Most interesting sail so far

[Renae]

October finished horribly in Minnesota, running 20 degrees below average, with nighttime temperatures dipping to the single digits.  The local small lakes obediently froze.  Yesterday, a much-hoped-for-thaw arrived with promises of temperatures up near 70 by midweek.  I left work well after dark last night, so I didn't get a glimpse at the lake on the way home.  Would the ice have broken up?

Temps were already in the 40's by the time I got up, so I was full of hope.  No time to waste on a reconnaissance mission--this is the Great White North (sorry Canada) so go big or go home.  I arrived at my local launch shortly after noon to find the dock removed (unsurprising), and 0.5 cm of ice extending 100 meters out into the bay.  Forecast was for 55 degrees by 3 PM, but it was still in the 40's on my arrival.  The ice was a mixed blessing.  I backed the trailer in and manually pushed the boat off instead of my usual habit of hitting the brakes and letting it fly.  At this point I wasn't sure about the variability in the ice.    Getting wet only to my knees (brrr) I was quickly satisfied that the ice was pretty thin throughout, but still enough to hold the boat still while I parked.  Winds were 8-10 coming at me.

Once back to the boat, I climbed in and tried backing out, thinking that I could manage any larger ice chunks with my paddle while simultaneous maneuvering the tiller and the eProp outboard.  No go.   There were no big chunks, but the surface ice still grabbed me tightly about 10m out, and I retraced my path back in.  Then, once shallow enough to push off the bottom with a paddle, I turned around and pointed the bow toward open water, actually slightly off the original track.  With about 30% throttle (really slow with an eProp) on the second click down on the motor mount, and the rudder fully shallowed, I was "off to the races", barely having time to whip out a hasty video of my gonzo feat before reaching open water.

Like.  Butter.  Crunchy, slushy butter.

After that, it was a bit more routine.  The skies were impossibly blue and I dug out the Simrad that came with my boat so I could lay on my back and look up for awhile and thoroughly clean up the muck I tracked in.   Never really used an autopilot before, but the previous owner apparently had the settings right because I hit my targets at 2 miles twice without actually knowing how to work the thing. I hoisted mast and sail, and enjoyed a cool but tolerable 3 hour jaunt, returning to find that the ice was nearly gone.  Winds were dying, so I collapsed the mast on the water, so that once I got to shore, I could just strap down and hurry my feet back to the car heater.  The haul out was again chilly owing to the lack of a dock or a companion, but went smoothly.

3 more typical fall days await before I am back to the salt mines, and that's as far as I will push it for this season.  What a finish!