Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

The snow is lovely, light and deep,
But now it starts to creep.

Around the edges of wet out ice
the white stuff moves like little mice.

Pulling the curtain over our plate,
If it changes not, to rain, it will be too late.

Nature cares not one snot
If we go sailing or not.

The snow that’s falling should be rain
But the pure white stuff is the meanest stain.

We look now to our brothers south,
To check the ice, send word of mouth.

The coming cold will chill the soft
And once more go the sails aloft!

x

One, Two Three, just like that: the days of sailing roll on by. Another fine day today in the south end with the wind stronger than forecast and a bit more out of the west. The westerly opened up the nice bay near Camp Kieve and Red Roof Island. All the ice through there is good. Thickness is now up to six inches.

Above, looking south into Deep Cove. In addition to the Whizz and Bob MacEwen’s Mini Skeeter here, we had Jos VanDyke with DN, Linc Davis with Cheapskate and Rob Dimitriof in his beloved Lockley. The club certainly ticked the diversity box today!

There is a long ice puddle extending from the west side, opposite the last island before the narrows. The ice is still connected in the bottom of the pool but will probably burst soon. A pine branch marks the west end of it.

The ice trail along the shore is much harder now and is actually a nice walk coming and going. The wind works its way down through the trees to give an occasional shove, especially just as you are navigating through the dead branches of the fallen tree.

Looks like the snow tomorrow is minimal so sailing could be had but for the lack of wind.

Here are some highlights from today:

Iceboat Damariscotta Lake, 2024 Jan 23 youtu.be

And one a bit calmer:

Damariscotta Lake Iceboat 2024-01-23 youtu.be

As always, best viewed on the BIG screen.

As happens sometimes, we are awash in ice. So many options. We locals are going to Damariscotta, per previous post.

Michael Young reports decent ice on Eagle Lake, MDI.

Eddie Zelonish skated the north end of Thompson after doing the south end yesterday. 3-5” everywhere with a pressure ridge right where it was last year. Pure Black Ice.

Randy Rice skated some more Black Ice off Leavitts Beach, Winnipesaukee yesterday. It’s bound to be growing like weeds just now.

Lastly, we all know about the humble ax as an ice checking tool, but it is also very handy for salvage at sea operations.

Do the same rules for soft water salvage apply to hard water? In this case they did.

A few intrepid ice sailors will drag their boats out to the plate tomorrow. All are welcome. See last post for more details.

Last night’s cold temps did nothing to heal the slush pits, so be aware.

Damariscotta Lake Ice Report 01.21.2024 youtube.com

Additional sailing directions: as you leave the pits, there is a narrow band of ice right along the shore that boats can be pushed over to avoid the snow. But it’s RIGHT along the bank. Too far off and you’ll find the slush.,