That was quick. Quick and intense.
Yesterday's sail was a nice 15 knot downwind run to Sidney Spit. I was even able to fly the spinnaker. The first leg along Juan de Fuca Strait required me to motorsail as winds were pretty light and I had 26 miles to make up by dark, and I left at noon. But once I cleared Banes channel the wind veered to the southeast and I was able to sail the whole way.
Unfortunately, I was having problems with the storm jib jamming. When I first left Vic i had no problems, but after stowing it so I could run the spinnaker, when I went to pull the jib out again (winds became too strong for the chute), it would only come out half way.
I was very fortunate that I got 99% of it furled again before it jammed in the other direction.
The mast head is a long way from deck and it was getting late, but I could see what the trouble was - I had a halyard wrap across the top of the foil. Because the luff of the storm jib is a couple of feet shorter than the genoa, the halyard extends down parallel with the headstay and foil. Not good. The halyard is supposed to intersect with the furling head unit at an acute angle so this can't happen. There is a lot of friction inside the head unit cause by luff tension, and the tendency is for the halyard to wrap around the foil rather than allow the swivel to work. It actually has positive feedback to do this, because as the halyard starts to wrap, it's effective length shortens and so it pulls upwards on the head of the sail, increasing friction inside the swivel. Eventually it jams because swivel fiction is too high.
In order to fix this I need to unfurl the sail and raise the tack at least a couple of feet.
Anyway, I arrived at SIdney Spit late in the afternoon. The wind was still blowing pretty good but miracles of miracles, there were a slew of mooring buoys to choose from! In the three years we have owned Fainleog, I've never been able to grab one of these. I'm a start late and arrive late kinda guy. The mooring ring was very corroded and I didn't like the thought of my mooring line rubbing against that rough surface all night, so I unshackled my anchor chain and used that instead. It was nice to know that I was as as secure as if tied to the dock, but man, that chain made a lot of racket last night. A sailboat is like a drum when anything bumps or rattles on the surface.
I've had a woman friend stay aboard for the last week and the place really smelt like perfume. Normally I'm not too keen on the stuff and Tracy never wears it, but in this case I found it quite compelling. It really "feminised" the place.
I was also quite surprised to see another sailboat moored in there. In fact, I saw a few out even though the weather was miserable. Sailors really are a breed apart.
It felt so very, very good to be in my boat again, bobbing with the waves and listen to the moaning of the wind. It was very hard to get out of the V-berth this morning as it was just so comfortable and cozy.
My plan was to head further north but the weather had other ideas. I agonised over the decision, but eventually decided to cut and run back home. You see, they had increased the forecast to a possible 40 knots SE-E, and nobody wants to be in such an exposed anchorage in that kind of blow, mooring buoy or not. I wasn't afraid of dragging but that would have been very uncomfortable with my ass hanging out like that. I was planning perhaps 3 days - Montegue and Ganges. I thought of making a run for Montegue but my headsail needed fixing and the wind would be against tide and they were calling for 25 knots. And only an idiot or a desperate man would try docking in Ganges with that kind of forecast. Very often winds are even stronger in there than outside the harbour! Montegue would possibly have worked, but they are calling for strong S or SE winds until Monday, and nobody likes banging upwind for that length of time it would take to get from Montegue or Ganges to Oak Bay.
I checked other anchorages and most in the southern Gulf Islands are open to the E and S.
It seemed that the prudent choice was to stay put or head back. Staying put would have been a rodeo and head further north would have put me into a hole until next week, so turn about seemed the correct option.
In a way I'm not disappointed. I enjoy it when things don't go as planned because it forces me to think on the hope and decide the best course of action. There were many things I could do, but which is the safest and most prudent, given all the above factors. If even one of those important details had changed -sail condition, wind strength, wind direction, anchorages, I would have made a different choice.
As I expected, the sail back (motoring of course) was a real rodeo. And for the first time I was forced to take a Gravol. It might have been because it's been 6 months since I've spent significant time in those conditions, or I might be coming down with something. Either way all the bouncing and rolling had me feeling a little green so i took the pill just in case. I figure it was about as bad as it got on our trip to Cape Scott and back last fall.
The funny thing though is that once I came round Cadboro point, the wind died completely and the water was very smooth. Coming out of Enterprise Channel, I found the wind had veered 180 degrees and was now coming from the North! It's hard to believe that wind could be blowing 2o-25 knots SE up Haro Strait and yet be blowing 4 knots N in Juan de Fuca. The wind around here is amazing.
You know, I've been mocked before about these little cruises I go on, and yet to me they are invaluable experience for offshore sailing. It doesn't matter that the CG is right there on the radio, or I'm only a few miles from land. The point is that when I'm out there, I have to deal with whatever comes up on my own. It's all there - wind and waves, options to consider and choices that must be made, equipment that must be fixed, hazards to avoid. The big difference that I can see is that if you make a mistake offshore, there's nobody around to pull your chestnuts out of the fire. But even here, you still need to make choices that prevent you needing someone to pull your chestnuts out of the fire!
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