AVOIDING AN AWKWARD SITUATION

PACK ICE IN THE CHANNEL, 5/19/14...

...AND A FOGGY MORNING IN BAYFIELD 

Tuesday,  8:15 AM.  45 degrees F on the porch, 40 degrees at the lakefront.  Wind NE, light with a few gusts.  The sky is overcast and it is densely foggy, the fog horns blurting out their mournful dirge.  We received .8" of rain yesterday and last night and everything is wet.  The humidity is 97% and the barometer has started to rise a bit, now at 29.82".  In the last few days I over-seeded all the a bare or thin spots in the lawn, raked it in and top dressed the worst damaged turf.  This rain is exactly what it needed and it will sprout with a few warm days.  A lot of trees and shrubs are leafing out now; willows, mountain-ash, dogwoods, elderberry.  The daffodils are at their peak and lasting well, primroses are starting to bloom and Lilac buds are swelling.  Apples and crabapples are leafing out but not yet blooming.  It looks like it will be another late season for the apples, but it was last year as well and it was a bumper crop.
   Despite the relatively warm weather and the rain, ice still manages to migrate in from the open lake to the east, from beyond the Apostle Islands.  Yesterday I noticed the ferry plying its way between Bayfield and LaPointe on a devious path, and then realized that it was avoiding a large ice pack.
   The route of ice migration seems to be via the south channel, between Long Island and Madeline Island on an east wind, and then north in the west channel, propelled by a south wind.
   Sounds circuitous, but there's virtually no other way for it to get here, as the ice is completely  gone on Chequamegon Bay between Bayfield and Ashland, and it has little chance of getting past Madeline or the other Islands.   I suppose the ferry could plow through the ice, but then again I suppose it might get stuck...an awkward situation this close to Memorial Day!