So, let's see . . .
Deborah went out on a couple of beer cans with me. She's getting the hang of it.
James and I went out on July 24th. Since he had to go to work at 9:15 PM we skipped the beer can. Actually we nearly skipped sailing. It was blowing like crazy and gusty as hell. Even with the blade and reefed main we were overpowered. First, and only, time I've ever been concerned that we might get knocked down! We actually went blasting down toward the folks doing the beer can at one point and I wasn't sure we weren't going to broadside someone. We got back but not without a lot of flogging. James thought it was fun; I thought it was too much work.
I think I'm going to get a second reef point put in the main this winter. In post-sail discussion on the Capri 22 forum someone pointed out that a reefed tall rig has the same sail area as a non-reefed standard rig. A second set of reef points should let me go out in 20+ knots without worrying about getting knocked over or losing the rig.
The end of July/first of August was spent aboard the Star Princess, sailing from Seattle to Alaska. What an incredible trip! I took nearly 5,000 pictures over the 7 days.
After we got back I had a trip to Florida to help with my 96 year old grandfather, who'd fractured a vertebra and can no longer live alone. Most of my time was spent with lawyers and banks, and at the hospital and nursing home. He seems settled in now, so that's good. I'm still trying to figure out his finances though.
Finally got back on the boat on August 18th. What a great day! Light wind when we got there, then barely a whisper mid-afternoon, and then about 5:30 or so, blammo. The wind came up (16 mph) and we had about an hour and a half of glorious sailing high wind sailing. We snuck into the harbor to put in a reef, then on the last run we called my buddy Lou, had him jump aboard as we made a low speed pass at the dock, then flew down the lake and back. Boy did I need that and it was definitely worth the sunburn and tired muscles.
Tuesday the 21st Deborah and I did the beer can. Great start (#2 at the start) and we sailed well until the turn. We just can't seem to make up much ground on the return trip. I suppose that I should be happy if we get back before the boats that were in front of us at the start . . .
Sunday (26th) we took Deborah's friend Laura and her kids (3 & 4) out. The weather was nice with a decent, if somewhat shifty, breeze to start. I swear we got caught in something like a dust devil over by the little cove. The wind shifted at least 180 degrees! Weird. After some nice sailing we anchored in the lee of Gibson Island so they could swim. Practically as soon as we did the wind shifted to the west and came up with a vengeance. White caps even. Made swimming tricky but they seemed to have fun. When they were done we left the jib bungied on deck and sailed back under main only. Over 5 knots and not overpowered like we'd have been with the jib. Crazy.
Tonight (28th) James and I went down to the lake. It was pretty windy to start, enough so we were a bit overpowered, but I let the main twist off and we hit 6.8 knots once. Wow! As usual, the wind dropped as the sun got lower, so by the time we headed in it was getting pretty light. If we'd done the beer can it would have been another drifter from Leakin' Lena.
Labor Day weekend coming up; hoping we can spend at least one night on the boat.
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