In spite of everyone trying so hard to find a sympathetic forecast, the reality is that we are iceboaters and this is just one of those toughening-up exercises which helps prepare us for the real bummers later in the season when a blizzard covers a freshly scouted 4″ plate of black ice. Jim Gagnon had a look at Plymouth on yesterday and found 3″ of ice, snow covered. With the additional snow they got last night and not enough rain to wet it out and not enough cold to freeze it even if it did wet out leaves us on the beach, sad to say. Some of the water may drain off, but without a cold night the surface will be marginal.

No good news from Quebec, either. Denis reports: “Lac Abenakis is not sailable anymore (already). Patches of 1/2″ styrofoam and icy snow bumps. We may try petit Lac Lambton tomorrow, but we expect styrofoam there also. So, nothing very interesting here this weekend, and snow forecast for next week. We will have to wait for larger lakes to freeze, or for better conditions in Maine.”

A nice tip of the helmet to David Godine who flew over Plymouth yesterday and reports some open water at the east side, but pretty much solid evertwhere else. Perhaps he’ll adopt the Guegon Bros. technique of gently touching the ice with his landing gear to get a sense of the thickness. As far as I’ve heard, they never actually broke through. David?

The good news is that Tom Nichols new C Skeeter will be on the ice this winter:

And speaking of front seat skeeters, another one is taking shape at Iceboat Central. Building it helps take the edge off the long wait and false alarms:

The plan is to power it with a DN rig. Why? Why not? Anyone out there ready to move into a cockpit and take your DN gear with you? Much thanks to Tom Childs for donating the plywood, and the lousy weather for keeping my next job at bay.