Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Most of the snow blew clear from the broads in the strong winds today. Ice surface is ok, let’s call it a 6.5. There is a large open patch on the east side as you enter the broads about 200 yds. north. It starts close to the east shore and runs nearly all the way across. We marked the west end and then went about our expedition. When we came back down, this is how we found our mark:

The first rule of pressure ridges is that are always on the move, sometimes rapidly. There is still a gate at the west end that can be sailed through. There is a Christmas tree marking it. Whether it remains relevant is another matter.
The other open water in the broads is in the NE corner, east to see, also marked with a pine branch, below:

From there is is great sailing all the way through the narrows. We did not go past the end of the narrows. The north end is a whole different world.
Deep Cove is good, as is most of that west bay leading to the river. There is an open patch by Red Roof Island nicely contained within three buoys. Easy to spot. Entrance to the River is fine, as it the first bay. We didn’t go any further south. We are saving that for Wednesday. There are other, unmarked open spots in the usual line of rocks along the west side of the bay leading to the Narrows.
Tomorrow is offering light air, but the day after and Thursday look good so far. Those are the days we have left before warmth and rain come Friday.

Chris Malliet, Nick Pagon and Kevan Coleman found five inches of ice covered with a dusting of snow on Clary today.

Therre are a few bad spots at Vannah Rd, but we will try to locate and mnark them tomorrow, hoping for good conditions all week. If it turns out that sailing there is inadvisdable than Clary is a good runner up. Thanks for getting out there and checking you guys!

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Yesterday we found 3” at Vannah Rd and a very nice surface thanks to Wednesday’s rain. Today, skaters toured the entire south end and found up to 4” of nice black ice. There were point leads and other hazzards. We will set up boats there tomorrow in spite of the poor wind forecast and hope that on such fine ice it won’t take much to get going. Is your alignment perfect? Come tomorrow and find out!

The north end is open.
Some forecasts are calling for light snow late Saturday, but if we dodge it then it appears to be clear sailing all week.

In spite of the lousy forecast today, the true iceboaters took the old mantra “show up and pray” to heart and at both ends of the state gave it their best shot. Tyler Vroman found three inches of black ice at Kellys Landing, Moosehead Lake:

Tyler had his skate sail and as far as he could see, there was black ice. Sadly, barely a breath to scoot.

Down at Sabbatus Chris and Nick pushed around searching for a puff, all for naught. But, they were on the ice, in their boats, and that counts as one day of iceboating in the season’s ledger.

The pending snow tonight appears to be covering the entire state. Not until later in the week will there be a warming spell with a chance of rain.

But Bravo to you guys who got out there today and hoped for the best: it could just as easily turned out much differently.

The snow came un-announced and un-invited today. like the noxious neighbor to your quiet Christmas gathering. It was still coming down as your scout left the ice; no telling how much will fall. But the good news is that we had a look at what’s there.
Goulds Landing has 4” of grey ice. Halfway to the mouth of the harbor there is a long line of brash ice extending side to side. The edge of the old ice was beat up in the most recent wind, and then froze back together in a mosaic. Could be sailed over slowly. Below, looking back at the ramp.

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About like that time on Moosehead when Denis and Frank didn’t get the last minute change in launch site and went to The Birches. The rest of the fleet set out from Rockwood. We could see them coming down the lake from the north ( from which Canadians usually come) but there was a full width mess of rough brash between us. We began carefully checking it when Frank came flying over it, smashing and crashing the whole way. So if you can take it, your boat probably can as well.

Beyond that is 3’ of black ice with scattered pools of 2”. All very hard and strong.

Dollar Island is on the left. No open holes were observed; there were two skaters in the distance. There might be something from them on the Facebook skaters site.

There are a few, very few, small slush pits. The ice under these snow cones is thick but soft. They could swallow a runner if you hit them just right, but probably would not. Best to avoid them anyway:

If you are sailing there with the ice covered in snow, even a dusting, these will present as small mounds.

Close up of the ice crystal flowers blanketing the plate like a field of albino buttercups. The ice between them was black less than an hour earlier…

So that’s what we got. Very sailable with more checking. However, light and dying west winds tomorrow, 1.5” of snow forecast for Sunday night and then again on Wednesday and Thursday.

Just in from Eddie Zelonish: Sabbatus is reported to have 2.5-3.5” of black ice with a dusting of snow. Even less wind there tomorrow but it might be great skating.