Wet, wet, wet, windy, windy, windy. etc.

We’ve been hankering to get some weekend sailing in and a destination was calling our name, and being valentine’s weekend and all, we figured a nice trip to Gig Harbor would be the perfect mid-winter escape. The weather has been all over the place, but this particular weekend delivered exactly what we were expecting, gusty, wet southerlies.  To top it off, the tides were not favorable for the trip to Gig Harbor, but they were extremely favorable on the return.

We fueled up the boat with 15 gallons while we were on the doc to empty the holding tank.  With diesel so cheap it seemed like a good chance to pickup a few gallons.

We wanted to go with one reef, knowing it was going to be about 20 knots and gusts to 30 or possibly higher, and with out new cradle cover we were not exactly practiced in getting the reef in and the cradle covered squared away. You can see from our path below, it took almost the entire length of elliot bay to get it all squared away, and I didn’t do a very good job, but the reef was in, though messy, and the cradle cover squared away.  It was raining at this point and it didn’t stop until Sunday morning (and then just for a bit.

We made a starboard tack across the sound towards Port Blakely but with the tide and wind against us, we didn’t make great time. Then we started the tacks and made it to the south end of Blake island, then short tacked into the Colvos passage. At this point we we were close to 3:30 pm.  We had left Elliot bay after fueling at noon. It had been a long, wet slog and in order to make it to Gig Harbor before dark the only good option was to motor, so at that point it was motor on and autopilot all the way.

Here’s Rachel on the return trip on Monday.  We both enjoyed sailing downwind.  We had the main under one reef again and the boat was loving it, we had 6 to 8 knots over ground. Driving downwind in 20 to 25 knots with higher gusts is really pleasant on this boat. It’s quiet, and warmer and the rain is hitting your back not your face and it’s easier to jibe than it is to tack.

We made it back in 4 hours, whereas getting there took us close to 7 hours.  We didn’t turn the motor on until the Elliot bay breakwater.

This was a nice sign in the marina men’s room 🙂