Club Access 1/7/18
Hi folks – A quick note on club access, and the ice conditions in the basin. I drove into the gate today, and the front parking lot is relatively clear, and easy to get in and out of. Patrick did a lot of shoveling on Friday to get access into the gate, going at it like only a young man can, breaking the handle on the shovel! I think Derek O. might have done some shoveling as well, and we thank them both! You can get to the path by taking a right at the garden container. The drifts are piled up across the driveway beyond the boat shop, so stick to the yard for access to club house and dock. The walkway to the head is cleared also, though the pit itself is still funky. Calls have been made.
One of the dock bubblers is out of commission. The pipe ring around the piling on the far south corner was frozen in solid, submerging that corner of the dock. I imagine the bubbler was immersed. I chopped the ice around that piling, and managed to get the dock to rise several inches. That shows how useful the bubblers are, and we thank John Whalen for taking care of this every year! The other clubs don’t run bubblers, but because our dock has a much lower freeboard, the piling rings are very close to the water, and are more susceptible to being locked in by ice. When I chopped through the last bit of ice, the piling jumped a couple of inches. This illustrates the force that the ice can have. Under normal circumstances, the dock and ice move up and down together, but in this case, the ring was frozen to the piling, and our dock does not have enough buoyancy to break free.
But it is going to warm up in a few days, so we look forward to a big thaw. John Whalen will be down next week to get the bubbler going again. In the meantime, enjoy the snow!