A winter in Arkansas

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Keeping the boat in the mid-south allowed us to sail all winter. This was however not without its challenges. Little Rock is 900 miles from Minneapolis, and while the weather is warm enough so the lake never freezes, it does get rather cold on occasion. In addition, we had done this before on a 35 footer, but what would it be like on a 25 footer? We were going to find out. The first thing we did is get the kites ready. BlueJ loves going downwind, and who are we to get in her way?


Because we sail on Lake Superior, we have good ideas on how to stay warm and dry while sailing in cold weather. We bring our offshore gear and layer ski underwear below. 

That works when it it cool, and when it would warm up, we would swap the jackets for something lighter. Worked out well.


We did have some teething pains, as expected with a boat under new ownership. The previous owner had rolled the very nice Doyle triradial jib up BACKWARDS, exposing sailcloth to several years of UV. On the first time we sailed with it in anger (in a race no less), the leach tore right off. We took a DNC for the 2nd race, and tore off down the lake under main alone. Oh the spin halyard snapped as well.




As I said, it was often cold but the sights made up for it. Outside of the Apostle Islands the prettiest places I've sailed in a long time.







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