As Silver Duck has already noted, it was "Ice-Out" for
some of us.
If you saw a 2PM to 4PM Snake Eyes image with a little motorboat out in the middle of The Broads -- in the middle of the afternoon -- that was me, picking up flotsam in the dead-calm waters.
"Dead-calm" because once stopped off Rattlesnake and shutting off the engine, you could actually hear a conversation at Lake Shore Park, 2½ miles away, and another on Tuftonboro Neck -- closer -- at 1¼ miles.
A chainsaw ran for about 1 hour between Sleeper's Point and Coleman's Point. There was Harley activity there, too, heading north -- then back again. It was surreal, listening to activities so
distant. I heard a fish jump, too, but couldn't even guess (within a mile) where it had jumped from. Bubblers were still churning too-little water on Rattlesnake -- heard from ½-mile away.
Scanning, hopefully, the clear blue skies for news camera-equipped "Ice-Out" aircraft, I settled instead to search for eagles or ospreys: with both efforts being unsuccessfull. ('Would like to have been a featured photograph in the
Union-Leader. Maybe tomorrow).
After a time "getting sunny and warm" in the calm April waters of The Broads, (don't get to say
that very often) the four oars were set down lengthwise across the seats, seat cushions spread, and a necessary nap taken.
At about 4 PM, a NW wind had come up, and it was time to return -- threading the way home through denser, thicker, floes that had drifted down from Welch Island-
way. When there were no ice-free openings, there was no option but to charge, full-bore, through the ice.
Just as two years ago, the outboard drove through some heavy ice -- sometimes sending baseball-sized chunks skittering out
ahead of the boat. It is a great way to clean the lower unit -- and the bottom of the boat, too. (That black ring, you know). This cartopper is aluminum, and what
sounds like a beating, isn't. A fiberglass boat wouldn't take it, IMHO.
The ice is so fragile in places, you could see even
my little wake surge through the slush -- as though there wasn't ice
there.
Imagine spending the afternoon in the middle of the lake, and not seeing any other motorboats. "Motorboats", because
there was a Hobie-Cat out there! 
Where's YOUR boat?
ApS