THE CLOCK HAS STOPPED!!

Although we had watchful eyes on the flag this afternoon, it wasn't until Fred made his scheduled check at 7:30 p.m. that we learned the clock had disconnected even though the pallet hasn't gone down and the flag is still erect. Like last year, the wind moved the ice floe away from shore enough to disconnect the clock.

Bill and Diane Rossi went with Fred and me to verify the time as 2:46 p.m. It is necessary when verifying the time to get at eye level with the clock to not make any mistakes. We expect the flag will be gone by tomorrow morning. There are wide bands of open water near the pallet, and the ice is almost non-existent. This picture shows you how little depth of ice there is; notice the pallet is sitting very low and is further to the right than it has been.

This is the earliest the clock has ever stopped. The record was April 16, 1998, and that has certainly been shattered this year. We feel lucky we made it past the closing date of April 1, but there may still be tickets that were mailed on or just before the contest closed on April 1, and we need to be sure those tickets are counted and logged in. Therefore, we won't know who the winner is until at least Wednesday. We'll post that information on home page and here on the blog as soon as we have it.