Don’t forget this coming Sunday at Damariscotta Lake Farm Inn, with a fine view of one of our favorite lakes: 11:00 meeting to be followed soon thereafter by a great pot luck lunch.
And to get you back in the mood, another video from Dan Stillman:
|
|
|
Hope to see you there.
We all know how important it is to be there for the new sailor: get him or her into a boat with the right gear and nurse them along until they are comfortable on their own It doesn’t take long: you know after a few minutes whether they are hooked or terrified.
Dan Stillman is solidly in the former:
|
|
|
Spring Meeting Sunday, 4/21!
Yes, there is still ice to report about: eighteen inches of it! What’s interesting is that we got a water temperature reading yesterday from just under the ice and from twelve feet down. Both were between 33 and 34 degrees. One school of thought reasons that the water gets warmer under the ice as the days get longer and the earth surrounding the lake warms up, melting the ice from below in addition to the warm air working on the ice from above.
If that’s the case, then we’re still a long way from ice-out. Jeff skated from Greenville Junction early yesterday, but the ice was getting soft by 8:00. There’s lots of open water in the north end, but the south is mostly intact. What sort of fun could be had on miles of slush?
From the “in your dreams” department, Bill Bernard sent this from Dillon Lake, Colorado:
If ice fishermen could be convinced to back fill their holes we might have far fewer drainholes over the course of a winter.
We have booked the big hall at Damariscotta Lake Farm Inn for Sunday, April 21.
11:00 business meeting followed by our classic CIBC Pot Luck lunch. At risk of sounding like a broken record, this feast gets better and better every year. Thanks to everyone who puts in a great effort to feed their fellow iceboaters!
As usual, feel free to bing any gear to sell or give away.
Feast your eyes on this line-up at Lake Farm on March 1. Aside from a few random drain holes the ice was fantastic and we thought we were in for our usual superb March spring sailing. Optimists all!
Late this past Friday it was looking like Easter Sunday might be a possible sailing day at Moosehead. Indeed, it was the only day before a major snow storm coming on Wednesday. But who, we thought, wants to take a long shot on short notice on Easter?
Guillaume Bourdin and his girlfriend Maisie, that’s who. Since moving from Freeskates to DN’s he and his buddy Nils have been super gung-ho. Today was the icing on the cake of a great first season for The French Guys.
Here’s his report:
“The iceboat season almost made it to April. The ice on Moosehead this morning was rough but sailable. Mostly hard with some places with a 1/4in thin layer of ice on top of a thin layer of air, and below the stronger ice sheet, so the runners were going through 1in here and there but the good wind was getting us going no matter what. The sun was out, with 31°F and NW 12 knots wind at 9am. We setup at Kelly’s landing and got spotted right away by your spy. We sailed two in the same boat and scouted thoroughly the cove first. We played it safe because we were the only ones on the ice all day, we didn’t go over the pressure ridge near the islands (the closest to Kelly’s landing we crossed together last time). We prefered to make sure there was no hidden hazards in the cove and stayed there even if it was very gusty. We found two drain holes 3 feet wide that froze again over night. The ice was 14 to 16 inches right around the holes edges so the plate is still quite strong, I just don’t know if it’s strong everywhere. We marked the holes with branches and sailed around two improvised marks. By 12-1pm the surface was getting soft with 39°F and the decreasing wind made sailing two in one boat challenging. We had a late lunch at Kelly’s to finish this wonderful Easter day and headed back to Orono.
There might be another spring sail after the snow and the warm temperatures, but it’s becoming more and more unlikely. I will keep an eye on these webcam and satellite data.”
Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club 