New Year's day I planned on racing Dyer Dhows in Mystic. Snow on the ground as I first stopped at the marina to visit Dark 'n Stormy, my J105, on the hard. Saw a bunch of folks from G-dock. They keep their boats water in the water all winter and celebrated New Years last nite. Sounded like a lot of fun. 
Arrived at Mysic Seaport early since I've not sailed Dyer Dhows before. Saw the couple old whaling vessels hauled and undergoing restoration. Wish I had a good camera instead of just the iPhone.
Seaport is picturesque after snowfall, need to come back another time just to take pics. So once I found the boathouse I asked if anyone signed out the Mudhead boat (my club donated a Dyer to the Seaport sailing programs a long time ago). No other Mudheads planned to use it so first I had to find it. Then I looked at other boats to figure how to rig a Dyer (pretty simple), don fleece & drysuit, skippers meeting and then off into Mystic River with the crash boats serving as ice breakers. Didn't get totally stuck in ice (some boats did) but felt like Ernest Shackleton at times navigating through the ice floes. Racing wasn't the best as winds was really light and current was strong but I didn't mind - glad to start off the year with a sailboat race, even if I did finish 21st out of 22 boats racing, good hot chili afterwards and great race organization and venue, many thanks to MIYC! Lots of photos were being taken by the RC and I will hopefully update this entry with them soon.
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