Christmas Cruise

So there I was...pushing my 9 foot long Dyer Dhow fiberglass rowing/sailing boat onto the ice at the edge of a lake we lived on several years ago.  Kim and I were embarking on our annual Christmas Cruise, a tradition we started years earlier.  In the week before Christmas we would launch the boat from the private beach where we stored it and circumnavigate the lake looking at all the decorations and lights the residents had on their docks and houses while sipping hot chocolate that Kim poured from a thermos.  Some years were colder than others and often there was ice formed around the shoreline going out a hundred feet or more.  The center of the lake took longer to freeze as it was spring fed.  This particular year, the ice was an inch or two thick, so after Kim got in the bow of the boat I climbed in the stern giving us the required combined weight for the boat to break through the ice.  I started my little 1953 Johnson 3 horsepower engine and it would push us forward until the bow rode up on the ice and again broke through.  This scenario was repeated many times until we finally came to open water and our cruise around the lake was a grand success.  Sometimes people would wave from their yards as we passed by no doubt wondering how in the world we got out there.  Returning to our beach we would find the the narrow path of broken ice chunks we had created on the way out and followed them into shore.  Always enjoyed the challenge of the ice...if I have a strong boat.