Friday night we arrived at Lake Pepin, as we usually do. Forecast for the weekend looks like Friday will be the best sailing day for both winds and weather….we must do some sailing. We arrived about 5:30 pm or so and always have a little work to do to unload the car and get settled for the weekend and of course, we must eat dinner.

So, after we got settled, we got some awesome brick oven pizzas from the Third Street Deli. This weekend, it is Mark, myself, Abbie and her boyfriend Mason with us.

After an awesome dinner, we gather friends from the dock, who are also interested in a great sail – aboard we have Don, Jodi, Tim, Julie, Jay, Mark, me, Abbie and Mason. We left the dock just after the sunset.

The winds were from the south at 15 – 20 knots (that’s about 10 – 15 mph for you landlubbers). After dark there was a beautiful half moon shining brightly on the water and a clear sky full of stars. I absolutely love sailing at night! For reasons I can’t understand, Lake Pepin has virtually no boat traffic after dark, so we have the lake all to ourselves.

It is a absolutely perfect night sail on the lake and we sailed about 12 nautical miles with only a small handful of tacks required (tacks = turning the boat).

I cannot describe how peaceful, exhilirating, calm, fun, freeing, mysterious, and connected to nature, sailing at night is. Especially great with good friends aboard! Perfect!