Maybe a day too long

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Because of our love of sailing, and because WYC encourages boats to stay in as long as possible, we play a little game with Old Man Winter every year. The game is to stay on the water as long as possible, doing as many Shackleton Cup events as possible. So we do. It also helps that the 260 is such a safe dry boat. We have won the Shackleton Cup every year we have been at WYC.


We try and stay in to the Thanksgiving time-frame, or the last week in November. So when is the game up? Three things can press the issue:


  • Snow - If a big snow is forecast, and the likelihood of it staying on the ground is high, out the boat will come.
  • Cold - The cold air temps will freeze the boats systems. I winterize the the water systems before all this starts, but the diesel cooling system always worries me when it gets cold. We place a heater on the boat, but that is not fail-safe
  • Ice - Ice always seems to get us. Once the water temp gets below 39F, the lake can skim over with ice after any cold night. And that can make getting the boat out very difficult.


It seems ice always gets us. This year, we pulled on the Sunday before thanksgiving, as the following week was expected to be well below freezing and the water was already 39F. 39 degrees Fahrenheit is a bit of a magic number because it is when water is at it's densest. When the surface water is warmer than this in the Fall, the cooler air will cool the surface water, making it denser. So it sinks to the bottom, replaced by warmer water rising up. This happens until 39F, when the water does not sink but just gets colder. Once you hit this temperature, the surface can freeze over at any time. I went to the club the day before, and the lake looked fine. So the plan was to pull after the next day's Shackleton Cup. Except when we got there, the boat was frozen in. I stepped down hard on the ice, and it didn't crack. It took several attempts, as it was two inches thick. Yikes.



Now a new priority, just get the boat out. We set into the ice with dedicated ice picks, and out boots. Just when this seemed like it was going to be a huge job, the wind shifted and now waves from the still open main body of the lake were starting to break up the ice. That helped, but it created another problem. Now it was stacking up the ice in huge sheets against the transom of the boat. The rudders were are risk so I pulled them out. The motor was also useless because of the ice against the prop. Huh. We decided to winch the boat backwards into the ice and across to the windward finger dock, From there we could turn the boat and power out.


Finally to the mast pole, and then the crane. I've never taken a picture of this process, because I'm normally too busy with the crane controls. But my friend Bob, just behind us in his Ensign that he drove through the path in the ice we made, took this of BlueJ in the air.


All safe and dry. Another season is in the books. Look out 2014!!


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