One of the reasons we decided to try this new launch site is because the club wants to keep as low profile as possible at Lake Farm. We’ll be back there once the ground is frozen and we can drive and park on the grass, but if we had been there today we’d have stove it all up.

As it was, the Vannah Rd. site worked out very well. Plenty of parking, easy on-off, no mud. The wind is a little wild at times as it swirls around the cove in the pit area (steady 15 gusting to 25), but it’s great to have the luxury of beating up as far as the Narrows and then getting the long sleigh ride back down. We didn’t go anywhere else because of the lurking threat of drain holes. We found a few and marked them, but attempting to approach Deep Cove in half a gale they were actually hidden under the waves of two inch deep puddles; more like small seas then puddles, actually:

That is not orange peel ice, it’s wavelettes. Note the spray on deck. We were taking on water most of the day, goggles covered in spray. But with the warm wind they’d dry in seconds and a slow drip of freshwater running into the mouth kept the throat from getting parched by the crazy balls to the wall sailing. One of the amazing characteristics of slush runners is the when you’re hit with a big lift, the entire boat weather-cocks and sets you on just the right course while casting up a fabulous rooster tail for your sailing buddies’ benefit.

Between the gusts the seas would settle down to a mirror.

Rambin Roger gets the longest drive award, as usual. The Lamb gang from Mass. stayed at the Inn and by all accounts had just as much fun there as they had on the ice. Another half dozen boats rounded out the fleet. Sailed hard and put away wet, it looks like we’ll have some time now to dry the boats, lick the wounds, and watch the weather.