Dodged a bullet today

sbw1

sbw1

Well-Known Member
Oct 10, 2006
8,191
West Michigan
Boat Info
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So....it was off to the boat this morning to remove the expired State of Michigan registration decals on my cockpit windows. I noticed the ice was starting to go out of our lake and I'm thinking the boat will be at the slip in 4 weeks. Project went fine. Took about 45 minutes to heat 'em up, peel off, goo off the residue, add a shot of windex and mount the new stickers. Got back home and the ice is still starting to go out and I'm thinking I'll take the bubbler out after I clean up the winter crap in the garage. That went well too. Hosed everything out and the garage is immaculate. Onto the bubbler project. Took it out and cleaned it up real nice and stowed it. Shower time. Get out of the shower and I'm watching the ice move. When I say move, it was hauling....right toward my dock. I watched for 15 minutes while the dock shook violently back and forth with all of the spring pilings bending back and forth. While watching, I'm seeing my neighbor's brand new boat lift sail by my house on an ice flow. So called the coast guard who ask for the approximate location. As I was providing the info the lift went through the ice in 24 feet of water. The CG stopped by the house to get a visual and mark the location on a chart so that it can be retreived when the ice is all gone and they can get a boat with sonar in to pin point the location for salvage. So now the ice is all gone. The dock is fine. The bubbler is in the basement instead of on the bottom of the lake somewhere, and my neighbor is out a few thousand for now. Hopefully he will get his lift back in decent condition. Time to sit down and have a drink in front of a roaring fire in the fireplace.
 
Make that drink a double.
 
That ice can do some serious damage once it breaks up and starts moving. Glad to hear you didn't lose your equipment.
 
Has been warm these last few days for sure. The Northern Michigan Snow Pack is definatly in rout for the lakes. I've gone from a good 2 feet of snow in the woods behind my house thurs night to just a few inches now. Expect it to be all gone by morning. Good thing about it is the ground seems to be sucking it all up. Perhaps the flooding wont be too bad this year. "Ice Out" is defiantly a sign of spring. Next will be a "Robin" sighting. Glad to hear your dock made it. Sucks about your neighbors. Does sound like a fun salvage project though.

I've got some inlaws up in Ontonogan (Upper Peninsula). The whole town gets in on some interesting pools on when Ice Out will take place. Things to pass the time in the long winter mos.
 
Sound like you dodged a glacier! Some of the slabs of ice around here have been 16" thick or better, the ice came off pretty quick, I wonder how many ice shacks went down.....I saw two robins today, one had a jackhammer trying to find worms.
 
We had heavy winds here yesterday 23mph with 30 gusts from ne.The news was showing the ice walls that are blowing up into bay city areas ,last year a few houses were destroyed by 30 ft mountains of ice being blown onto land.I think they said the ice is about 17 ft now.:huh:
 
Wow! That would be a sight. I have never seen ice on the water other than on smaller lakes in the mountains.
 
Presentation said:
Did you call your neighbor?
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Yes. He lives in a new home across the lake from us and I did not know his name so I drove over and introduced myself. He is not always there and I was concerned he would discover his lift missing and think someone stole it. As it turned out, the whole family was there and had watched the lift drift away. There were frustrated by not knowing what to do, who to call and how to get it back. I referred him to the Coast Guard office I spoke with so both parties can work together to retreive it when the weather improves. Right now it is a potential hazard to navigation and a water skier could be injured depending on how the lift is resting on the lake bottom.
 
Trying to get a visual on this and I'm missing something (must be that hour of sleep I lost last night)...was this a 4-post lift that got ripped out pilings and all?
 
tobnpr said:
Trying to get a visual on this and I'm missing something (must be that hour of sleep I lost last night)...was this a 4-post lift that got ripped out pilings and all?
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No. It's a large aluminum 4-post lift for a boat that's maybe 26' long and sits on pads on the lake bottom. I think what happened is he pulled it up near the shore and it froze into maybe 16" of ice. When the ice started to melt, this part of the ice pulled loose in the wind and moved it out far enough for it to lift off the bottom of the lake and float in it's own ice cube. Once it got 25' off the shore it was in about 20 feet of water and away it went. As it moved through the water the ice it was in got thin and the weight of the lift caused it to fall through the ice. I've lived in this house for 33 years and this is a first for me. Never seen or heard of this happening before. The year before this guy's neigbor had their lift destroyed by moving ice. That is also unusual. If you look at the radar on my boat and then the shore across the lake you can see a little bit of the portable dock that leads to where the lift used to be located.
 
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Still storing your boat at North Shore ? Are they taking boats out of heated yet?
 
KayKook said:
Still storing your boat at North Shore ? Are they taking boats out of heated yet?
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Yes. I looked into the condos for storage and won't rule that out, but I really like the NSM staff and will likely stay there out of loyalty. Depending on weather trends, I expect them to start moving boats in mid April and I'm usually one of the first boats out.

Thanks to the rest of you for the kind comments.
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FiaXXX cam
 
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Thanks for the info. The boat I am looking at is in heated rack there. They said mid April to me also, but it is buried behind alot of boats on the floor that come out first.
Ice out should be by this weekend it appears, so we should be okay by early April.
 
KayKook said:
Thanks for the info. The boat I am looking at is in heated rack there. They said mid April to me also, but it is buried behind alot of boats on the floor that come out first.
Ice out should be by this weekend it appears, so we should be okay by early April.
Click to expand...

We had a boat go by our house yesterday. Fisherman in a small aluminum boat. Chilly ride.
________
Legal Dispensaries Org
 
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