I will admit to having thoughts of heading up to the deer camp this weekend and then throwing the Q boat in along the south shore of Lake Superior for the first Gitchee Gumee paddle of the new season. I may need to rethink that scheme after reading the Duluth News Tribune this morning. It would seem that a strong east wind blew some big floes and pack ice into the west end of the lake. The combination of below freezing temps and the wind combined to make an ice floe two feet thick and 90 square miles in area, three times the size of Manhattan. The above photo and story were in the Duluth paper this morning. The three ships are the Lee A. Tregurtha, the Alpena, and the Coast Guard cutter Alder, which is attempting to free them.
You can follow the progress of ice breaking up and melting on the NOAA site here. Its been so cloudy and miserable the last three days that clouds are the only thing that can be seen in the most recent images but they add new ones daily. It would appear that Lake Superior had its little April Fools joke yesterday. I still may see if all that ice came from around Port Wing and Cornucopia. There could be a paddle in the forecast yet!
4 comments:
Good luck!
I'd toss the Nordkapp up on the roof and go along with you if I wasn't working this weekend. Looks like I'll have to wait until next week.
Thanks for posting this! I'm currently 2500 miles from home and feeling some twinges... good to see some news from the neighborhood. (Should be back Saturday if THAT airline and a certain volcano cooperate.)
Dramatic aerial view.I wonder how many kayaks it would take to break that stuff up.
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