Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Took a walk on Chicawaukee Friday Mar 22, (where I have been XC skiing).

The open water and honey combed ice at my beach is now 5-6 inches of soft snow ice, no plank needed. 100Yards out under 6 inches of soggy snow, but not slush, there is dark dry black ice. I chopped and chopped this clear fairly hard ice and finally broke through still solid ice at 10 inches!! Where did the 2-3 inches of junky wet stuff on the top and the leaky junky stuff under that all go? No water welled up into the hole while chopping as it did about ten days ago when rain water just disappeared from the surface. This pretty good looking black ice contained no visible air and indeed after breaching the bottom the hole promptly filled with clear, not brown run off, water and overflowed onto the ice spreading out into the snow. Why hasn’t all the ice sunk and wetted out the snow? It seems to have sealed itself in the last week of cold weather and now it does not have buoyancy enough to hold up the snow.
If it is still 10 inches thick it is not rotting out from underneath. How cold is the water? I trudged back to the house for my precision measuring device, a red fluid Taylor out door thermometer taped to the blade of a hockey stick. The water at the base of the ice seemed to be 32 F, at the depth of the hockey stick (junior size, about 4 ft) it seemed slightly warmer, about 33 F. This is probably floating on slightly denser 40 F water further down. The stream flowing into the lake at my beach was ice covered so I could not get its temperature, likely 32 F as it is mostly snow ice covered with very slow flow right now.
All we need is a couple of inches of rain and another few days of cold weather for Easter sailing.

Iceman

It has been brought to the attention of the scheduling committee by quite a few members that the 28th is a Sunday, not the Saturday. The event will be held on Saturday, April 27.

Fred Wardwell has offered to host our spring meeting again this year on Saturday, April 28. Show up late morning for a stout pot luck lunchtime feast. Business meeting to follow in Fred’s Gentlemen’s Club.

wardwell’s – Google Maps

Feel welcome to bring gear, boats, projects, questions, or any cool stuff to share or swap.

Below, Fred Wardwell sailing his new Gambit last Monday on Damariscotta. Built by Stu Nelson some years ago. You can tell that he’s not really taking a nap by the little ice spray from the leeward runner. You Go Fred!

There was music this morning on Lake Damariscotta. The lake ice was singing it’s death throes. When ice sings in the fall and early winter, it’s a happy song because we know that it’s growing thick and strong. But now those deep roars and shallow crystal pings celebrate the breaking up of the plate. It’s down to nine inches, the pressure ridges are dynamic and the cracks are spreading.

In spite of all this action, we had yet another fine day on the rough ice. As we couldn’t get into the south end where the ice is smoother, we satisfied ourselves with the extreme north end, and the cove at the pits. With the wind backing more to the west later in the day, the pits cove became a great little playground. The ice never softened; we never had to switch to slush runners. Not bad for mid-March.

Lloyd, Bunting, Fred Wardwell, another Fred from York, and an intrepid traveller from Maryland were there. What is it with the Maryland guys? This is the second time this year we’ve had sailors from that far south. Last time it was three guys who drove up from Annapolis in shifts all night to arrive here first thing in the morning for two days of sailing. And we complain about four hours to Sunnapee? David Lampton took Fred’s Gambit for a sail and is convinced he’ll have a boat of his own by next season. You heard it here!

Jory celebrated the end of the season in his last post, and indeed, the trip to South Twin, perfect ice, good company, and expedition energy all combined to create the perfect last day. But remember the younger days, when the morning after a terrific party a couple of early risers get together in the carnage, find a few warm beers, and just sit back and reminisce bit? Yea, today was like that. Time to start building iceboats!

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>> I promised Fred that if he wanted to sail in Monday I would sail too. Who can say “no” to a 90 year old iceboater? I took some longer planks and a pallet over today and with the plank that was there made a decent bridge. It is supposed to get cold tonight and the forecast tomorrow is for 8 mph W wind, which might be just about right to sail over that grade 5 ice without gritting or losing your teeth. It will be the first day of Spring, and the last day on the ice. I hope that others will join us.

>> Bill Bunting
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