If it floats, you can discuss it here?

[ApS]

It's not exactly floating, but I spent a couple of hours on The Broads today. It's the adventures of the U.S.S. Cartopper once again!

It was easy to row through the ice, whilst alternating power on the thin stretches with the electric trolling motor. This "ice-rowing" is not for everybody, but lots of folks seek the sun and solitude of The Broads. Me too.

It's not the first time I've been alone on a bright, sunny day in the middle of the Lake with only ice -- all around -- for company. http://www.winnipesaukee.com/oldforu...mes;read=54043 It occurred to me that only an airboat could come to my rescue should it be necessary. (Maybe a different ice-rower?)

I photographed Rattlesnake Island from there, while ice completely surrounded the U.S.S. Cartopper. A pair of mergansers were very put out that I should interrupt their quietude out there in a small watery opening. (Also photographed).

The troller ran just fine, but it was the oars that were taking the biggest beating -- by bending. Though I had spare oars, McGyver skills would be needed to rig some replacement oarlocks.

Aircraft were buzzing about. I was startled to see a single-engined STOL floatplane make an approach from The Broads to make a landing on Wolfeboro airport (which -- I thought -- was closed).

Not a problem: it was equipped with wheeled "amphibious floats", capable of runway landings. Another, a Luscombe, was just making lazy circles over Tuftonboro Neck and Welch Island.

Once again, the water was swimming-pool-clear. My map shows 30 feet at one point where I could see the bottom. (The bottom at 30 feet there is fairly featureless, so it took awhile to locate a "marker").

There were stares from distant construction workers: Admiration of the U.S.S. Cartopper's painted-on graphics, I'm certain.

I'd report on other boats out there...but there weren't any!

As I said, "ice-rowing" is not for everybody.

ApS

Where's YOUR boat?
Spoken with the emphasis of "What's in YOUR wallet?"
(A popular TV commercial).

[mcdude]

My boat is under the deck swaddled in a stylish blue plastic tarp, however, I hope to liberate it from its' winter bondage this afternoon and go "ice-paddling" myself. APS you did a wonderful job capturing the feeling of being out there! Also enjoyed seeing that old thread from April of 2003. Nice to know I was in Meredith in case I get subpeoned again! I think I was actually purchasing the kayak on that day!

View from my deck of Hills Pond April 19, 2004

Ice-out on Hills Pond and Sunset Lake 2004. Telephoto image taken by dcr from the top of Striaghtback Mountain

Ice-out at my dock - April 2003

[ApS]

Paddling does looks good for Sunday. My "ice-rowing" techniques need be shelved for a year, save for for Saturday's last adventure, related below:

Upon embarking, I was greeted at the dock by a White-Throated Sparrow -- really early to see them.

Generally speaking, dock damage is slight this year. A McMansion neighbor will need to replace his pilings -- as he does every year. The guy's a walking lake-barge employment machine. (And a Washington lobbyist -- so it's Federal money, coming back to Winnipesaukee).

Anyway, mid-day Saturday was sunny, still, shirt-sleeve, and mostly silent. I only had to "ice-row" about 50% of the new adventure (which took me in the only other direction available at the time).

With the sun directly overhead, and the water so clear, standing up in the boat was dizzying. Underwater obstructions that looked as though the boat would hit them...couldn't be touched with a 5-foot oar.

By trailing both oars astern, a touch on a handle would produce a "nudge" one direction or the other, correcting for slight wind changes. Course changes could be made by shifting my standing weight. (Even a cartopper is affected by wind -- there's much freeboard amidships.) This affects the relationship of the troller's off-center "drive" to "Center of- "??? Mass? Roll-center? Effort?

Not that there weren't distractions: Just ¼-mile into my "ice-rowing", a dog started barking frantically at me! Why can't dog owners train them just to bark at strange apparitions, I ask you?

Passing that mayhem at about 4-FPF (furlongs per fortnight), and while standing upright in the USS Cartopper, with a borrowed -- and tiny -- trolling motor, it was a delight to watch 3-D underwater features pass by in 25-feet of Winnipesaukee water. Finally stopped by un-rowable ice.

This unrowable ice has a strange appearance: Although 5-inches thick, it is topped by solid ice, and the bottom is solid ice. (Think edge-view of corregated cardboard, but enlarged). Native-American Inuit probably have a name for it.

At one point, a blue ghostly image appeared under the ice. It appeared to be an edge-view of a PFD.

Without thinking about a possible occupant, I rowed past at a distance, only to see it -- by itself -- push up through the ice! (It was a dark blue fender being used to mark a mooring. Whew!)

Disappointed at not having seen a single fish, and noting a wind change, I "ice-rowed" home through the path I had made (pictures to follow).

While standing on the dock, a football-field sized ice floe struck the dock, causing it to shudder. The ice is so fragile, though, the floe broke in half. (My bubblers were turned off at Easter). At the same time, a very large bass swam by -- in Predator mode -- at Predator speed. Six pounds?

As the black ice broke up around obstructions, it made the sound of BBs very s-l-o-w-l-y poured into a glass vase.

Saturday afternoon, the wind kicked up from the ~East, opening up a huge area out front. It's now half-open water. I'm switching to outboard power to check out dock damages for about two square miles of lakefronts -- Sunday. IF the wind picks up, and comes from two opposite directions, the ice could be gone in two days. (BIG "IF", though).


WHERE'S YOUR BOAT?



ApS

[ApS]

As Silver Duck has already noted, it was "Ice-Out" for some of us.

If you saw a 2PM to 4PM Snake Eyes image with a little motorboat out in the middle of The Broads -- in the middle of the afternoon -- that was me, picking up flotsam in the dead-calm waters.

"Dead-calm" because once stopped off Rattlesnake and shutting off the engine, you could actually hear a conversation at Lake Shore Park, 2½ miles away, and another on Tuftonboro Neck -- closer -- at 1¼ miles.

A chainsaw ran for about 1 hour between Sleeper's Point and Coleman's Point. There was Harley activity there, too, heading north -- then back again. It was surreal, listening to activities so distant. I heard a fish jump, too, but couldn't even guess (within a mile) where it had jumped from. Bubblers were still churning too-little water on Rattlesnake -- heard from ½-mile away.

Scanning, hopefully, the clear blue skies for news camera-equipped "Ice-Out" aircraft, I settled instead to search for eagles or ospreys: with both efforts being unsuccessfull. ('Would like to have been a featured photograph in the Union-Leader. Maybe tomorrow).

After a time "getting sunny and warm" in the calm April waters of The Broads, (don't get to say that very often) the four oars were set down lengthwise across the seats, seat cushions spread, and a necessary nap taken.

At about 4 PM, a NW wind had come up, and it was time to return -- threading the way home through denser, thicker, floes that had drifted down from Welch Island-way. When there were no ice-free openings, there was no option but to charge, full-bore, through the ice.

Just as two years ago, the outboard drove through some heavy ice -- sometimes sending baseball-sized chunks skittering out ahead of the boat. It is a great way to clean the lower unit -- and the bottom of the boat, too. (That black ring, you know). This cartopper is aluminum, and what sounds like a beating, isn't. A fiberglass boat wouldn't take it, IMHO.

The ice is so fragile in places, you could see even my little wake surge through the slush -- as though there wasn't ice there.

Imagine spending the afternoon in the middle of the lake, and not seeing any other motorboats. "Motorboats", because there was a Hobie-Cat out there!

Where's YOUR boat?



ApS

[ApS]

The Broads...at last...but where are all the other ice-rowers?

Oh well, 'thought you'd like to see what the Bear- and Snake Eyes- Cams look like from the Broads before Ice-Out. (Needs some enlargement).

The ice necessary for ice-rowing has this sort-of "soda-straw" consistency (raised by the tip of the oar), and here's a detail shot of one of those "ice pencils" -- about 7-inches long -- lying across a my oar.