 36,000 pounds.As for all kinds of alcohol, from slightly drunk beer to drunk vodka, they brought a total of 13,800 bottles.I can swallow it, although it is far below the average serving for one person, but it is always pleasing to think that there are so many delicacies and wines, which are fully stocked to cheer up the fun, especially for those who are greedy. Many people would think that to be among the ranks of such luxurious voyages, one must make a small fortune, right?Not necessarily.If you want to live in a suite on the top floor, the cabin and balcony are more than 1,000 square feet wide, and the fare is of course considerable.In fact, there are also 235 so-called "ocean9-view staterooms" with windows facing outside, which is quite on time.The room our husband and wife lived in was well equipped, and most importantly, there was a round window with a diameter of three and a half feet, with a vast blue sea view unobstructed.With just this magic mirror, the waves of the whole sea can be summoned for me to inspect.So the cabin is not too small, the windows are not too big, and the sea is not too changeable.Our ocean-view cabin is on the seventh floor, room number 7007, close to the bow, and to eat at the stern, we have to cross the "midship section" along the long inner corridor and walk at least 600 steps. As for the fare, couples share the same cabin, it is 3,160 US dollars.This price is by no means expensive: think about it, seven nights plus twenty-one meals and then multiplied by two, plus various equipment, various activities, plus fresh sea breeze, changing sea views, ports of call, magnificent glaciers, and more Plus the daytime Happy Palace and the nighttime cradle of thousands of people, no, the water bed will ride the wind and waves for you two thousand miles.Coupled with the perfect management and thoughtful attitude, it really makes people feel that there is no regret and it is worth revisiting.Old imperialism combined with new technology is omnipotent, too good to be true. The equipment on board is diverse: in addition to restaurants and bars of various sizes, there are also theaters, casinos, swimming pools, gyms, computer rooms, photo studios, etc., plus jewelry stores and folklore shops that are densely arranged like a street. Shops, boutiques, pastry shops, etc.As for the activities, there are more colorful ones.We went to an oil painting auction and thought the works were not very good.Casinos have to travel through without feeling tempted.I have played the discus game on the deck with my daughter several times.I also go to the theater often and watch some old movies.Our granddaughter Shu Ting often follows us, but she doesn't seem to understand what the aunts are talking about.Her thirteen-year-old brother, Fei Huang, is used to being alone. He happened to meet an American classmate on the boat, and he followed him to the whole boat, often not knowing where he was on which floor at the moment, and he was half-missing.A large ship of 90,000 tons is like a deep mountain. We, our four daughters and a son-in-law often play hide-and-seek in the mountain. The west coast of Canada faces the Pacific Ocean. There are many mountains on the land and many islands on the water. During the boat, the seafarers look around and look around.The stretch of mountains is close to the shore, roughly parallel to the main rocky vein behind, and can be regarded as a secondary vein.The screen-like offshore islands, intermittent or continuous, are actually undulating hills on the bottom of the sea. Those who are not willing to be lonely, love to stick out of the peaks and stick out of the water, and they become small islets and big islands.The largest one is located along the coast of Vancouver. It is shaped like a long and flat Taiwan, and its area is five-sixth that of Taiwan.There are many islands near the shore, and parallel to the shore, there are many straits. From south to north, they are named Georgia, Jiangstone, Queen Charlotte, and Hecate; further north, there are even more small islands and narrow straits. , and the shore area already belongs to the narrow strip of southeastern Alaska, shaped like a spoon handle. The "Infinity" glacier tour, the three ports of call, Sitka, Juneau, and Ketchigan, all in Alaska, the Hubbard Glacier (Hubbard Glacier) and Manting River Glacier (Mendenhall Glacier) to see , also in the Juneau area. The "Infinity" sailed to the Hubbard Glacier, which was the northern end of the trip, and the rest of the journey turned back and went south. It was mid-August, and Taiwan was suffering from the scorching heat, while Canada and Alaska at high latitudes were as cold as Taiwan’s midwinter: Vancouver was nearly 50 degrees north latitude, which was equivalent to Prague; Juneau, the capital of Alaska, was nearly 60 degrees north latitude, which was already equivalent to St. Petersburg. .During our voyage, the temperature is always between 21°C and 11°C.When the wind is standing on the deck, it often feels colder and a hat must be worn. All the way to the north, the first half of the island is close to the coast, and there are often turning points, as if walking in a long and narrow corridor, only the wind and waves are calm.After crossing the northern limit of the west coast of Canada and entering the waters of Alaska, I gradually feel that the sea is vast and the island is small, and I have truly entered the jurisdiction of Poseidon: the empire of great water, the chessboard of the island, draw squares with latitude and longitude, let the aquarium snorkel, and whale sharks come and go , the blue highway that is always open, allows everything with fins, tails, paddles, rudders, sails, turbines, sonar and radar, and even just limbs to come and go freely. On the second night, the pressure on the back muscles and shoulders changed, and I felt a little stormy, ah, I went out to sea.The boat is the son of the sea, and we are the sons of the boat.The sea is a cradle gently rocking the ship is a cradle rocking gently our dreams.It was very different from the first time I took a boat back to Taiwan from the US.That time was nearly half a century ago, on a cargo ship with a weight of only over 10,000 tons, and across the entire Pacific Ocean.The whole journey was full of wind and waves, and when I encountered a typhoon near Japan, I have a poem to prove it: "Look at the big typhoon stirring up the waves all over the sea to rebel / practice walking on a parabola and vomit." It is only when we leave the open sea that we bid farewell to the land and truly understand: who is the banker on our land and water globe, and what it means that the ocean accounts for 71%.Looking around, there are no islands, no birds, no boats, nothing, only the light blue ups and downs, and below, there are more and deeper blue waves.There are no coordinates, except the sun and moon.But the sun and the moon are also moving. I don't know what kind of divine power makes these magic balls rise and fall one after another, throwing them east and west.The world of vision is purified into three circles, the horizontal circle facing up to the double circle of yin and yang, forming the aesthetics of geometry.Hai was busy, but he didn't read any of the books he brought with him, but Hai read and read.The Book of the Sea is also profound and mysterious, and the wind blows the waves to the sky one page after another. I was fascinated by the book but couldn't understand its theme.Maybe that theme is too old and almost as old as nature, and can connect the origin of life through thousands of calamities to the present, but how to go back to the Cretaceous, Jurassic, and until the mysterious Ordovician?It's been too long, we've already lost our memory.Faced with this vast ocean of deep blue metaphors, our subconscious minds are uneasy. Although we want to dive, we are not deep enough to reach the bottom of the sea like a hammer.Even sonar may not be able to understand the song of the whales.The legend of the mermaid may be a cross-border temptation, but it is a pity that the submarine explores the enemy's feelings instead of human feelings. Leaning on the deck like this, I was dreaming, but was interrupted by Shu Ting's mother-in-law's words, saying that everyone is waiting for me in the restaurant below, and I have to dress formally for tonight's feast. Although the Hubbard Glacier has been waiting for us for hundreds of years, we didn't have an audience until near noon on the fourth day.The speed of the ship slowed down, and there were more and more ice floes oncoming, and they were getting bigger and bigger. The translucent crystals were light blue all over, and looked like a glass of cocktail from a distance, seeming to clink.Finally, the sea is full of ice, the small ones can no longer be called blocks, and the big ones can almost be called mounds, which may be long or pointed, flat or convex, or irregular in strange shapes.The solemn "Infinity" was even slower, obviously unwilling to be an icebreaker, broken by ice.The oncoming icy wind was accompanied by drizzle, and the mist filled the air.The deck was full of people, all wearing raincoats and hats, and some people held umbrellas.The boat turned very slowly. Behind the mist, there seems to be a series of mountains lying indistinctly, with a height of about 20 floors, but there seems to be no peaks rising up, the mountains are steep, and there seem to be no trees on the stone face, only a light clay color, caged An indeterminate bluish-greenish layer.There is no mountain behind, and in front of this strange stone screen, there are messy piles of desserts such as ice cream or milkshake (milk9-shake), which are not ready to melt.Get closer, ah, it turns out that this is the place between the sky and the earth, between the mountains and the sea, where the snow has turned into ice, and the ice has its own weight. It has been scorched by the sun for thousands of years, but it is as stubborn as ever. ,glacier.This is the grim face of Hubbard Glacier, with its flattened crest three hundred feet high and six miles wide.With our huge ship of 90,000 tons, how could we dare to touch the super ice wall of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons?It’s too dangerous to drive any further, I’m afraid it will be bombarded by the ice city, because the air is often imprisoned in the cold prison in the depths of the harsh ice. , the weather gets warmer and the ice locks loosen a bit, and they will, ah, break out of the prison, and the city will break through the ice and fly, and it will be out of control. "Dad, did you hear the hissing sound?" Peishan turned to me and asked. "I didn't hear that." I replied with a smile. "When it bursts," she said, "it's as serious as firing a cannon, and as light as popping soda. It's in the book." Everyone laughed.As if responding to our frivolity, suddenly from a distance, no, from an inexplicable depth, there came a gloomy and dull thunder, like a warning that was about to be issued but could not be understood, and then there was a loud crashing sound, falling endlessly .Apparently, the tons of crystal structures have lost their balance somewhere in the fortified ice wall and are disintegrating.It should be a kind of rebellious and cold deconstructionism.Terrified, I told him to open my eyes wide to look for it, but I only heard crackling, and couldn't find where it collapsed. Finally, the ice collapsed and the wall cracked and the balance was restored, and Leng Ji returned to order.Everyone was surprised and laughed.The laughter was immediately extinguished by the icy wind.The deck was crowded with people and umbrellas, and the sea and sky were deserted, the rain and fog were desolate, and not a single bird song could be heard.Three thousand sea guests can't hear the noise of human voices. The "Infinity" was walking on thin ice, turning carefully in the enemy's formation.We seem to have broken into an alien planet, and we are deterred by the unfamiliar terrain.The laughter seemed out of place, desecrating the quiet rules of the Great Ice Empire.Except for this high-tech cruise ship we are stepping on, there is nothing within a hundred miles to prove that we are in the world.And this is the highest escapism of this trip. However, the journey of ice worship is not all the joy of seclusion, but to stand farther and look at our big world of water and land in ancient times.Human beings boast about continents, but in fact, the five continents are just a few super islands surrounded by oceans. They were soaked in the "ocean water" in the mother's arms, like a baby reborn. Without "ocean water", it would be difficult to live on land.What is also important is that one-tenth of the world's land is covered by ice, which is one and a half times as large as China; and three-quarters of the world's drinkable fresh water is hidden in icebergs, glaciers, and ice sheets, which is three times the size of China. All rivers and lakes with moisture in the atmosphere.Once the Great Ice Empire collapses, the ocean will rise, and many prosperous port cities will be swallowed up. I don't know how long the civilization will suffer.Therefore, the glaciers have been frozen for a long time. I don't know how many reservoirs have been preserved for human beings, and how many giant gates have been set up for floods. A glacier's life experience is quite tortuous.The identity of a glacier, in short, is "ice in motion".The origin of a glacier is a certain area, especially an alpine area, where there is more snowfall than melting snow.First, the snowflakes condense into snowdrops, and when there is too much accumulation, they become snow cakes, that is, ice.When the accumulated weight became irreversible, the bottom of the ice layer could not withstand the gravitational force, so it moved down the slope and became an avalanche in slow motion. The slow one was an inch a day, and the fast one was seven feet a day.In this way, the glacier will climb, and while climbing downhill, it will carry gravel and broken rocks, the amount of which is measured in millions of tons, and open up a road down the mountain, aiming to enter the sea.The rocks and rocks along the road were pushed to both sides in this way, and after a long time, the ravines and deep valleys were shaped.The mighty glacier moved quietly and patiently, and finally reached the mouth of the river, but was stopped by good fortune.After being blown by the sea wind several times, it starts to soften, and then the sea water erodes, and the leading ice surface will collapse into the sea, which is a spectacular scene.It is said that Hopkins Glacier has lost so much ice that one dares to look at the ice cliff only two miles away. The "backing mountains" behind the Hubbard Glacier are all close to the coast. The tall Fairweather Mountain is 4,663 meters above sea level, and the other Crillon Mountain is also 3,879 meters high. .The mild westerly winds of the Pacific Ocean are blocked by the mountains, and when they rise, they encounter cold air that condenses and rains on the sea surface; it snows on the top of the mountains, and it can reach as much as a hundred feet throughout the winter.In summer, the inland snow melts, but in the southeastern part of Alaska, the Pacific Ocean is humid and the coast is still cold. Year after year, the snow never melts and accumulates into many glaciers.Norway and Chile, which are similar in geography and climate to Alaska, also have high mountains and near the sea, steep slopes and rapid rivers, making it difficult to leave heavy ice. They have become the three major scenic spots of glacial wonders. On the way back, the ship berthed in Juneau, the state capital of Alaska.We were still full of ideas, and went to worship a glacier named Manting River.Juneau flourished during the gold rushes of the late nineteenth century and remains a fishing and forestry center today.The population of the town is less than 30,000, but the area under its jurisdiction is more than 3,000 square miles, and its management is not people but ice.Not a few pieces of ice but a whole piece of ice (Juneau Ice Field), its area depends on climate change, up to 5,000 square miles at a time, which is more than one-third that of Taiwan, and 1,500 square miles at a time , nearly four times that of Hong Kong.As the climate warms, the ice sheet will shrink due to melting ice.From the 13th century to the 18th century, the Manting River, which moved southward from the ice sheet, was much longer than it is today, but from 1770 to the present, this glacier has been retreating to high places.In the 1920s, a basin was exposed in its "downstream", and snow water was poured into it, which turned into a lake.Today across the lake, you can see the front of the glacier, which scholars call the "face", which is three miles wide and two hundred feet high, dragging the body behind it for twelve miles, like a nameless bird. An indescribable prehistoric monster, covered in white hair, is lying down among the long valleys, wanting to drink from the lake. We walked along the lake and approached the mouth of Nuojite River, watching the rapids turn into waterfalls, the white foam splashed, and the noise poured into the lake.The giant white-haired beast didn't seem to wake up, it was still crouching on the valley slope, having his cold dream.The dense and lush rainforest on the slopes on both sides contrasts with the quiet glacier.The lake below is ice-clear and stony, and she is not interested in the long geological history: after all, she was born in the twentieth century, and she is still a delicate granddaughter in the arms of good fortune, only looking for clouds in her makeup mirror. The tourists who came early have already turned back and waited for the bus. The "Infinity" stipulates that the ship should sail at 8:30, and we have no time to land directly on the glacier by helicopter, and then change into spikes to walk on the glacier, listening to the depths of the ice bank and ice cellar under our feet, which winter is blowing or moaning, roaring or crash.But it was too late. The "Infinity" was on the pier in Juneau. The layers of milky white windows and balconies seemed to add a whole beautiful street house out of thin air, waiting for us to go back and continue the rest of the ice worship journey.But the climax was over.Scanning the binoculars again, I called the white-haired beast in front of my eyes: it was not white fur, but pieces of peeling scales, and the light blue scales were covered with a layer of ocher gray, one piece, one petal, Wave after wave, they line up to the top of the valley and are finally covered by the far slope.The guide said that the endless wrinkles are because when the glacier descends, the lower layer of ice is more flexible, while the upper layer is more brittle. When struggling, the ice surface cracks into such knife-carved patterns. I looked back at the glacier that had been hacked into pieces, and prayed silently in my heart: "Keep going, stick to your cold and cold ice city and ice array. Don't let water out, don't add fuel to the flames, and contribute to the momentum of another flood. In the refrigerator in Alaska , we can’t miss your ice rink.”