Word: shore
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Just after 10 a.m., with no warning, not even the groan of the floe's straining under the combined pressure of wind and current, the ice pack begins to separate from the shore and starts drifting out into the lake. The movement is almost imperceptible. A few fishermen notice that their lines are no longer hanging vertically, but most assume that is due to currents under the ice pack...
...shoreward side, in hopes that small boats manned by local fire brigade volunteers will find them. When rescue boats finally do crunch up to the ice and begin taking people aboard a captain has to explain, "We came to rescue you, not your stuff." As they are ferried to shore, the anglers look back sorrowfully at the gallon buckets already full of fish. Not to mention a dozen or so cars and trucks, snowmobiles and scores of fishing shanties that must be abandoned too. Most fishermen try to remember the small print of their property insurance policies...
...Near shore, the rescue proceeds smoothly. But more than 80 fishermen are still stranded farther out on the ice. Jerusalem Township Fire Chief Joe Verb and Rescue Captain Bill Miller have commandeered 20 boats. But Verb is hopping mad. Not only is the Coast Guard unable to provide helicopters (they are grounded in Michigan by fog), but it turns up with what the chief considers totally inadequate rescue support. "What the hell's one 14-ft. boat and five guys going to do in a five-mile area?" he storms. Verb also believes the ice break was caused...
...Back on shore other fishermen are already congratulating themselves on their escape. Will they go back to fish ing once the ice refreezes? Fishing maniacs aside, these are hard tunes in the Great Lakes states. A rescued fisherman says: "I need to fish to feed my family." This year has seen the revival of the Depression-era ice-fishing "township" called Smeltonia, near Boyne City, Mich. In Ohio, jobs are scarce, and after a year of recession and high unemployment, benefits are running...
Next morning the wind changes. The temperature drops. The fractured ice pack begins to knit together again. If that freezing north wind keeps blowing the lake may harden up enough for Chuck to get out on the ice again and drive his Datsun pickup back to shore. Chief Verb thinks he "hasn't a hope in hell," though the cars and trucks are still on the floe...