We Have Suffered Enough

[svseachange]

Been a long winter up here in Minnesota. We have had snow the last three nights running in Minneapolis.

This is my last winter in Minnesota before heading back south to Australia after eighteen long years in the frigid north. This last, long winter has been a lesson in patience.

We are due to move onto our boat to head South in less than three weeks but the marina (Barkers Island Marina) is still frozen solid. This picture is from Duluth and Superior entries yesterday. Gale force winds, and yes, that is solid ice on the South shore!



Have pity on us, send warm thoughts!

[DennisM]

I fully sympathize. I hate winter here in upstate NY, and it's not nearly as bad as yours in MN. I was in Sydney in December. It was MUCH nicer there. Have a great trip!

[captain58sailin]

I hear you! I have vowed that I have spent my last winter in Alaska, it is off to sunnier climes to be sure, maybe I'll get around to your patch in Australia some day.

[JazzyO]

Winter in Europe hasn't been much fun either, but undoubtedly less than yours. Nonetheless, since you're moving to Oz, I'm not sympathetic!!

Temps finally rising here - can't wait to sail my boat again.


Onno

[Mike OReilly]

I feel for you Shane. I'm north of you and I can't even see the water yet. Ice, as far as the eye can see up here on Thunder Bay. And yes, we're into yet another winter gale right now. Oh the joys of Lake Superior...

[sweetsailing]

I hear you! We have a splash date of May 6th and I am starting to wonder about the feasibility of that date....really???...May! for crying out loud. We had thoughts of getting lots of spring projects done prior to launch and now we are just hoping to launch, period. Some friends of our were a bit more optimist and took their winter cover off last weekend. Their boat now has about a foot of snow on it without the benefit of the cover.

Can the rest of us from Minnesota come to Australia with you?

[bgallinger]

Shane...I know this has been a bad winter. Truth is though, this is normal! We were spoiled with the winter we had last year. I should go south too!

[LakeSuperior]

We moved our boat out of Superior to northern Lake Michigan in the fall of 2009 to make sure that we could depart for Halifax on May 1, 2010. Our big concern was a late spring with ice on Superior and ice in the marina. Spring of 2010 turned out to be mild. This year would have been a big problem as it will be another 2 to 3 weeks just to melt the snow enough to get a boat launched.

15 years or so ago Munising Bay was completely clogged with ice during the second week of June.

Got 4 inches of snow last night and it is breezy and snowing today.

[LakeSuperior]

BTW, nice shot of the Duluth entry!

[S/V Alchemy]

Well, maybe not in Minnesota, but here in Toronto, we've had so many benign and short winters in the last 20 years, we've nearly forgotten how to cope. This year, we had plenty of snow and cold and it...isn't...ending...today's freezing rain is two weeks later than usual and it's blowing 45 knots down on the shore. Some already launched tour boats have come loose in the harbour.

Australia to Minnesota is like Bali to northern Finland...a shock to the system.

[SkiprJohn]

Dang that looks cold!

We got down to 56 degrees (above) one cold night here this winter. Of course, living on the side of a volcano is not everyone's cup of tea.

Congratulations on your decision to move.

kind regards,

[anjou]

Middle England has been the same
Longest winter i can recall, started last May when the rains came

I blame the chem trails and Al Gore

[sailorboy1]

I was feeling bad because my boat is in the water. But WTF it just started snowing at my house!

[svseachange]

Thanks for your words of wisdom, Cruisers. You Northerners are tough.

You are all starting to make me doubt we will make it out of lake Superior by mid-June.

[Celestialsailor]

Oh...I remember so well. I'm a Canuck and was born on Lake Ontario. 6-7 months of hard labor every year. To ad injury to insult, I later worked, outside, in the North west Territories when it was -40F. I did one winter of that and immigrated to the US. I never looked back. After 22 years in Northern Ca., I moved to Hawaii for 7 years. Now I'm addicted to the tropics...