Damariscotta Lake has open water top and bottom, with various ice thicknesses here and there. Not great.

Lovejoy Pond near Manchester was sailed today by Rob Dmitriov and a couple of Skimmers.

Speaking of Skimmers, long time iceboater Bill Cunningham has donated his to a home schooling family on Plymouth Pond. He sends us this report:
"Skimmer delivery went very well. Very nice family! Great kids! Will be a great home for my old skimmer. I plan to give them their first sailing lesson on Sunday at their waterfront area on Plymouth Pond. Will get pictures of them and the skimmer for the CIBC newsletter to recommend other older aging out sailers think about passing their ice boats on to more youthful ice sailers to make sure our sport and club continues on in the future in Maine.
Might be able to have other home schooled youth in the Plymouth area gather to learn ice sailing by using this skimmer on the Mears waterfront property next winter. Maybe a Plymouth Pond Ice Boating Academy for Youth will be opening then!!!”

Thanks Bill!

Now for what we’ve all been waiting for: PUSHAW ON!

Bob Lombardo and Nils Haentjens skated the lake today and found it to be in excellent shape and ready for iceboats.

This is not your child’s latest drawing, it’s real ice crystals, doing the amazing work they do in creating ice.

This is how it looks when you step back a bit. Thicknesses reported between 3" and 6”. Some ice is newer than others.

Nils tells us there were two open spots: one west of Ram Island and one west of Moose Island.

Nils will be there tomorrow and hopefully a few others. We’re in for a beautiful stretch of sailing, but snow is creeping in to our otherwise spotless forecast. If you can’t make it tomorrow, Monday will be a very nice day as well.
Launch from Goulds Landing.