Century Club: Rebekah Bromwell

Holey moley today was amazing. Had to cancel my OTW practical last time it was scheduled for lack of wind, and today was very nearly the opposite. I was pretty anxious based on the projected wind but when I got there and started the pre-sail check stuff it was very low, almost glassy. I marked "5kts" in the log somewhat optimistically lol. It was starting to pick up by the time my crew got there and I had to undock, still not a ton of wind but it was gusting enough from the south that it made departure stressful. I made it but I really hate when gusts take the bow so hard. I had Laura act as an impromptu 3rd crew just for an extra pair of hands to deal with some of the wind conditions so when I was barely able to compensate for the bow being push away from the dock I decided to get that line back on the cleat and had her hold it doubled back, then had the usual aft spring and stern lines. I walked the stern well over, almost as far as possible, and then backed out with considerable throttle. I cleared the bow thank goodness but it was pushed hard over in spite of the way I started out and I was forced back toward the dolphins/fireboat, but then pretty smoothly switched to forward and pulled out. Then we did a pivot turn which was just ok but not absolutely perfectly tight so took another try with the advise to only engage the motor in exactly the necessary places to counter the gusts that were pushing me towards dominoes. That one was pretty perfect and a great lesson in apppying only as much effort as necessary. Then I demonstrated reversing in a straight line for 3 boat lengths, and then went over to the marina just past fells point and motored around a bit inside, did a pivot turn to get out, answered stand on/collision avoidance scenario questions. Then I anchored and the wind started to REALLY kick up. Anchoring went well, held even with less scope than ideal in that wind, and then we pulled it up successfully. Then I headed to the turning basin to raise the main and decided to start out with the second reef in thinking that we might swap to the first after a bit if it calmed down. 
IT DID NOT. lol

I turned towards the outer harbor from there and we got the jib out but only as far as the shroud. Then we got to do some EXCITING sailing out past ft mchenry and I had our impromptu extra hand ease the main quite a lot, only infrequently bringing it back in. Even with both reeds in and the main almost fully eased we were heeled hard over at any point higher than a broad reach. We jibed a couple of times, and then headed up to tack back to the basin to do a POB, which was DIFFICULT. The wind direction meant nearly horizontal tacking back and forth, but since it was so incredibly strong I was able to pinch quite a lot and pint much higher than normal on Akimbo. The trick was that I had to stop pinching long enough to get good momentum before a tack which required falling off and heeling more. But we managed and it was actually hella fun. We got back to the basin and Laura suggested calling it and just practicing because she wouldn't have taken anyone out for a check in those conditions, but I said I didn't have time for that and wanted to go for it anyway, and so I did. I pinched my way into the basin further in and when Laura tossed the buoy over I went into automatic. I was pretty sure I would be going to fast but it went perfectly, just very very fast lol. The James's performed excellently, and in spite of our speed were able to do all their jobs, and when I turned up and blew the main the wind really did stop me right as I got to our "friend"!!! I was sure it wouldn't, but it worked! The. Then I started to do a heave to but the wind was picking up even more intensity so we decided to head back towards home. It did calm a little around dominoes and I described the rest of the maneuvers for heave to and how to spring off the t-head from any direction, and decided to drop the sail rather than demonstrate. Dropping the sail was a challenge just because of the intensity, but we successfully shook out the reef and did a rough flake and dealt with tidying it up back at the dock. Then, the dreaded docking. The wind was quite strong, with gusts periodically, but thankfully had switched to come from the east much more than the south so I could compensate by keeping the throttle significantly up pretty much all the way in. Somehow was able to bring us in absolutely perfectly inches from the dock totally gracefully while all 3 crew stepped off and got lines on to secure us. I definitely feel lots more confident now. I can't believe I did all that!