Lake Winnipesaukee
covers 72 square miles with a maximum depth of 180 feet,
and has 274 islands. Lake Winnipesaukee is well known
for its annual Ice-Out Contest, in which people try
to guess the date that the Mount Washington, a large
cruise ship that carries tourists around the lake, can
safely leave her port at Center Harbor and motor to four
other ports. Since records began being kept in 1851
ice-out has happened as early as March 29 and as late
as May 12, although 90 percent of the time it is declared
during April.
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