Monday morning, my customer could not make up her mind about a faucet on my jobsite. I put the word out that this would probably the last adventure for the season.  No positive reponses. The weather bureau predicted nearly record high temperatures of 84 with 5-10 mph wind and no rain. Weather Channel went down over night, but their last prediction was 8 mph. I have come to understand this summer that their predicted speed was the lull speed. This understanding was definitely true today.

I started the rigging process and found that I had lost the protector wire for the rudder. I even looked for it in the parking lot where I had packed up last time. I ended up rigging a piece of cable. Then when I was about to launch, I found that I had not set the lower pental and had to pull the cable and thread a new one. I finally launched about 12:15 into what the weather bureau called an 8 mph wind.

I sailed north around the point an went up the main channel. The theory was that I could sail on a beam in and out of the main channel and only have to tack from the point back to the dock on the return. What I didn’t count on was that the main channel took a dog leg to the north. I was then sailing with the wind again, which meant  that I had to tack back. As I rounded the point, the white caps started up. Wind speeds were 11-12 with gusts to 15 or so. Riding on a beam reach, quickly ran to the west end of the channel, then headed north. I was able to pull in the main before jibing to keep it from radically swinging from one side to the other. A couple of miles up the channel, the boom swung across on a jib, and the mainsheet raked my glasses off my face. At first I thought that they had been swept over board. Then I found the clip on sunglasses on the seat, then found the glasses on the floor aft. I thanked the Lord for preserving my glasses. I need to find a new clip to hold them on. I sailed past mile marker 7, but never saw mile marker 8. It must a have been around the next bend. The scenery was gorgeous. I wish that I could have taken pictures. There was too much wind to handle a camera. I tacked at 1:10 and started back. The wind speed was increasing and the waves were a 12” and above. I let the main out about half way to handle the wind. This meant that my point of sail was inefficient. I was spilling a lot of air. I tacked my way back out to the easterly dog leg, negotiating the shoals at the entrance. Now the winds were 12 to 14 with puffs near 20. I was sailing between a close haul and a beam, with a lot of wind shifts. I tried to sail under the lee of the shore to deminish the power of the wind, but generally I tried to stay on close hall to feather against large puffs. The waves increased to about 18” with 2’ boat wakes. I only saw 3 other sailboats on the lake. One was a catamaran with a grey sail.

As I rounded the point , the waves were increasing and the puffs came more frequently. I decided that it was time to get off the water. I sailed across the channel looking for a layline to the dock. I had to tack because I was approaching a shoal. The tack failed twice because I was spilling too much air. I brought the main in some, and picked up some speed. Then the tack was successful. From then on, at each tack, the wind drove me off my layline. I had to tack 4 or 5 times to get a good layine up wind to the dock. Then I ran on a close haul and ended up slightly down wind the dock. I decided to sail right at the leeward dock then cut into the wind toward the windward dock. The plan worked, almost. I drifted a few feet from the dock then was taken back in the wind. I cut  the boat to port, picked up speed and came aoout again only to come up short again. The third time around, I had enough speed, a little too much actually. I rammed the dock at 2-3 mph.  The boat survived. I used the boat hook to pull into the dock. Once secure, I lead the boat around the dock to the windward side so that the wind would not push the boat away from the trailer. I then backed the trailer close to the dock so that I could pull the boat on the trailer. If my map tracing is accurate, this was one of my longest trips( about 17 miles).  Sailing on a beam in moderate to high winds had a lot to do with the distance.

I did a lot of praying on this trip that the”big one” would not capsize the boat. With water temperatures about 70 degrees, I did not want to swim. The Lord answered that prayer. The weather bureau said that the maximum sustained wind speed was 14 mph and maximum gust was 18 mph. From where I was, 14 was a frequent speed and the puffs were at least 18. I went home tired and sore, but happy.