A real Shackleton experience

Justin_NSA

Justin_NSA

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Jul 7, 2004
8,402
Hunter 30T Cheney, KS
kloudie1 said:
Here in south Louisiana, I have seen ice thick enough to walk on only twice in my 70 years.. once in 1964 and once in 1989.. It is of some concern when we have weather that cold here.. We had a 31F freeze here last weekend, but today it is about 70.. I remember chopping ice from the pond next door at grandmaw's house in '64 so the cattle could drink..
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Not cold enough to kill that kudzu eh?
 
DaveJ

DaveJ

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Apr 2, 2013
451
Catalina 310 Niagara-on-the-Lake
I'm on Lake Ontario, our slips freeze a couple of feet thick in winter...but nothing yet. Our last boat came out last Monday, then the owner didn't winterize in time. He will need to replace the Atomic 4, cracked the block!! When he started it he said it was like a shower head spraying...costly mistake.

dj
 
shemandr

shemandr

.
Jan 1, 2006
7,076
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
It kinda surprises me that the season in MN and here on LI aren't that different. We usually have to put the boats away around Nov 1 when most insurance policies end and when dockage contracts end. You can buy riders but for the expense you normally don't get to use the boat much. This year I didn't get to use it much from the end of September on. Just bad weather. Cold, windy, wet. We don't usually splash until early April when dockage contracts start again and insurance begins. Early April water temps can still be in the 40's. So for different reasons, it ends up about the same.
 
capta

capta

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Jun 4, 2009
4,773
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
Jackdaw said:
That was actually the first snow of the year, which started falling at noon. While the month has been unseasonably cold, the lack of snow can lull you into thinking the water was OK for boats. But the lake had inverted, so ready freeze any day. Dangerous to stay on the water when the water temp is 39F or below.
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Being a tropical boy, I don't understand the term inverted in respect to a lake.
 
R

Rick486

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Oct 1, 2007
1,858
Boston Whaler Super Sport Pt. Judith
Jackdaw said:
Every November after our official race season ends, our club sponsors an informal race series - over to a bar at the other side of the lake every Sunday. Called the Shackleton cup, the winner is the boat that does it the most number of times in November. BlueJ has won this every year we’ve been at the club except for one when we were sailing in Greece. The second aspect of the prize is the boat that stays in the longest. I have no interest at all in winning this one; that usually is won by the event organizer who keeps a small O’day Daysailor at the club. Our November has been cold and below freezing every day except two, causing most boats to pull out early. He was planning on pulling the boat out today. Yesterday found 2 1/2+ inches of ice surrounding the boat and all efforts to free it failed. So he’s resigned himself to be a true Shackleton this winter.

View attachment 158870
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I gotta know. Did he get her out?
 
shemandr

shemandr

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Jan 1, 2006
7,076
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
We have a "Manly Cruise" but so far the marketing department has rejected the "Shackleton Cruise" as too hard to sell in light of the stewed sled dog. Now didn't they find some very old whisky in the wreck? A "Shackleton Whisky" cruise is way more marketable - and Shepard's Pie not fido stew.
 
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Jackdaw

Jackdaw

.
Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
capta said:
Being a tropical boy, I don't understand the term inverted in respect to a lake.
Click to expand
Water possesses an interesting and unique property. Like most substances, it gets more more dense as it cools. Air does as well, and its why colder and heaver air sinks. And colder water does as well. Up to a point. Below 39F, water begins to expand again. Its why bodies of water freeze from the top down.

In practice, as a lake cools from cold air, the surface water sinks and is replaced by warmer water. If you know the surface water temp is above 40, then there is no way the lake can freeze. The cold water will just sink, and the lake is cold on the bottom, warm on top.

At 39F however that changes. The lake is now warm on the bottom, cold on top. The top keeps getting colder and colder because the cold stay on top. Then it starts to freeze.
 
Charlie Jones s/v Tehani

Charlie Jones s/v Tehani

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Mar 1, 2012
2,182
1961 Rhodes Meridian 25 Texas coast
kloudie1 said:
Here in south Louisiana, I have seen ice thick enough to walk on only twice in my 70 years.. once in 1964 and once in 1989.. It is of some concern when we have weather that cold here.. We had a 31F freeze here last weekend, but today it is about 70.. I remember chopping ice from the pond next door at grandmaw's house in '64 so the cattle could drink..
Click to expand
I've done that in east Texas, 60 miles north of Houston. Very rare. A VERY very rare occurrence was on Christmas eve once- we had a foot of snow here on the shores of Matagorda Bay, on the south Texas coast. You won't often see this
snow-on-bananas.jpg
 
907Juice

907Juice

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Apr 7, 2016
184
Beneteau First 305 Seward, Alaska
Wow! I keep my boat in the water in Alaska all winter but it it’s “mostly” salt water. Worst I’ve seen is about an inch of what I’d guess was freshwater runoff around the boat. It is thin enough that you can easily break it with a wooden ore.

As far as Shackleton’s adventure, there was an new expedition planned to cross Antarctica this year. It has all the flat earthers in a tissy...
 
C

Capri30

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Jul 4, 2012
7
Catalina 30' Capri Bay City, MI.
There's a cheaper method of opening up the water other than a bubbler, drop a submersible sump pump through a hole in the ice and it will open up an area as big as a average boat well just over night. We used to use that method at a Northern Michigan marina for dropping boats in on April the 1st and the travel lift well was solid hard ice, gone the next morning.
 
Hayden Watson

Hayden Watson

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Apr 5, 2009
2,818
Catalina '88 C30 tr/bs Oak Harbor, WA
Your friend can keep the boat floating in its own pond by hanging a cheep submersible pump from a line hanging off the rail. I used to do that when I kept my boat on Lake Coeur d' Alene in north Idaho. I used a 1/3 HP pump and it would keep my slip clear as well as the one on either side and the thoroughfare behind me. Granted, the air isn't as cold in North Idaho as it is in MN but the ice was thick enough to walk on.
 
907Juice

907Juice

.
Apr 7, 2016
184
Beneteau First 305 Seward, Alaska
We have year round liveaboards here in Alaska. Power stays in but other water/waste services shut down from about October to May. They keep a few restrooms and a shower facility open at the harbormasters office. You gotta shuttle all you stuff in and out.
 
Minnesail

Minnesail

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Oct 10, 2013
127
Catalina 22 Minneapolis
His worst winter was when the sewage pump froze. On a boat, toilets don't flush the way they do in a condo. Instead, every few weeks, residents hook up a hose to their sewage tanks to "pump out." And one balmy November, someone on the dock forgot to drain the pump when he was done. The next person who went to use it found it frozen.


"We put propane heaters around it, we did everything we could," says Cherveny. "But nothing worked."

Until a brief February warm spot two months later, no one could use the bathroom in their house, and a line of live-aboards ran down the block to the Holiday first thing every morning.
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P

Pat

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Jun 7, 2004
1,250
Oday 272LE Ninnescah Yacht Club, Wichita, Ks.
Justin, our bubbler works very well, I can remember one year about 14-15 years ago, the actual air temp was
14 below, but I drove out and the slip was free of ice.....just bubbling away....but it's in the garage this year...
the boat is in the yard.......keep in touch....Patrick
 
h2o_snow

h2o_snow

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Nov 18, 2016
150
Hunter 260 Lucky Peak, ID
Ha. Been there done that. Not again. This was a 10 degree day in early Dec. a few years back. Thankful the sun was out!
upload_2018-12-3_14-33-3.png


upload_2018-12-3_14-33-56.png
 
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G

glaufman

.
May 23, 2016
217
O'Day 1984 23 Island Park, NY
shemandr said:
kinda surprises me that the season in MN and here on LI aren't that different. We usually have to put the boats away around Nov 1 when most insurance policies end and when dockage contracts end.
Click to expand
BAH! Docks downstream from power plant! Got out at least once a month last winter... Nothing like sailing when Rodney's not around!
 
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