Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Yesterday we found 3” at Vannah Rd and a very nice surface thanks to Wednesday’s rain. Today, skaters toured the entire south end and found up to 4” of nice black ice. There were point leads and other hazzards. We will set up boats there tomorrow in spite of the poor wind forecast and hope that on such fine ice it won’t take much to get going. Is your alignment perfect? Come tomorrow and find out!

The north end is open.
Some forecasts are calling for light snow late Saturday, but if we dodge it then it appears to be clear sailing all week.

In spite of the lousy forecast today, the true iceboaters took the old mantra “show up and pray” to heart and at both ends of the state gave it their best shot. Tyler Vroman found three inches of black ice at Kellys Landing, Moosehead Lake:

Tyler had his skate sail and as far as he could see, there was black ice. Sadly, barely a breath to scoot.

Down at Sabbatus Chris and Nick pushed around searching for a puff, all for naught. But, they were on the ice, in their boats, and that counts as one day of iceboating in the season’s ledger.

The pending snow tonight appears to be covering the entire state. Not until later in the week will there be a warming spell with a chance of rain.

But Bravo to you guys who got out there today and hoped for the best: it could just as easily turned out much differently.

The snow came un-announced and un-invited today. like the noxious neighbor to your quiet Christmas gathering. It was still coming down as your scout left the ice; no telling how much will fall. But the good news is that we had a look at what’s there.
Goulds Landing has 4” of grey ice. Halfway to the mouth of the harbor there is a long line of brash ice extending side to side. The edge of the old ice was beat up in the most recent wind, and then froze back together in a mosaic. Could be sailed over slowly. Below, looking back at the ramp.

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About like that time on Moosehead when Denis and Frank didn’t get the last minute change in launch site and went to The Birches. The rest of the fleet set out from Rockwood. We could see them coming down the lake from the north ( from which Canadians usually come) but there was a full width mess of rough brash between us. We began carefully checking it when Frank came flying over it, smashing and crashing the whole way. So if you can take it, your boat probably can as well.

Beyond that is 3’ of black ice with scattered pools of 2”. All very hard and strong.

Dollar Island is on the left. No open holes were observed; there were two skaters in the distance. There might be something from them on the Facebook skaters site.

There are a few, very few, small slush pits. The ice under these snow cones is thick but soft. They could swallow a runner if you hit them just right, but probably would not. Best to avoid them anyway:

If you are sailing there with the ice covered in snow, even a dusting, these will present as small mounds.

Close up of the ice crystal flowers blanketing the plate like a field of albino buttercups. The ice between them was black less than an hour earlier…

So that’s what we got. Very sailable with more checking. However, light and dying west winds tomorrow, 1.5” of snow forecast for Sunday night and then again on Wednesday and Thursday.

Just in from Eddie Zelonish: Sabbatus is reported to have 2.5-3.5” of black ice with a dusting of snow. Even less wind there tomorrow but it might be great skating.

The snow came un-announced and un-invited today. like the noxious neighbor to your quiet Christmas gathering. It was still coming down as your scout left the ice; no telling how much will fall. But the good news is that we had a look at what’s there.
Goulds Landing has 4” of grey ice. Halfway to the mouth of the harbor there is a long line of brash ice extending side to side. The edge of the old ice was beat up in the most recent wind, and then froze back together in a mosaic. Could be sailed over slowly. Below, looking back at the ramp.

l

About like that time on Moosehead when Denis and Frank didn’t get the last minute change in launch site and went to The Birches. The rest of the fleet set out from Rockwood. We could see them coming down the lake from the north ( from which Canadians usually come) but there was a full width mess of rough brash between us. We began carefully checking it when Frank came flying over it, smashing and crashing the whole way. So if you can take it, your boat probably can as well.

Beyond that is 3’ of black ice with scattered pools of 2”. All very hard and strong.

Dollar Island is on the left. No open holes were observed; there were two skaters in the distance. There might be something from them on the Facebook skaters site.

There are a few, very few, small slush pits. The ice under these snow cones is thick but soft. They could swallow a runner if you hit them just right, but probably would not. Best to avoid them anyway:

If you are sailing there with the ice covered in snow, even a dusting, these will present as small mounds.

Close up of the ice crystal flowers blanketing the plate like a field of albino buttercups. The ice between them was black less than an hour earlier…

So that’s what we got. Very sailable with more checking. However, light and dying west winds tomorrow, 1.5” of snow forecast for Sunday night and then again on Wednesday and Thursday.

Just in from Eddie Zelonish: Sabbatus is reported to have 2.5-3.5” of black ice with a dusting of snow. Even less wind there tomorrow but it might be great skating.

The deep cold snap has allowed us to leap frog over dear old Plymouth and move directly to Pushaw. Plymouth is a mess anyway, as shown by Ryan Haskell’s photo from today:

There’s 3.5” at the ramp but the surface is uninspiring to say the least. These are the days of new black ice, not the crud we accept to sail on after a long dry spell in February.

Today at Cooks Landing, Pushaw, there was 1.5” of black ice as far as the eye could see. Granted, the eyes were cold and tired and didn’t scout extensively but that’s enough to get our attention. There will be cleats on the ice tomorrow for a more detailed report. The weather looks great for many days, so keep your fingers crossed, runners sharp and gas tanks filled.

If this shapes up to be as amazing as last year’s early season Pushaw we will have no regrets in not going to the Western Challenge, where they are sailing in snow:

Nonetheless, best of luck to Jeff and Paul, and all the sailors there.

By the way, there were two correct responses to the “where’s the photo” quiz: Eddie Velonish and Ramblin Roger. Hopefully, the next few days will put us just where that photo was snapped!