Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

We scouted the pond abut half way across and all the way down to the marshes along the road side and found a consistent 3″ of grey ice. The few patches of thick snow sheltered thinner ice, but there are not many of these and are easy to avoid. The hard frozen snow is fine, as is the thin un-bonded stuff.

This is the typical surface. If you’re quick, you could sail on only this, avoiding everything else, and have a fine day. Here, Jim is working on his fore hand.

This certainly looks less than appealing, but Dave Fortier has offered to lead us right down the middle. The glossy spots are 2″ of new black ice. The rest of the frozen stuff is fine. The snow in the left background should be avoided. Temps in the teens tonight might bring us another inch.

Fortier’s boat is set up on the ice, ready for the morning. Gagnon, Squibb, myself and who knows who else will be sailing tomorrow. Big snow storm Monday will put us back to square one, so come get it while it lasts. Plymouth Store lunch counter open till noon, but hot coffee, soup and pizza all day.

Nature is doing her best to make up for the big disappointment she dealt us earlier in the week. Amazing how a little guilt gets you going.

Dave Godin just got in from a quick flight to the west coast and back, wasting not a minute of all that air time:

and went right to Plymouth and sent this thirty minutes ago:

He reports an inch and a half of ice and some patches of snow, as shown. It’s 27 there right now and dropping into single digits tonight. This might give is another inch by tomorrow, and certainly more on Sunday. Understand that this is not going to be high strength black ice, so tomorrow will be a scouting day with a report making a call for Sunday sailing to come.

New ice skim at beach early morning. Not even “kitty ice” but ice finally. 20 F this Friday AM to continue through Sunday but with wind day and night making an ice seizure unlikely. However this may cool water and make it receptive to light snow and rain early in week for a supercooled slush freezeup. The prospect for a Christmas regatta improves.

In spits and spats, chills and chillies, winter is coming. Haven’t we’ve had years where it just gets cold, we have black ice, and then one day it snows? The Western Challenge has been called on, then off, then on again, and now the search is on for a venue, to be announced Thursday.

Here in Maine, the hope was that the new thin plate on Plymouth Pond would submerge under the weight of the snow, wet out, and freeze into a lovely sheet of grey ice. Here’s a reality check:

Dave Godine will check it again Friday, but we’ll be looking further afield as well. Stand By.

A dedicated few had the last look at first ice on Plymouth this morning. Brian Hitchcock and Dave Godin both beheld the bare beauty of black ice before the beast barreled in and buried it.

It’s snowing now in Camden and radar indicates heavy snow everywhere. Lee Spiller in New Hampshire got hit first, and sent this:

So, now we look to ponds that haven’t frozen yet, but still could during the deep cold snap later in the week. Keep your eyes open!