A kite sailor from Quebec had a dream of sailing solo the full length of Lake Baikal. Not only did he accomplish it, he made a pretty good film of it. Take note in the beginning of the incredible installation at the Moscow airport. What is it?
Jordan Bay is grey this morning…
After a three year drought, Nantucket had ice. Ken Panacek send this report:
“We had a quick freeze on the sand pile. Local Commodore Chris Gordon and I called out the fleet after a 3 year hiatus. 4” of pack ice and a bit of smoother gray ice made the day on Sunday. Beggars can’t be choosers so we made the best of it with 9 boats sailing.”
Way to go! It might be the place to go if the rest of New England doesn’t recover soon.
Can you believe it? First of February: must be a record. A couple of desperados thought they could sail the north end from Lake Farm. Six inches of black ice covered with a half inch of apparently unbonded snow. But in trying to push a runner through the snow it became very clear that it wasn’t going to work. The wind was light. One of the guys had noticed on the way to the launch that a big patch of the south end that was open two days ago was now frozen.
With nothing better to do besides work, they thought to go have a look and take a poke at it. Turned out that part of the south end was locked in with 5″ of grey ice. Beyond that was the black. They walked over to have a look and found 2.75″ of clear, hard black ice. A rare bird this season. A nice breeze out of the north piped up, so again with nothing better to do, why not rig up and do some sailing. Access was a challenge, but they found an off-season camp with a tiny beach.
Not only was it a first for Dammy, it was the first pits of the year aside from Sabattus out of the wind and in the sun. They would have been happy just to set up the boats and then pack up, just for the pleasure.
But as Frank says, are we here to assemble boats or are we here to sail? The grey ice was a tiny plate bounded by snow and slush and the Black Ice, which was not so tiny. So they sailed until the wind died ahead of the storm.
Bob Lombardo also found some great ice on the Penobscot River and adjacent woods. Turn up the sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w7KtC76kus
See it and weep, for by this time tomorrow it will all be gone.
This is Lake Champlain on the Plattsburgh side, from Andy Sajor: https://www.dropbox.com/s/egwtjpyqki0l46r/VID_20210131_150431136.mp4?dl=0
Lee and Randy skated in no wind yesterday from Leavetts Beach at Winnipesaukee:
Plattsburgh is at the west end of the system, and it’s known for not getting snowed on so if it survives we’re headed west.
And just to help get through the week, here’s Harken’s newsletter. This is issue is all about iceboats. Great Stuff! https://spark.adobe.com/page/4pzqWkIKAzM6X/
It appears that all the ice we’ve been watching in Maine, and probably NH, is now covered with varying thicknesses of snow. Some wet, some dry. Most of the ice is now too thick to be submerged by these few inches so It’s a matter of waiting for other kinds of recovery.We had a great three days on Great Pond, two of which were cold. Sub zero wind chill is only fun if you’re sailing in it, and now here comes word that it may actually be good for you. We know it works wonders on mental health!
This is about the benefits of immersion in water, but maybe really cold air whizzing by your body at 50mph is just as good.
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Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club 