We decided to try another local lake, Thomas Hill.

This lake is used for the local powerplant, and it’s water temperature is fairly warm. That makes it a favorite of fishermen looking to extend the season, as well as boaters doing the same thing.

It’s a pretty windy day, but we feel up to it and set out for some fun. The initial upwind tack was smooth, the sailboat is heeling pretty well and stable, but the lake has a lot more waves than the other lakes we’ve been on.

I’m not sure why that is, but a wave can easily crash over the deck on my sailboat at this lake, and it’s not uncommon to plow through them. It reminds one of sailing on big water in how the waves behave here.

That brings up a point. I forgot to bring my coffee can to bail water. I know, it has a self bailing drain, but with the waves being as they are, it’s not enough. We’re taking on quite a bit of water. There is a foot of water in the sailboat because of the waves breaking over the deck.

It’s not a problem, the Chrysler Pirateer 13 has foam in it for floatation, so I know it won’t sink, but all our stuff is floating around moving all over the place. So, we finish our gateraid and try to use that bottle to bail water with. Well, I can tell you one thing that doesn’t work well. A gateraid bottle bailing water.

However, this lake is lively, its fun with the waves crashing against the boat, and the small sailboat is moving all over the place as it rides the waves, and crashes through them.

I would say this lake is the most fun we’ve had in the small sailboat. The wind was stiff and constant, thus sailing was constant, the waves made for some nice movement and kept things lively. Going upwind was a hoot.

Downwind, that wasn’t quite as much fun because of how downwind is compared to upwind on a sailboat, but it was still fun. However, the water situation isn’t resolved and we don’t want to push our luck and elect to return to the boat dock where we can drain the water. It takes a bit of time to do that.

I loved this trip the best of all the lakes we’ve played on.

But, it’s time to get back to school and the seasons drawing to a close. So, we’re going to put the sailboat away until Spring.

By the way, I can’t recall all the trips we’ve made, there’s many we did I haven’t logged. I’ll do better this year. Especially since I have a new sailboat, to me at least. I’ll blog about it on my next couple postings.