Bob MacEwen sends us this from the north end of Damariscotta:

Today was one of the days where it paid off to be optimistic.We arrived at the farm launch at the north end of lake at 09:30 where six sailors had gathered in hopes of sailing our iceboats. There were three Cheapskates, two Mini Skeeters and a Lochley Skimmer rigged and ready to go by 10:00. The sun was out, the ice was clear and hard, but there was only a breath of wind out of the southeast. The forecast showed the wind changing to the south and increasing to 10 mph around noon so we just stood around gabbing for almost an hour when I received video in a text from the guys who had launched at the south end of the lake. They were already sailing, but we were still waiting for the wind to come up. A few of the guys were starting to talk about packing up and leaving but I showed them wind graph on the weather web page and they decided to give it until noon before they gave up. It wasn’t more than twenty minutes later before the wind shifted to due south and started to build. We all jumped in our boats and headed for the middle of the lake where the wind proved to be steady and strong. We all stayed north of the pressure ridge that runs across the lake from the Wavus Camp peninsula , and just blasted all over the giant plate of ice until we broke for lunch. The wind was even stronger after lunch so we all went back out for another fun session. By 14:30 I was starting think about quitting even though the wind hadn’t let up at a all. The ice was getting wetter and I decided to quit so I wouldn’t be caught far away from the launch when the wind quit. What a terrific day!

And Bob Strzelewiscz checks in from Quabog Pond, Massachusetts:

The ice on quaboag is still holding up on Friday, even with the warmer temperatures. We sailed till 12 today and it was just starting to get soft.
Just me and Spencer with all the lake to ourselves, the ice was hard and wet making for some fast runs. wind was 10 to 12.

And from the south end of Dammy, off Vannah Rd. the conditions were just like the north end, but the wind just never quit. The water on the ice just made it faster and nearly all the snow is finally gone. Neither the north fleet or the south fleet felt much like crossing ridges today. The day had a lazy, spring-like feeling. It was a long shot day with the forecast not promising much wind.

Today’s sailing was all self organized by folks who knew the conditions and thought some wind would come. It wasn’t posted here yesterday. That’s the way it goes sometimes.