NewSailingDiary

This sunday morning my hopes of getting a
day on the ice before the next big snow storm
diminished as I looked out the bedroom
window and saw my windmill blades at a stand
still and making no efforts to turn. Even after
morning coffee and the latest weather
updates they were not showing even a hint of
wind. I decided to throw in the towel on
iceboating and go haul a few logs out of the
woods. As with all my home built creations my
log trailer needed a bit of tinkering so I went
up the road to my dads old welding shop and
did some welding. After an hour of tinkering on
the trailer I came back to my house and
noticed my windmill blades were spinning and
after closer observation there seemed to be a
few puffs now and then that were making the
mill groan and howl as it does when it reaches
the cut in speed of the charging system. I
made a few calls to put the guys on standby
but most of them thought I was crazy and had
no signs of wind at thier houses. I unhitched
the log trailer and hitched up the iceboat
trailer and headed to Walker. Mike and I had
checked Walker on Saturday as well as Toddy
,Burntland and Douglas. Walker was not in the
best of health on Saturday and I had my
doubts if we could sail it even if there was any
wind. As I arrived at the ramp it was sunny
and breathless. I put on my cleats and headed
out onto the ice to find that the drain holes
and open spots had healed remarkably well
over night having 1-2" of fresh black ice on
them and the ice was hard as a rock with no
thin shelly covering. The ice looked to be
sailable but I couldn't find a sign of wind
anywhere. Mike and Larry called my cell to get
an update and I told them there was no wind
but I was still looking and to stay tuned. To
my surprise I started to feel wind in my face
and the smoke from a brush fire on the far
side of the pond was showing signs of a breeze
as well.
I headed back to the ramp and pulled
Platapuss out of the trailer, rigged her,
strapped my chainsaw to the rear beam and
some orange cones to the front staywire.
Platapuss is light, easy to rig, easy to push,
easy to get in and out of and sails great. She's
not pretty but I'll always have a place in my
heart for her. Since building Yellow Fever
Platapuss has become the loaner boat for guys
that want to try iceboating so I always have
her in the trailer. Todays conditions were the
perfect excuse to play with my old friend. I
headed out in search of some smooth, drain
hole free ice with a breeze blowing over it.
A few stabs with the chainsaw confirmed that
we still had 6-7" of ice in the area that we
checked and sailed in late December. I
managed to find an area that we could sail and
marked all of the bordering drain holes with
orange cones. Did I mention that while doing
this the wind had picked up to a near perfect
breeze? After setting out the cones I dropped
off my saw at the ramp and made a few slow
laps in the area that I had coned off looking
for more drainholes or runner catchers. By
that time Crazy Larry had shown up and
started rigging. The wind was perfect, the sun
was out, the ice a little rough but who's
complaining. Platapuss and I were like old
friends reunited. Platapuss is a very soft and
forgiving boat. She flexes, buckles and twists
with every puff of wind and makes you think
she'll break in half but its just her personality
dealing with the wind. As we got up to a nice
cruising speed I noticed a draft coming up my
pants that I don't feel while in the enclosed
cockpit of Yellow Fever. I remebered as I
tacked and jibed that I have to reach up with
my foot and kick the mast from one rotation
to the other. For some reason that mast
ball/step always was a little sticky. As I looked
up at the sail I was reminded of the torn out
batten pocket that I still haven't got around to
fixing. Ahh I'll get around to it one of these
days.
Larry and I sailed the coned course round and
round. Bonnie came along shortly after and
started rigging while Larry was unrigging to go
home and take care of some prior promises.
We tinkered on Bonnies new boat a bit and he
was doing very well in the light wind and
hooking up great in the gusts. It was tough to
get a handle on the wind which is always the
case at Walker in W-NW wind. We chased the
wind and somtimes it chased us. We had about
a half hour of very strong and steady wind
that was timed perfectly with the find of a
narrow piece of glass like ice that was large
enough for us to stay on. The runners got
silent, the boats smooth and silky as they flew
over the ice. It was a great find.
I had noticed while sailing 5 Bald Eagles on the
shoreline to the NW of us which was quite
unusual to say the least. There is always one
Bald Eagle that patrols the shoreline of Walker
year round but 5? Bonnie noticed something on
the ice that the eagles were feeding on so we
eased our way in for a closer look. We came
upon a steaming carcus of a young
buttonhead buck. It is obvious from the photo
that Mother Nature can be brutal at times.
This deer must have been sacrificed while we
were sailing to have been still steaming. We
couldnt tell if the Eagles took down this deer
or something else got it first but it was the
source for a feeding frenzy.
We gathered up the cones, unrigged our
boats and said goodbye to a nice plate of ice
once again to be covered in snow. Don't all my
stories end this way?