Is anyone interested in sailing Silver Lake tomorrow Thursday, Dec. 2?
Looks like a nice day at 52 degrees and mostly sunny (Shows 47 on the graph but the forecast says 52-53).

Also, does anyone know if the lake is still open water? I was checking Pike Lake this afternoon and 1/3 of the lake was already frozen...

Lake Michigan might be warmer and the wind direction is projected to be side shore at Gillson Beach in Wilmette. That's a sweet direction for that site. If the wind is up I'll strongly consider going there, but I'll be able to tell if its good before I leave my house.

I'm sailing... Somewhere?

Love silver, but nw didn't seem like it would be great there. I tried se and thought it was a little too shifty. If anyone else is going I would probably try silver, bit was leaning towards wolf

Hard to decide...
Don't know why NW isn't mentioned on Silver Lake launch as a good wind direction. Looks sideshore to me...
Gillson Beach looks like a great spot. I'm a bit wary of sailing on Michigan during offshore wind by myself during cold winter days. I've been on a string of breakage and self rescuing lately.
Lake Geneva maybe?
Wolf is definitely too far. sry.
I'm going to start driving south and will see. I can't log onto this site with my iOS device. It gives me an error message every time (Dont know why). So I won't be able to reply to anyone moving forward.

See you there!

Curious how the different sites worked out. Gillson was very good, side-on from noon to 2, fully powered up on 6.9, some lulls but long fully-powered to over-powered rides. Very relaxing, easy small swell. Friends that went to Andrea said very gusty. One winger there who stayed close to shore, so I didn't go out as far out as I might have with someone else there.

There were 8-10 people windsurfing at silver. It was very puffy but not as shifty as it was the other week when it was SE. Lows around 5kt, peaks probably around 16.

I had a blast and had a very productive day, learned a lot and got moving a couple times. My winter sailing plan probably looks kind of funny as I don't even try to make my turns fast, and I uphaul every time, just trying to minimize swimming and keep the session long.

Curious to know what you thought of silver Greg?

KM wrote:
Looks like a nice day on Lake Michigan. Cool.

It was nice to see this many windsurfers on the water at once and nice to meet new faces! This session might be the very last one up north since the night temps will be a lot colder in the upcoming days. It won't be long to freeze everything over with a water temp at 32 degrees (Geez, that really hurt my hands!)

Silver Lake has potential for flatwater speeding sessions but it needs more steady wind than today. Lots of holes for just a few interesting gusts. KM is right: maybe 8-15kn on the NE end and a bit stronger on the other side of the lake with 10kn gusting 20kn between noon and 1:30. I sailed 125/9.4 combo. The gusts were so short that the 9.4 was manageable and gave me an advantage in the lulls. I scored a few interesting runs and managed a shy 30mph top. My biggest issue with this launch is that it is surrounded by small hills with plenty of trees except for the SW end. So, I would be curious to see how it does during a strong S, SW and W. Otherwise, nice area, grassy rigging, easy sandy shallow launch.

I think if we get another warm day I might try Lake Michigan if other people are going out, would like to try this steady breeze people keep mentioning!

Silver is very smooth in SW or straight S, the best I've seen in all my weeks of doing this. SE is just as puffy but with wild swings in direction that sent me swimming even more than I did yesterday. I almost quit yesterday after the first run as it was so puffy but really glad I stuck it out as it was a very good learning day for controlling power on. Need to work on power off as I would have a great puff, wobble off onto a plane, start to stablize and then exit the puff, the wind would swing forward and I couldn't get fwd/power up again fast enough.

How did the guy with the foil work out? Seems like the depth there would be an issue even with the weeds gone now.

I think you did great considering the conditions. Not easy to stay on the board and take advantage of the short powerful puff of air.

Bruce, the guy with the foil, had an interesting catapult on the other side where it gets shallow. His foil got caught in the weeds/mud/sand. You'll notice on the maps below that these small lakes are rather shallow all around. Not the best to foil on a 3' foil mast!
To check other places for water depth go here: https://fishing-app.gpsnauticalcharts.com/i-boating-fishing-web-app

Good resource, had not idea detailed charts were available for the little lakes. This chart is missing the rocks just N of the launch where it gets very shallow and fin hungry.

Regular catapults are messy enough, can't imagine doing it from height.

Washed and stored my gear for winter again, fairly certain this time (of three) is the final one, but who knows, long term forecast was saying some pretty warm temps next weekend...

Forecast is distant, but 60 degrees SSW wind this coming Wednesday bodes well for Lee St Beach, L Michigan might be warmer than inland lakes. This is optimal direction for flat water (in moderate winds) that is only slightly offshore. Getting blown downwind at Lee means at worst landing at Greenwood, but water is shallow along the rocks in between the 2 beaches, easy to walk back up to Lee.