Took #6 and other than that stupid janky starboard side jib sheet cleat it was great. Intermittent gusts up in the teens made it fun/exciting but I hope it's less for the actual BKI. Feel solid on quick stop and reefing, heave-to, etc, but need to do figure 8s. Docking also.
Amazingly beautiful warm day, 50s sunny and WSW 7-15 ish.
2.5hrs
Almost cancelled based on NOAA weather advisory. (SW 10-15 gusting to 25, plus rain) We met up anyway to see how bad it was and possibly start out reefed and stay close to at least get SOME practice in while the warm temps hold. (60s and drizzly today!) However, it was complete glass when we got there. Not even enough to move the windsock at all. So we rigged and set out with an occasional 0.5-1 kt puff. Pretty miserable. It was so light and intermittent, AND kept switching direction dramatically, there wasn't much to do. Still it was good to get back into rigging and planning departure and stuff. After a couple of hours there was a few minutes of 3-4kt wind and I actually got a couple good quick stop POB's in. Headed back pretty some after. A bit less than 3 hrs.
Did some POB, heave-to and reefing practice with Santhosh, Sandy & Robert. Slightly cloudier than yesterday but still warm and beautiful, 60s, wind similar to yesterday maybe a little less at the high end. Left at 4, docked at 6:30 just as it got dark.
High 50s this afternoon, very low wind as we left around 4 but it picked up and was excellent after a while. Out about 3 hrs.
Took Akimbo out for a couple of hours this evening almost to the bridge. Great sunny weather, high 40s. Wind from the NW at 13ish knots but got pretty gusty and hit the 20s out past the fort. It was comfortable downwind heading out but we put both reefs in as we turned up to come back. It got pretty chilly once it got dark, but the sky was so clear it was super great to see stars and visibility was pretty good on the water too. Moon was bright.
Met up at DSC for frostbite racing but the wind was so terrible we almost gave up. Ended up just going to the red marker at fells pt and back, and I screwed up the start horribly so came in way way behind everyone. Wind picked up slightly so we decided to go for another one and that time I didn't screw up the start and we ended up coming in second! The real race was with Albert who almost overtook me right by the finish, but we prevailed! Super fun. Not too cold, but the drizzle was kind of bleh. Was having so much fun I forgot to get a selfie with my crew! Had Susan as my crew and we were a great team. Today was all skippers so everyone just teamed up and consolidated on half as many boats. (45F, drizzly off and on, super terrible wind, maybe 3-5kts from the west.)
Mid 50s again, mostly sunny, much lower wind than yesterday though. Probably 7-10 max and it totally disappeared after 3 hours on the way back in. Took out #6 to do SH practice for an hour (James hung out in the pit) and then picked Tom up at the t-head for another couple hours out to the turning basin and back. We were going to do a POB but had to avoid a floating log, so we swung back around and picked that up instead. Lol. It was ridiculous. Only when we tried putting it in the "cabin" did we realize how stupidly big it was. Could barely maneuver in the cockpit around the bit sticking out almost to the traveler. Considered dropping it on the dock at anchorage but didn't want them to think we were dumping or something so got it all the way back to DSC and dragged it away from the docks. Noticed a bunch more floating pieces like it, though not as big, and realized it was charred badly and looked like it probably was from the fire over there right after the lighted boat parade. Should have left it on their docks after all. Oh well.
Wind was weirdly coming from the southeast this afternoon, but was a shifty mess especially right around dominoes so most of my SH practice was very annoying. Got in a couple decent POBs but not much else.
Got warmed up w/Richard and Karen at noon for an hour and then got dropped at the T-head and rigged #5 to take James on an almost bridge run. Finished up around 4:30. Much gustier than I expected, we did reef but it wouldn't hold so trim was super shitty. Have never felt so underpowered on the main, and had significant leehelm which felt weird. Considered dropping main and trying to tie ot out of the way but had to point as high as possible to make it back with the wind coming practically straight from the west. (WSWish) mid 50 degrees F, mostly sunny, 10-15knts but quite gusty.
Went out in #5 w/Robert from 12-4 to do a bunch low wind SH practice. Did a good amount of POBs including fig 8s which I almost never do so that was good. Feel pretty ok about them. Practiced steering with sails and also some jib only sailing. Found that just flogging jib and tightening main never really brought us back fully upwind but I think we need to experiment more. There was a lot of weird lull spots and I think that confused the issue.
also stopped by Sun and Akimbo to check on stuff. There's a second thru-hull under the v-berth I hadn't seen and James reminded me about that smaller water tank too.
There were SO many more people waiting along the pier in fells point than I expected. Apparently this is a really big deal and super cool thing here. Definitely want to keep doing it every year now. When we got to Akimbo at noon I got the engine going to make sure the inverter worked (it does) but found a new leak somewhere running down the hose between the impeller and engine block. Tom managed to scramble and change it out for the new one crazy fast when taping wasn't helping the leak. The old hose looked kind of worn at the end by the engine so maybe that was it. Anyway no leak anymore. Plus I figured out which metric ratchet wrenches work on the cover over the belts. (And impeller hose.) Successfully re-winterized with no hiccups this time at the end of the night too. Finished up at DSC around 9:30.