October Club Sail

Departure: 1:00pm 9/10/2007
Return: 4:30pm
Weather conditions: Partly Cloudy and windy
Tide: Flood tide
Boat: Blue Club Boat
Crew: 3 (Woody, Terry & Greg)

I read the online weather forecast with a heavy heart - 4 mph with gusts up to 7. I had hoped for a more exciting sail today; especially after the great winds we had the day before. Still, the club sails are a chance to go sailing for "free" so I can never not go.

Arriving at the dock promptly at 1pm, it was immediately clear to me that the weather forecast was wrong. There was a nice strong breeze blowing in the harbor, with the promise of more in the sound.

I had thought I would be late since the other regulars usually show up early, but no one was there. I was kind of excited to get a chance to rig the boat alone. I jumped in with gusto, hoping to have it all done before anyone else arrived. And I did get most if it done, but Greg eventually arrived followed by Dave. Greg is a fairly new member, but is quickly becoming and old hand. He's been on 3 club sails.

Another new member, Terry, was on her way so we waited a while at the dock for her to arrive. I didn't mind waiting too much, but it did deflate my pride in getting ready so efficiently.

Terry arrived and we left. Greg was at the helm and took us straight to the public dock for a pit stop. This is probably more than you want to know, but I have a bladder the size of a thimble; that is, if I have a bladder at all. I've often wondered if I just have a stretched out spot for, ahem, collection, somewhere in my urinary tract. Anyway, it was the men that needed the restroom.

I have to say something about Greg's docking skills; they're amazing! He came in faster than I ever would, took a quick turn and then stopped us at the last minute with reverse. He also did this when we came back in. I thought we were going to make a new slip, but we didn't crash. I'll have something more to say about this in a minute.

We decided to head straight into the sound to see what the conditions there were. We didn't need to motor too far out of the mouth before we hoisted sails and we were on our way.

It really was a glorious day for sailing. True, it was cold, but it was windy and clear and we had the water to ourselves. I found it interesting sailing with newbies. When it came to steering the boat, or trimming the sails, I had to bite my tongue to give them time to work it out themselves. In fact it's still sore. We chose to head across Pt. Defiance toward Tacoma. And here's where it gets a little embarrassing.

We just weren't making very good progress. The winds were plenty strong, and we hadn't reefed yet. We were sailing upwind sometimes, and sometimes more on a beam reach. We even hove-to at one point. Finally Greg realized what was wrong. The boom was still clipped to the backstay above his head. We were lucky a big gust didn't knock us down up until then. After unclipping the boom, we immediately felt an improved performance.

We eventually did reef when we started seeing white caps. Greg, the man who played chicken with the dock with no fear, did not like heeling. Here we had great winds and seas and we had the sails depowered to where it felt like we had half the wind we really did. Still, it was fun, and in a club sail, we need to cater to everyone's comfort. We still zipped around and had a nice time.

And that's it. Another great sail.