The snow’s falling gently through the morning, pulling its frozen blanket over everything. Looking out across the harbor, I see the water has turned the steely grey that usually foretells the coming of ice, but so far, it remains ice-free. That’s good news for the small number of boats that remain bobbing on their mooring pen’ant lines. Lobster boats, an old hulk of a re-floated party fishing boat and a few small work boats are all that remain of our busy seasonal harbor. Three months ago, you could almost literally walk from one shore to the other over the decks of the boats that spend their summers here. Now, the change towards the frozen days to come has limited the numbers still afloat. The rest are on the hard.
Winter means lots of things to folks who love to spend as much time on the water as they can. First is the fact that boats don’t like ice. A wooden craft, left on a mooring over a winter of hard freezes and building ice cover can easily sustain actual hull damage along the water line. The grinding of the ice sheets, especially for boats that have hard-chined hulls, can be brutal. For boats left afloat, uncovered, there is the additional risk that the cockpit scuppers will freeze over. When this happens, snow and ice can build up in the cockpit and upon the deck, with disastrous results. The resulting weight can easily begin to submerge the boat below the scuppers. Below the exhaust ports. If any hose clamps, down below, connected to through-hull openings also freeze or are just plain loose or the lever valves left opened, the sea will find a way inside.
Boats laid up ashore also suffer ice and weight damage if left uncovered. Even with a full canvas cover, if the winter is particularly harsh, with lots of repeated snowfalls, the cover itself can fail. This recalls my family’s general worried winter demeanor for the almost forty years we’ve kept boats. Each passing storm, we felt, might mean dropping everything to run out to the storage yard and clear the snow off the cover. A covered boat also presents much more wind-age when stored ashore, and if the snowstorm is blizzard force, it brings an additional level of anxiety as we would worry the boat might be toppled off its cradle.
This year, I’m watching the snowfall in a new way. Of course, I will have to shovel our walk, maybe even get out the snowblower to clear our lane, but that’s pretty much the extent of my concern. This is my first in thirty seven winters without a boat. I will need to reacquaint myself with seeing the snow on the harbor in a way I’ve neglected for almost a lifetime. The way the sunlight sparkles across the still expanse. The lacy patterns of clear ice along the edges and crusted over the rocks. It can be starkly beautiful, and this year I’m going to make a promise to rekindle that appreciation. The child still lives in the old man, after all.
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