NewSailingDiary

This Sunday morning Mike and I met at
daylight to check Walkers surface and
wind conditions. I have come to learn
that this pond never has the same
surface two days in a row. This morning
Walker looked liked someone had
sprayed it with a chopper gun. The
surface under the ice shards was quite
smooth. A few areas close to shore had
the patterns shown in the second photo.
Walker was about 70 percent covered
with ice shards and 30 percent glassy
smooth ice.
There was not a breath of wind to be
found but having done some mast work
and needing to fit some hardware I
rigged my boat and Mike half rigged by
putting his runners on his beam and
leaving everything else in his truck. I
completed my mast work, we went on a
nature walk observing ice patterns and
stabbed the ice a few times with the
chainsaw to find 12-14" of ice. Mark
Kindche showed up with his boat to have
it ready for the next day we got some
wind. Mark is an old Walker Pond
veteran with 20 years of icetime on this
pond along with his sailing partner Jack
Barbett. We shot the breeze with Mark,
ate our lunches and looked for a breeze.
It was dead calm. Mike being a man of
action couldn't stand the calm. He
packed up and left at noon. I caught
some light wind and got in a few nice
runs, had some long talks with myself
and enjoyed the sunny afternoon. My
wife Lynnette showed up to watch us
sail.
In need of a story I convinced her to
hop in my boat and give it a whirl. I gave
her the 30 second how to drive an
iceboat seminar and she was off with
me pushing her in the light to non
existant wind. I hopped on the rear beam
when we got a puff of wind and coached
her for a while. Feeling confident that
she wouldn't wreck my boat I unleashed
her and watched her sail across the
cove. As I watched her sailing with a big
grin on her face I grinned as well
knowing that she now understands why
my world revolves around this sport.
After a good 15 minutes of sailing she
was hollering that she was cold, needed
sunglasses, the boat didn't fit her well
and so on. As she headed up the launch
ramp she was telling me how the boat
felt like it really wanted to take off and
scared her and that she would be more
comfortable if I built a two seater so that
we could sail together. I told her I have a
long list of things to build but I'll add the
two seater boat to it. LOL
Being Superbowl Sunday the Pond was
quiet with not a fisherman in sight.
Yellow Fever and I sailed over the glass
shard ice formations looking for wind in
some of the favorite spots for light wind
sailing. My sail filled with wind as I
neared one of our favorite bottlenecks
on the pond. As luck would have it this
narrow channel of wind had some very
large areas of baby ass smooth ice to
go with it. I soon found myself buzzing
around at speeds ranging from 20-30
mph and having a wonderful sail.
Somebody was looking out for me and
wanted me to end the day with a smile
on my face. After a good hour of sailing
in the bottleneck I made my exit, lost all
wind and did the push, glide, ride routine
for the 3/4 mile trip back to the ramp.
When I got home and walked through
the door I overheard my wife telling a
friend on the phone about her iceboating
adventure. I grinned and thought to
myself. She's hooked.

Feb 4

Efforts to work a full day today were
spoiled by good ice, good wind and my
watching Mark Kindche rig his boat from
my work site. I called in the troops and
the rush to rig was on. Bonnie had just
put a fresh coat of paint on his boat and
opted not to sail . He did come over for
a visit. Mike showed up with bells on
and I had left my boat rigged on the ice
for just such an occasion. We got in a
couple hours of near perfect wind and
ice before the wind flunked out. But who
could complain after such a great ride. It
was Marks first ride in a couple of years.
There was rust , cobwebbs, and squirrel
nuts all over the ice after Mark hooked
her up a few times. LOL. I only thought
to take one picture and it didn't come
out very well. It was one of those days
where you just didn't want to stop and
take pictures. The ice on Walker is
much better and I would give it a grade 8
at this point. I expect that if mother
nature is kind to us and the planets
align properly we should have a record
turnout this coming weekend.