Rita was busy, and John had to back out, so I took Still Time out single handed. Autohelm is fubared, so I knew I would have my hands full.
It had been blowing all day 20+ knots from the south, so there were 3-5 ft waves out there. At the dock, I setup a reef in the main, and hanked on the storm jib (85%). As I got into the bay, Neil from the sailing school is saying to put in a double reef, which I did. Got out in the channel, turned the motor off, and found there wasn't enought sail area with the waves, could only get about 2 knots of boat speed between crests. Shook the 2nd reef out, little better. Changed the storm jib to the #3 (110).
WHAT AT PAIN IN THE ASS WITHOUT AN AUTOHELM!!!
Still could only get about 3 knots of speed. Started the motor to get to the committee boat. The wind had dropped significantly, so I swapped the jib for the genoa, then finally shook the reef out before the starting gun. Being singlehanding, I started on a port tack away from the traffic, but even with full sail, I could not get much forward motion with the waves. Had to duck some starboard tack boats at the start line.
Had a fairly good race, kept very close to most of the fleet. Legs two and three were reaches, and had the boat going over 6 knots most of the time. As I went to windward, the headsail halyard popped out of its cleat not once, but twice. What a pain! Lost a lot of ground!
There were thunderstorm and tornado warnings issued for after 9pm. Back over land in Pickering, the thunderstorms had already started, and I was the last leg of the short course, and the wind was diminishing. Many boats started their motors and withdrew, but I was determined to finish. According the the GPS, I had 5 mintues to the finish, so I radioed the commitee boat. The winds were flukey, shifting 60 degrees, up to 12 knots, down to 3 knots. After 10 more minutes, the GPS said I was 6 minutes from the finish. The lightning strikes could be seen on land north of Ajax. The wind filled in and I was able to cross the finish line in darkness.
By this time, the lightning strikes were north of Whitby. I started the motor, dropped the genoa and main. When I went forward to take off the headsail, the boat would lose its way, and would would be pointing back to the middle of the lake. Tried this three times, then throttled the motor back, and was able to wrestle the genoa off the forestay and throw in the cabin (with the other two jibs!). I quickly bungied the main the boom, and motored as fast as possible back. I was surfing waves, and hit 8.6 knots on the way in. Lightning strikes where happening all over place on land.
Rita met me at the slip, and we quickly got the three headsails folded and put away before it started raining as we put the main sailcover on.
I had used all my sails and reef points. Sure glad I was NOT in the spinnaker class!!!
Beer sure tasted good in clubhouse afterwards!
Came is 2nd in my class, and this put Still Time in 2nd for the series.
Trip Odometer: 9.35 miles
Moving Avg: 3.4 knots
Moving Time: 02:46:02
Google Earth track: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/20110824.kmz
No comments:
Post a Comment