Skaters, ice boaters, ice yachters and those, (like us) who’ve simply yearned to walk on the great Navesink River: here’s the latest from the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club ice conditions iceline, as of about 5:50p Thursday.

Part of the river was walked today, and what was found is four- to five inches of ice on most of it [says an unidentified iceman]. The holes that didn’t freeze until Tueday night are maybe three inches. The surface was fairly smooth but SOFT. Again, with the high sun this late in the season, the surface was soft and the last frozen holes were maybe three inches and were soft.

Again, that was basically 3pm, when the sun was still fairly high. It is probably sailable. I can’t guarantee it. But the best might be to sail early in the day before the sun softens the surface and the thinner areas. If you stay off the dark areas and the thinner areas, you’ll probably be alright. But they’re going to be hard to see and hard to find.

After reading about the woman and the dog who fell through in Fair Haven last night, we think we’ll wait for the Arctic weather to do some more work on those dark, soft spots before we attempt our stroll.

The iceline number is 732-747-5665.

Email this story