Video of ice sailors on echo lake

SOUTHWEST HARBOR, March 5, 2025 - The waters in and around MDI are full of photogenic wonders in summer: weekly regattas with boats billowing with full sails from a prevailing southwesterly wind in the afternoons.

So it was with great excitement that I caught a glimpse of three sailboats on Echo Lake yesterday when I drove northward on Rt. 102.

Ice sailing on a frozen lake in Maine offers a sense of freedom and contradiction at once.

It’s a tableau which wasn’t meant to be as it challenges nature’s considerable force and yet co-opts it at the same time for some ephemeral joy.

Imagine a vast expanse of snow and ice stretching for miles, the stillness broken only by the whoosh of the ice sailboats cutting through the air. These boats, often built with lightweight materials and large, durable ice skates or runners, are designed to take full advantage of the wind.

When the conditions are just right – with a solid ice surface and steady, brisk winds – the boats can reach speeds of 40-50 miles per hour, or even more. The experience of racing across the glass-like ice, with nothing but the crisp winter air and the whisper of the sail, is pure magic.

Indeed, on this day, one boat was speeding southward on Echo Lake almost as fast as the trucks on Rt. 102.

Seth Libby named deputy code enforcement officer in Mount Desert

MOUNT DESERT - Seth Libby, former chair of the Warrant Committee in Bar Harbor, was named deputy to Code Enforcement Officer Kim Keene by the select board Monday night.

He will start March 10.

Town Manager Durlin Lunt said Libby will start on an hourly rate of $32.50 with full benefits.

Libby had been commuting to Portland to train to be a nurse. He also has a law degree.