Just had a very brief session yesterday, 46 degrees air 51 water. SE is a rare but great direction, side shore consistent with easy swell. Two wingers were out, Alex and myself. I just went out a few times and back. Alex is in the pic.

I was out yesterday at Silver Lake. It was the shortest ride I've ever had, as my hands absolutely froze. Plenty of people recommended heavy mitts or gloves, I do apologize for just nodding.My 5/4 wetsuit and summer shoes were just fine, but having nothing on the hands was not an option. Water was kinda cold, but cloudy and 43deg do not make for much comfort. Silver is really not great in ESE as the puffs and shifts are abrupt, but was nice to steal a day from winter.

Bought some of those weird palmless mittens. If they don't work I can chase my kids around with them.

On the off chance we get another sailable day, is Greenwood open to public for parking and sailing in winter?

Greenwood is basically fine for everybody now, if the wind is southwest after the season I always go to Lee St (1 beach south) because it is better wind close to shore. I have a 25+ year old pair of palmless neopren mittens, they are the only thing that works for me, because any insulation covering my fingers and palms weakens my grip on the boom, I get tired before my hands get cold. Maybe if I had a reduced diameter grip boom I could use actual insulated gloves. But the palmless mittens are the best compromise of warmth and grip. You can remove your finger tips from the mittens (or just keep the index finger inserted) and the good ones will still hold their shape and cover the back of your hand. if its too cold for palmless mittens, its too cold for me to sail.

I tried the palmless prolimit 3mm mittens, with surgical gloves underneath yesterday at Silver and it was excellent. I could have gone for hours in ~48f air temp. Had a great quick ride even though I was underrigged with a 5.7 and getting lapped by experienced guys with 7-8m sails. Got sustained planing for the first time and absolutely thrilled.

What directions does Greenwood work if you're paranoid about offshore winds and not seeing grand haven, but also don't want to sail in big chop?

Unfortunately, the only direction without chop is medium winds on a southwest. SSW is the best. Even straight South is slightly offshore and tends to be gusty and choppy as you go further out. You have to go past the breakwall before you get the full wind. But if you are on an easily uphaulable board and you can schlog upwind I would really not fear Greenwood. If you misjudge the wind and it is too strong you will figure that out 50 yards out and can turn back. It gets easier and flatter as the wind turns more west. A WSW is super flat and easy, but it is eery to be on your way out from Greenwood and see that you are aiming towards shore. The wind can get very flukey (strength and direction) the first 30 yards, and not uncommon to swim out or back from the end of the breakwall. Congrats on the full on planing.... you will now be hooked. Judging when and how much you can plane upwind is the key to offshore wind sailing.

A good way to keep hands warm is to bring a 1-gallon water cooler filled with warm water and come back to shore when your hands are freezing to warm them up in the cooler "warmer"!
I also went sailing on 11/21 at Pike Lake near Milwaukee in 47-degree air and close to freezing water temp. I came back 2 times during the first 30-35 minutes of sailing and then I was warm enough that I didn't have to come back for an entire hour. I use open-palm mittens too by the way.

Thanks for the tips on Greenwood, I think I might save that one for warmer weather. I got in trouble at Montrose the other week with way too much chop, too little wind and an uphaul that opened up by boom clamp on the way out, so while it's chilly I think I'm sticking to walkable lakes!

Next time I might try the hot tub for hands. For de-rigging I brought some of those reusable hot packs in case I was cold but Wed was really no problem. Forecast is wobbly for next week but kind of looks warm and SW so I might try Silver towards end of the next week.

Planing was awesome, being lighter than I thought I really had to bear away to get going so looking forward to doing it with power to burn away upwind. I actually really enjoy the light air stuff so far, but feel line it's just the fin working is pretty neat. Was defintely funny to be choosing the 5.7 over my other sail a 6.5, and then see the good guys walking back in with 8.0.

KM wrote:
If it warms up to a comfortable 48-50 degrees plus wind in the 15-20kn (or above), I'll join you at Silver Lake. I never sailed there before and wanted to give it a try!

I will keep in touch, it's a great spot. I just added a topic with a beginners point of view on some of the local launches. Silver is lovely if it's S or SW, and you don't mind the extremely long shallow dropoff. It's the steadiest wind I've seen off of Lake Michigan.

Thursday and Friday look warm, so we'll see about the wind. Lot of instability in that forecase this far out!