I mentioned early on that a colleague and I traditionally take the 'Piper out for a late season sail. This has always occured after the boat has been trailered home from the cottage and before winter has come on strong. The inaugural adventure was on the Canadian Thanksgiving but has been as late as December 05. Two years ago, the trip had to be cancelled because the local lakes were frozen over in late November.

This year the chosen date is Sunday, December 01.

To add a twist to the day, we are now watching the weather and the web site of the local ski hill: the intention is to snowboard in the morning and sail in the afternoon. There are few sailors that wish for cold weather

This is an obvious ploy for attention and an attempt to extend the sailing season to the limit. What I am not good at is getting the boat into the water any sooner than June. I think it is Ken who has 'Shortwave' launched at the fisrt of April.

I will give an update in a week's time.

The local ski hill stopped blowing snow when there were mild temperatures and rain in the forecast. Neither really materialized. Therefore, the crew did not go skiing on December 01.

Then, it got so cold Saturday night that both Plan A and Plan B launch sites were frozen over Sunday morning. We trailered the boat around a few local lakes but everything was frozen. About 1cm of ice had developed in just one night. No sailing.

I was anxious to test some rigging mods that I will describe in another posting.