Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Jory Squibb’s report from today:

what a treat….putting on your pajamas at 430 PM….when your body has glided over maybe 25 miles of perfect ice….and snow is predicted…so there’s a completion…your greed for more is in abeyance.
i swear the body has an ‘”ice appestat” buried deep in the primitive, reptilian brain which regulates the craving for ice. It works on both a weekly and seasonal basis. When we’re snowed out for a week or a fortnight; when, to quote a poem:

“you couldn’t sail, you couldn’t skate
and harsh words passed,
‘tween man and mate”

then a deep hunger prevails.
So today, on lovely Silver Lake, north of Bucksport, none of us could bear to go home until the weak winter sun was touching the trees, and our shadows had lengthened beyond sight. And that appestat was sighing: …well….
There were a dozen skaters, 4 skim- batters, two iceboaters, and a lone kick-sledder…all lapping up that essential food, fearful of the fasting ahead. Today, I remembered my old motto: never leave beautiful ice! I don’t know if that means you should sleep on the ice; but you should remember the regrets you will have if you haven’t maxed it out.
i wanted to send you a picture, but nothing would serve: Silver Lake must remain, like our first time on Pushaw, in some legendary fairy-land. I had heard that almost all the hazards of my time there three days ago had healed, so i set out on a confident circumnavigation, stopping to yakk with Bill and Guy and eventually exploring with them the last unexplored mystery: “ SE bay”. There, facing the sun, snacking happily, with my back to the reedy tussock-grass, what a treat to hear bill’s exquisite iceboat-cum-art object screech around the corner and glide into the reeds, soon followed by Guy in the pirouettes of skim batting. Truly, is there a realm beyond heaven?

hours later, finally heading toward the pits at 130, semi-exhausted, (self-propulsion is indeed taxing)….still… no way was i heading to that repulsive parking lot: AROUND AGAIN! this time i took more breaks, even started a nap in SE Bay, when the resident Beaver poked up thru his breathing hole in the grass just behind my head, took some raspy breaths and woke me up. You couldn’t sleep anyway; had to glide.
Eventually… as the sun was sinking lower…iceboaters/skimbatters were gathering to yakk in Middle Bay…. and …near the launch, a royal gaggle of folks were comparing extasys before heading home.
This lake reminds you of Megunticook….about the same size…and richly variegated ….this freeze reminds me of the seasons on Megunticook….about one in 5…when the lake, in spite of its chaotic mini-climates…freezes as a unit and—magic!- we are all kids let out of school
When will the snow come tomorrow? could it dodge little Silver again? Could the Higher Power grant us just one more day? Quien Sabe?
tired but fondly, jory

Four inches of smooth hard ice, microscopic dusting of snow. Skimmed holes now have 2.25” of ice with a tad more expected by morning. Some of these healed holes have pine branch markers. There is a long semi-healed crack which you need to locate before you can safely sail this lake. Check in before you go out. Excellent forecast, excellent ice. All that’s needed now is excellent company.

On Graham Lake in Ellsworth there is the same plate of ice. It’s been scouted around the perimeter with a few crossings and appears to be in great shape. If there will be DN racing that will be the place; either an NEIYA regatta or scratch racing. As usual this time of year things happen fast. There are two possible launch sites, but the south end near the dam (gulp) is the best launch. There was a little water seeping up around the edge, but the plate is fine. A short plank will be helpful. Be sure you access this site from Rt.180. If you wind up on the wrong side of the dam you’ll need to drive around.

The forecast looks pretty good for a nice stretch if we can dodge a few white bullets midweek.

It’s not unreasonable to ask for a White Christmas. The song has sold millions of copies and snow on Christmas has become the gold standard for the holiday here in New England. If it snows on Christmas then all must be right with the world. But as iceboaters, are we willing to trade “all being right in the world” for multiple plates of black ice? And even better than black, that lovely, smooth glass-like re-surfaced stuff for which Pushaw, in this club’s collective memory, set the bar for perfection a few years ago.

This is Silver Lake, in Bucksport. Three and a half inches everywhere, six in the bays and coves, of which there are many. Have a look at a map. You can sail everywhere. Well, could have. That White Christmas thing seems to be coming around mid-day tomorrow, right after that long lazy breakfast punctuated with the opening of gifts. It looks like it’ll be with us for twenty four hours. What pops out the other end is anyone’s guess.
Graham Lake, just down the road in Ellsworth, looks like this today:

It was tempting to keep this photo a secret, just to avoid breaking the hearts of our southern sailors waiting for the word to come north. Thanks to Bob Lombardo for this.

But back to Silver, which is new to us iceboaters. The launch is excellent, and the close, intimate sailing would be about like being in the Damariscotta River all the time. Small marshy hummocks to round, tight narrows to short tack through, and just enough open space to let the boat run. The possibilities for hide and go seek are legion.

and if you really want to push it:

Please forgive your ice-stoned correspondent for going on and on like this. If it makes you feel any better, we did have a major failure. The light and variable forecast was blown out the window by a fresh Wester. We could have had boats on this magical plate and sailed ourselves silly. As it is, we’ll have to get by with “all’s well with the world”. Not a bad trade-off, but still.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all some black ice.

Things are looking up for the Christmas week. Cold nights , calm winds and days below freezing will bring us lots of black for the holidays. Damariscotta at Vannah Rd. is starting to freeze; the north end is open. Typical.Pushaw is junk for the foreseeable future. Plymouth Pond has 6” of medium hard ice with a 1/2” dusting of snow on top.

xx

It’s probably sailable, but the winds are light for the next few days so we need to find a better surface.

Unity Pond, not far away, was just on the other side of the snow-rain divide. It already had an 1 1/4” of black ice when an inch of snow fell and then was quickly wet out by the rain, The resulting 2 1/4” is weak; the two layers are actually not bonded. Here’s a chuck cut out:

But the surface is just lovely.

Those shiney spots are not holes, just spots that wet out differently.

So for now, this is the plate to watch. The first decent breeze in the forecast is Tuesday. By then this lake should be bulletproof. But some others might be as well.

If anyone knows of anything else worth looking at please check in here!

We have all kinds of possibilities, but nothing for sure yet. I think there’s a good chance we’ll have something, though. Some lakes that were open when it snowed formed weak slush ice: 2” and can’t stand on it. Others were open and the snow dissolved. Those might build enough thickness of new ice. And then there are those that were frozen when it snowed. Today it is raining lightly, forming ice on the roads, and hopefully will do something good to the snow covered lakes before it gets cold again.

Specifically, Pushaw looks to be getting rain after a dash of snow this morning, and then a hard freeze tonight. Sabattus already was snowed out and based on the storm track looks like it got much more. Messalonski, near Great Pond, had a half inch of black ice yesterday. It lays on the rain-snow boundary so could go either way. There are some other lakes near Augusta that Karin Wilson is watching.

The web cam at Damariscotta is still out, so that will be checked by eye tomorrow. Lake Chickawaukee is still open. If we can find something, it looks like a stellar stretch of weather over Christmas. Dare we ask for a Black Christmas?