Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

I’m out here on the shores of lake michigan, caregiving my 100 year old mother…..and i thought it would be pretty dull….lake michigan was frozen solid for miles and miles, with open water near the shore, and a wide variety of ice colors and textures.
How could this ice possibly disappear, I wondered? There was no place for the ice to go, as there might be on a river. Then, two days ago, the ice began to turn bright colors, blue, green and even brown. Then, far off shore and parallel to it, a strip of dark open water, as though left behind by an icebreaker, appeared from a point of land to the west, eastward for 6 miles.

Yesterday, that strip had widened, and with the waves produced in that narrow strip, had turned the entire area—mile after square mile–into brash ice, totally immersed in water, like rum on the rocks….this ice was an even darker blue-green color. It would obviously absorb heat quickly.

and then today, a single day later…..miles and miles of ice was magically gone….vanished overnight….how could so much ice so quickly disappear? it simply didn’t have to go anywhere, but once broken in small pieces and bathed it water, it could melt in hours, not days…

i thought i would be far from the fascination of ice…..NOT SO!…..jory

Here is the “Last Ice” around the corner from Lloyd’s beach. There was a fair amount of this stuff blown down my way, so although the lake was “Navigable” by Coast Guard standards the ice was not all out. My “Ice Out” time and date was Independence day April 19 at 3:47 PM (when observed from Rte 17). On the morning of April 19 there were a few independent patches of ice cruising around the lake in light and variable breezes, by afternoon only small pieces of old snow covered ice were jammed in leeward corners and by morning April 21 after heavy rains there was no ice seen anywhere, true ICE OUT. Long hot summer follows.

Note shiny water, grey ice, dark gray broken up ice cubes,and snow covered ice. The ice cubes tend to stay together, surface tension perhaps.

bring on the riff-raff

the halt and the lame
we’ll booze ’em and schmooze ’em
and hail ’em by name

our hobby’s as safe
as your Eas-Y-Boy chair
as exciting as Harley’s
with wind in your hair

no talk of dis-mastings
or the times we went in
or the miles of gear-schlepping
to sit without wind

we’ll find you a boat
at the autumn swap-meet
and you’ll outfit in style
from your helmet to cleat

then late in November
the tremens will hit
you’ll eyeball the puddles
in the thaws, have a fit.

but in frigid December:
your buddies will phone
your mate will roll over
and groan a laud groan

she’ll think of a hundred
things to be done
‘for she grabs at her pencil,
your off on the run

in time she will learn
your ice mistress holds sway:
with an ongoing date
from November to May

but you’re off with pulse racing
to the lake in a trice
Just as the yellow sun
touches the ice

Your buddies are setting up
quick as a cat
and if tell-tales are moving
there’ll be narry a chat.

You thought they were buddies
you’re a newby… so hey!
but here on the ice,
an addiction’s at bay

I’m a sailor, you tell yourself
i’ll do this or die
but the darned thing justs sits there
as others streak by

but soon you’ll be moving
by hook and by crook
doing things that could never
be learned from a book

and sometimes you’ll notice
the ice is so fair
you’ll exclaim, holy jaysus
we’re floating on air

and you’ll think of that springtime
when you strayed to the Ball
that was the beginning–
that cursed beginning–
that started it all

Greenville temp today 8 am: 25 degrees. Wind SSW @0. It’s been blowing a gale around here for days, and on the morning after the first cold night in a week we have nothing. Not until the temps hit fifty did the breeze come up here at the coast, but Moosehead still had only 5 kts. Local interest in a Moosehead sail was fairly non-existent anyway, and now there is no cold night on the horizon, so we will let that lovely lady have her way with us finally. Personally, I’ll take it laying down.

As Lloyd mentioned in his note this morning, please join us for the spring meeting May 9.

Ten days after Easter. Our 16 plus inches of ice is melting very fast. It seems elastic with large areas of open water appearing and then in a couple of hours disappearing depending on wind shifts. The ice moves very slowly and seems to be able to compress or expand probably due to water between the melting crystals. High speed tectonic plate shifts in real time, fascinating.

Come to the Spring Party Saturday May 9th, 11 AM to 3 PM at the Damariscotta Farm Inn and B&B across the road from where we launch, about 50 yards SW of the intersection of State Rtes 32 and 126 on the NW corner of Damariscotta Lake. Non members are welcome, bring something to eat to share with others.

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