[Edited to add exciting pictures of the ice holes as seen from the cottage at the bottom.]
Except that they had a better vantage point, being able to fly and all, this is exactly what we are looking at from the southern shore. Straight at the tip of Beausoliel Island, an island that really looks like a penis, it just has to be said and gotten out of the way, and the eastern side of Pinery point, off to our west.
Here it is on a chart, and then I will let Barrie news tell the ice breaking story that covers exactly the information I was looking for, wondering when the first ice breaker would come through. And U.S. steel has been “curtailed” according to some shipping news that I will link to for the oddly obsessed. Maybe there is money to be made from hardship, but I have no clue how.
We are staring at the tip of Beautiful Sun island [but I can’t fit it all in one frame]:
and so is the picture [edit to say: this picture is actually looking straight at Pinery, as if the helicopter was almost over Beausoleil, and looking west, so I was a little off, and the bottom one shows the ice hole to the east of Beausoleil. Both ice holes are just visible from the cottage.] from this Canadian Coast Guard chopper:
A Canadian Coast Guard chopper captures the ice break-up at Pinery Point to Beausoleil Island. (Courtesy: Georgian Bay OPP [that’d be the cops, flying cops no less, right over head, ed.])
CTV Barrie
Published Friday, April 4, 2014 1:53PM EDTThe Canadian Coast Guard continues to wait for the ice to soften up in Georgian Bay to allow icebreaking ships to move in.
As of Friday, one icebreaking ship is in Thunder Bay working to break-up the ice there and get ships moving in the region. Once they are done, they will make their way south to Georgian Bay.
This news comes just weeks after the Canadian Shipowners Association asked for more icebreakers to open up the frozen Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway for shipments of Canadian grain and other commodities.
Ice breaking operations jammed up in Georgian Bay
And in case you want to read even further on the subject, here is the shipping news, hot off the presses, including the fascinating news about steel shipment curtailment:
DAILY GREAT LAKES and
SEAWAY SHIPPING NEWS
Port Reports – April 6
St. Marys River
Traffic was close to a standstill Saturday, with only the tanker Algocanda being escorted up the St. Marys River by the Canadian Coast Guard ship Pierre Radisson to a dock in the lower Sault Ste. Marie harbor, where she will unload. When she is finished, icebreakers will take her, Cason J. Callaway and John G. Munson, downbound before bring the convoy now stopped off Lime Island upbound. Callaway and Munson both spent Saturday in the ice in the vicinity of Six Mile Point.Escanaba, Mich.
Paul R. Tregurtha and Joseph L. Block were loading Saturday night, with Wilfred Sykes and Hon. James L. Oberstar waiting their turns.
From a website that seems to be named boatnerd
And it only got more interesting …
So the big excitement here will be watching that hole in the ice get bigger. And then a big ship will come. It is like being a little kid! It also looks like a sappy Sunday, and I hope yours is sweet too, if that ain’t too syrupy for you.
A quick edit to add another exciting photo of the ice break-up, off Beausoleil, also courtesy of the flying provincial police. These are two different holes, both just off the edge of what will be the shipping channel, although there isn’t much freight into Midland these days, especially with the death of the rail system.
A Canadian Coast Guard chopper captures the ice break-up at Candelmass Shoal at the south tip of Beausoleil Island.
The ice hole off Pinery:
The ice hole off Beausoleil:
The ice hole of Beausoleil, shining in the dawn sun, Monday morning:
hi xty. looks like your coping mechanism is fully functioning and seeing things with childlike wonder is a fine state of mind and often elusive.
Where’s ‘Midland” and how come nobody said anything about the rail system dying?
Xty!!! The “Death” of the rail system ?? This would make the melting ice, for the shipping lane, to seem more exciting. Or at least.. ?critical?.
Midland and Penetaguishene (where we are technically):
And here is a picture I took with my iPhone, of two scoots going by. There was a third too. I don’t know if they are a local phenomenon, but they are flat bottomed boats that go on ice and water and have airplane engines on their transoms.
another ‘so yesterday’.
more doob.
just looking at the Penatanguishene area and all of canada on maps.google.com
Man, there is a LOT of wide open country up there.
Xty, on all these outings of yours- do you take your Gold pan with you?… check creeks here and there? You can dig a quick test hole and run a couple of pans in 5 minutes. I’m guessing that’s not your thing,… but I bet Mikey would make a good prospector.
I’m good at figuring out where to dig and pan, but my follow-through is terrible (and that’s being kind) so i haven’t done any panning in a couple of years now… sheesh.
I have been asking for a metal detector for years, so it is not a stretch. I think you would need to go a bit further north – certainly northern Ontario and Quebec are full of gold. That is our joke about where we keep Canada’s gold deposits. But a gold pan wouldn’t be much to pack.
I took a picture this morning just as the sun was rising and, excitement of excitements, the hole off Beausoleil was shining in the morning sun:
And here is the sun rising over the dock:
The walleyes will be thinking about spawning soon.
Looks like we have more vernal progress here than what is shown in your pictures, Xty. My wool socks, etc are packed away as of today.
Speaking of metal detectors- our group did a prairie burn on some private property Sat and afterwards the owner gave us a tour of a neat little post and beam cabin he had tucked away in a secluded corner. Beams came from a barn he tore down and all $ to finish came from his metal detecting findings.
The cherry on top- I observed his woods to hold significant promise of future morels- he and his wife do not relish them (?!)- I obtained permission to come back in a month.
Sat.
That burning looks almost like fun – but it must be hard work, and hot and smelly. Better than a raging brush fire of course. And a cabin built with metal detecting … that would make a cool short story.
Is up early a good thing or a bad thing? It was an early, damp, morning here. And I forgot half my tea making supplies in the main cottage and had to do a dawn raid without apparently disturbing the ancient ones. But now things are looking up. I don’t feel much of a post coming on. Hubby and I sat boiling sap, just the two of us, for hours, and into the rain. Left the pans covered and the fires dying and covered the whole kit and caboodle with plywood. Now to hope the drizzle stops, get the fire going and then it is a wonderfully tedious process, transferring sap from one pan to the next (there are three), filtering in-between, adding wood to the two stoves, and we have a little bit more sap to add. It is an insane process, needing to reduce the sap by a factor of 40:1. No wonder syrup is expensive. But it is very satisfying and the trees don’t seem to mind. Much. And we plug up the holes.
A shout out on The Dillards. Sounds like moonshining might have some passing similarities to making maple syrup. And hey! (lightbulb goes on) I wonder if there is a name for hooch made out of maple syrup? It could be your Next Big Thing!
I”ll know more soon, send a good wish my way.
Always, Pete.
FYI, in terms of my tax season gig, I’ve noticed a change as of yesterday.
A light at the end of the tunnel, a crack in the ice…
More later,
A brief interlude leads me to say that if you have never been a girl, you can’t quite imagine, or maybe you can – why would I sell you short? – how nice it was to be allowed to go out in the miserable wet snowish rain and light two big fires with wet wood and actually be left to do it. My back hurts, I have to rush out to tend it, and endless filter – but wow – I feel like I might almost be able to think.
I do begin to find that shipping news fascinating morning reading, and you will be interested to know that coal is not getting through for the moment. A convoy of ships is almost up the St Mary River, and then into Whitefish Bay – but everything at a standstill. And the Port of Cleveland (I think) has a cool new direct to Europe, regular service that they are all excited about and is going to make everything get to the American midwest, straight from Europe, and vice versa, and the first boat is on its way from Europe, bearing amongst other things, wind energy parts. I guess your government buys frigging huge windmills from Korea too?
when i read the words “ice hole”, i can’t help but hear it in my head with an Irish accent, and it makes me laugh.
spring is here in Wisconsin. my tulips are finally emerging, and my cats woke up the house this morning chasing a great big groggy fly. the first one is always a lot of fun. circumstantial evidence it is true, but it is also April now after all.
the dollar is down 50 cents today. um, that’s a lot. i suppose i’m not supposed to care, so i won’t. things will go on as usual until they don’t.
for 44, but Xty you will also like this one… 🙂
Remember all that “Cyprus Bail-in” noise from a little over a year ago? Jim Sinclair and other assorted Swamp Creatures were running around with their hair on fire, talking about the End of The World.
Well, I just saw a one line bulletin on Marketwatch “Greek 10 year yields fall below 6%”. LOL. Makes my day. The Swamp Creatures continue to get everything wrong.
Everything.