Union Lake

While the lake of the same name in Washington State is much more famous,  Union Lake in the middle of South Jersey in the City of Millville is a little diamond.  The biggest lake in Southern NJ, it is a man made lake built to power the Mill that gave the town it's name.

Covering almost 900 acres with an average depth of 10 feet, it allows for a decent days sailing not affected by fickle sea breezes of tide.  It is also home if a small Yacht Club with some sizable small sailboats.  With HP limited to 10 HP or less, this is a quiet and calm bit of water.

I have rigging pretty down now, taking about twenty minutes from start to finish, not too shabby for a small sloop with three stays, a roller furler on the jib, a sizable main and a 22 foot long wooden mast. I imagine I will get faster with practice.  Once she was all rigged and ready to go, I discovered that the ramp was suitably steep enough to sink the trailer, a bit plus in my book.  I really need to lower my Spark's Trailer some.

At first it was a real drifter,  I found myself sitting on the twart leaning away from the wind to get the sails to set at first.  Slowly I made my way north from the ramp all the way to the shallow end before turning back.  here and there I was teased with little gusts that came and went, but for the last half of the lake, I had some spirited sailing on a good 10 knot or more breeze.  

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