Out and About

Yesterday I took my father in law out for a sail. He's from New Mexico so sailing isn't something he gets to do very often. And naturally, I'm always looking for an excuse to go. The original plan was to wait until Noon and then go for the afternoon, but I was so excited to go we left early (around 10:00am).

It was nice to be able to walk down to the boat and be pushing off in about 20 minutes. I remind myself of this every time I get my huge bill from the Marina for the slip.

The weather looked a bit iffy with brisk moving cumulus clouds dotting the sky. I knew the forecast was scattered showers so we took some rain gear. The sailboat has no cabin so especially important to be prepared for the weather. We were glad we prepared because we still ended up being cold. The wind was as strong as I've ever dealt with so far and quite gusty. I've never heard the wind whistle through my shrouds before. It's an ominous sound. It's also interesting how the color of the water can affect my perception of the situation. When the sky is clear and the water is blue, things don't seem as scary. When the sea and sky are dark and gray, everything seems more angry and dangerous.

Anyway, back to the trip.

Due to time, we were going to pick our route as we went along and try not to stray too far away. As it turned out, we did stray a little too far. The wind was so strong and from the southwest (behind us), we were able to fly quickly away from Gig Harbor. We made good time past the point (Point Defiance) toward Tacoma. We turned around and found that we had our work cut out for us. I think 3 things contributed to the difficulty we had getting back to the harbor.

1) The tide was going out and the current going into Colvos passage caught us.
2) My tacking skills are weak.
3) The boat does not sail well close to the wind.

Whatever the reason, we tried our best to tack back to the harbor and we couldn't do it. When I saw we were being "sucked" down colvos passage, we dropped sail and started our tiny little motor. Even with the motor it took an hour to get back. It's not a big motor.

All in all a fun sail. I think I'm going to try tuning my rigging to reduce the strong weather helm. Maybe this will improve how close I can sail to the wind.

I'll try posting a picture (my first) of our route.