Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

While we were were being good boys and staying close to home over Christmas, Denis Guertin took his family to the ice and managed to snatch another fantastic bit of sailing from Lac Joli. Since last week when the Yankees were there they have had snow, rain, and everything in between. Yet from all that chaos came this lovely sheet of orange peel. There were a few holes where the slush pits had formed, but the ice was still over three inches.

It’s snowing in Quebec and inland Maine today; we’re getting rain and freezing rain here on the coast. The coming week will be tossing us our own mixed bag of wintery wetness and all we can do at this point is to hope that somehow Plymouth Pond pops out at the other end with something satisfying for us starving sailors.

The old stern steerer “Whirlwind” is all decked out with a new high aspect ratio sail, all the rigging sorted out, and sharpened and aligned runners. They were only out .060, which for a boat nearly 100 years old is pretty amazing. We have seen nothing but high quality first class construction and materials every where we looked. All we need now is that elusive hard frozen stuff and a buyer for the boat.

She is for sale for a serious buyer. Contact Lloyd or myself for details. On the trailer ready to go. More photos available.

the monday after…..musing over morning toast and tea….i’m religious this morning….what an absolute honor to be doing this in my mid-70’s….i just can’t bow low enough in gratitude….we had all the four corner foundations of iceboating on this last “chercher la glace” trip to Quebec.

Ice: it was basically smooth with occational dry scabs and 75% covered by unbonded snow drifts…..Denis Guertin, our host, had sent us a photo of the lake prior to the present snowfall….the kind of seductive photo which should be outlawed!…..seeing it, we were goners…..

Wind: blowing with a background of 15 knots, with gusts to about 30…every iceboater will know that this is no-mans-land….snow whirlwinds visible everywhere….all day long, you could SEE, by the blowing snow, what the wind was doing…..occasional whiteout conditions….runners covered with ice….boat feeling on the edge of control 75% of the time….when we looked at the lake for the first time–a lake 1 mile by 1/2 mile– ANY SANE PERSON would have headed for the lodge, the fire, and a good book.

Buddies: here we were super blessed…..part of my bow of gratitude, is having these amazing buddies….each of the five of us an unusual creature worth spending time with. Bill…who was out in front of my house at 6AM hitching up my trailer for a 4 hour drive….i’m treated like a pasha….he’s a consumate craftsman, raconteur, high-liver, and a totally devoted iceboater…..Lee Spiller, craftsman in stone, soft-water sailer….devoted caretaker of an ailing wife….a man whose slow reflective speech bespeaks utmost integrity and honesty….Dave Fortier…probably the most meticulous craftsman I will ever meet….persevering against all odds….and Denis….Denis….here I grow mute….I cannot describe the realized humanity of this man….kind….generous…in a manner distinctively French….again a thorough craftsman… traveling with every tool and part you could need, with a massive efficient trailer housing two whizzes and two DN’s….an ex-snowmobiler….consumate ice-spy….devoted father…french-speaker…

The situation: The fourth foundation, sometimes missing, is a wonderful overall situation…. it can be the amazing beauty….or the utter wildness….or the auxiliary context of the actual iceboating….here we were housed in an almost-european Inn….hovered over and mothered over by Madam, who cooked us warm-your-bones meals, weaved on her nearby loom while we played pool….anticipated every need….all with a naturalness one seldom sees…

but probably I’m mostly mellow….mostly stoned…..by our having gone together….gone to the very edge, the very limit of danger. please view again Denis’s U-tube and stop frame on 1:14 minutes….and stare at it:

https://youtu.be/GOmCeicwc88

that’s Bill….with a storm sail borrowed from Denis…. faintly visible in the blizzard….we’re headed to the downwind, south end of the lake….and the unanswered question: can we possibly round up at this breakneck speed….will the runners hold against a spin-out?….will the bow runner answer the helm to bear off a lee shore?….perhaps it was the wild, blowing snow, giving only partial visibility….but as i watched this exact moment from just upwind….something clicked in: THIS… is the very limit….the cliff-edge of sanity…..HERE…you could die content…

It’s been a long day, and I forgot to include an observation we should all keep in mind. Saturday the ice was five inches thick and fairly uniform. There were no holes or cracks, but there were small mounds of frozen slush. Runners didn’t penetrate these at all.
It continued to snow and blow hard all night. When we got to the lake in the morning it was about half blown clear. There were wind packed drifts, but Jory thought we could blow right through them. I was thinking that with all that wind and runners getting slowed by drifts could be trouble but what no one anticipated was the new slush pits:

They were nominally visible and scattered randomly about. There was solid ice under them, but you can see here how deep they were. We could only guess as to their origin, but we figured it must have been the wind forcing the plate down, thus forcing water up through small cracks to wet out the snow. The more snow that gathered on the wet spot the bigger and deeper they became. Any one else have any ideas? Needless to say, we packed up and came home!

The access was excellent; that’s Etienne in the orange pointing the way to his waterfront gazebo.

As we have all learned the hard way, the best of ice forecasts can be so easily be rendered asunder by mirthful greater power. So even as conditions weren’t quite right for a regatta, we scratch raced and generally tore around in the most outrageous conditions. A lake side dweller by the name of Etienne lit the fire in his gazebo for us, made a pot of coffee, and displayed the most wonderful generosity. I think it’s important to respond to such hospitable overtures, especially when it’s blowing thirty with driving snow!

Many thanks to “Madam” at Le Morillion for feeding and warming us five frozen iceboaters: Squibb, Buchholz, Lee Spiller, Fortier and Denis Guertin. Also in from Vermont for a quick iceboat tutorial was Ed Pirog, who bought the old stern steerer form Brownsville. Thanks, Dave, for taking the time to show him a couple of things.

Plymouth Pond is still open water.

The venerable Commodore’s Cup itself has inscribed on it “Ice Will Suffice”. That sets the tone for this weekend’s sailing. We have a small pond in Ste. Aurelie called Lac Joli with 5″ of ice and a splendid surface. Lac Abenakis, about a mile away, is a mess of slush and standing water about 3″ thick.

We plan to scratch race on Joli Saturday and maybe move to Abenakis Sunday if the surface heals, only because it’s a bit bigger, or less small if you prefer.

Cross the border on US 201 near Jackman. Ste Aurelie is about an hour from Jackman. Drive through Ste. Aurelie, Lac Joli is on the left just through town. Jory, Denis and I will be there around ten. Dave Fortier and Lee Spiller Have said they might come. Anybody else?

Still no ice in sight locally.