Albert Morancy may have a touch of pneumonia Monday morning, but the 46-year-old husband and father is more than happy to accept illness over the alternative he faced late Friday night. He and his Dover, N.H., family credit his survival to a miracle on Lake Umbagog and angels in the Sugar Shack.

“There was couple minutes there toward the end when I didn’t think I was going to make it,” Morancy said Sunday night from the comfort of his home.

The outlook appeared bleak for Morancy – who spent nearly 20 minutes struggling to get out of the water Friday night after falling through Lake Umbagog ice during a white-out. The Maine Warden Service reported said Morancy and his family were returning to their Upton camp from Errol, N.H., after filling their snowmobiles with fuel at approximately 10 p.m. when white-out conditions arose on the lake.

Maine Warden Service Sgt. Rick Mills said the blinding conditions led Morancy to make a wrong turn, taking him off the 15-mile course from where the family fueled up to their camp. That led them into an area of thin ice where Rapid River flows into Lake Umbagog.

“The family is familiar with the area, having logged more than 5,000 miles on their snowmobiles this winter,” Mills said. “But the weather outmatched their expertise. Unless you can maintain a visual with the shoreline, it’s very difficult.”

Morancy was on the lead snowmobile. His 12-year-old daughter, Haley, and his wife, Linda, were on separate sleds behind him when the storm kicked up. Believing they were going in the right direction, he decided to follow the shoreline in an effort to be safe. Morancy said he normally keeps a GPS on board, but didn’t that night because the family was only making a quick trip to the gas station.

“I ended up mistakenly taking a left … instead of a right,” Morancy said. “When they showed me on a map where we were I was like, ‘I don’t believe it!'”

More than merely lost, Mills said that what the family couldn’t see because of near non-existent visibility was that they were approaching open water. Morancy said as soon as he realized where the family was, he had them start backing off the thin ice. He said his daughter’s quick thinking led her to jump off her snowmobile onto solid ice as she felt the ice below her start to give. As he went to turn around, his own snowmobile broke through ice.

Linda Morancy managed to keep her sled on solid ice.

While Morancy wallowed in the icy lake water, his wife Linda and daughter Haley shouted encouragement to him to get out. When he began struggling his family grew frantic. Then, he appeared to lose hope, rolling over onto his back.

Unwilling to give up on her husband, Linda Morancy took off a jacket she was wearing over her snowsuit and threw one end of it to her husband. He grabbed it, and she pulled him out of the water – only for him to fall straight in again as he tried to stand. She immediately tossed him the impromptu life-line and pulled him out. The second time, he crawled to the safety of solid ice.

“He was extremely lucky that he got out,” Mills said. “It’s a miracle. Just talking to him you can tell that he appreciates that he survived because of a miracle. … They were very fortunate that things happened the way they did.”

With Morancy experiencing hypothermic symptoms, the family got aboard Linda Morancy’s snowmobile and started out in search of help. They traveled eight miles before they saw lights on at a camp owned by Marie and Ray Chabot on Carey Road in Roxbury.

The Chabots brought the three family members into their camp – known to locals as the Sugar Shack – gave them dry clothes, warm food and offered them a place to sleep. They called the Maine Warden Service at approximately 11:30 p.m. to report the snowmobile accident, informing Mills that the family went through the ice, was able to get out and not in need of medical assistance.

“They’re very, very special people,” Morancy said of the Chabot family. “They’re little angels.”

In fact, the Chabots even threw him a birthday party complete with banana bread and makeshift signs to celebrate the 46th birthday he missed back at his camp in Upton.

Mills said he located the Morancys’ snowmobile tracks at approximately 5 a.m. and saw where the sleds went into the water.

“Mr. Morancy’s helmet was still floating on top of the water,” he said.

Arrangements are being made to get the two snowmobiles out of the lake.

Morancy was nursing a case of bronchitis with a slight touch of pneumonia on Sunday night.

Mills warned people to be aware that ice is thinning on Maine’s lakes and ponds. Contributing to the thinning is runoff from melting snow, this weekend’s heavy rain and warmer temperatures.

Wardens are reminding snowmobilers to not drive near outlets because of open water there, to use caution in inlets and coves because of melting ice, and to ride at a reasonable speed in order to have ample time to stop if they come upon a hole in the ice.