Twenty-four inches of ice. Greenville Junction Launch ramp and beach tight. Big temperature drop Saturday night. A little snow falling right now, but warmth tomorrow should melt it.
Iceboaters are meeting at 9:00 to see what they can see. Hoping to see Kineo in the distance, slowly closing in on a long thrash to windward.
Storm sails required. Slush runners optional.
Consistent warm temps are eating the ice. Sea smoke is pouring off the surface, much like in the early season when the lake water is dumping its heat. Now it’s the reverse: the ice is dumping its cold.
We’ve had a few days of this. The plate is down to the original black ice; even the early season wind holes ice are clearly visible with their different shades of grey and black.
The weather forecast for Moosehead does not look hopeful at this point. And just to add insult to injury some snow is expected. There might be a morning or two in the coming week that would allow some sailing; one can’t underestimate the effect of the“refrigerator effect” of twenty-four inches of ice on the surface. But it can’t compete with temps in the forties with sun.
There might be a wonderful lake in Quebec, just across the border, that could still come in. But even they are waiting for cold. And the big chill coming from Washington won’t help.
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Regarding long shots, it seems that if you crunch the numbers you’ll find that in our world, more often than not, the odds turn up in our favor. So it was today. There was a miserable wind forecast, but there was also a couple of hungry iceboaters who could not be there yesterday. They made the call, and what a winner it was. Very light air was forecast. Whatever: a day spent messing around on the ice pushing the boat isn’t the worse way to waste a day.
After a couple of hours trying to sail downwind to the top of the lake we gave up and had lunch with plumb telltails. But by and by there was a puff, then more puff and before long there was a steady 10knts. It held and built as the day wore on and the miles slipped by under the planks. By late afternoon the ice was softening, as were the muscles. The marge held tight all day and trailers were pulled off easily.
Looking forward, Moosehead is shaping up nicely, and once we get through this week-long warm spell there should be a pretty nice surface. Long term, it looks like next Friday, a week from tomorrow, is the day to start thinking about.
Ice-out is coming. Don’t let a little lousy forecast keep you from a potentially wonderful day.
