gusty lane east of point
26 kn in one of the lulls
tough row out to RAINBOW
Very strong southerly building all day ahead of a front going through that evening around 9 pm.
Did a little work on RAINBOW and also experienced a row-boat treadmill. Photos don't do it justice, but I found the limit of being able to row the dinghy into a hefty headwind. Behind the trees and undergrowth at the far end of the point, it was blowing 6-8 kn.. Ten yards east of there, it was blowing 20-25. I figured I'd push off and row out into the fray. I got out into the max velocity lane and hey, forgeddaboutit. Gave it a good two minutes at level 9 of the ten point effort scale and could make no headway. Zilch.
After that, headed across the street to race on Inc. Forecast was 15-20 gusting 30. It was reasonable motoring out to the RC boat, in the predicted range, sort of. Then it just built and kept building. By the time we started (late due to some CFs) it had settled in to 25-30 gusting 35+. That's a lot and without a second reef point in the Main and no #4 jib, we bailed about 2/3rds of the way to the first mark, after the Ano recorded a gust of 38 kn. By that point, a good number of the fleet had also bailed.
Fun night! Got drenched because I took my sailing gear bag out of the car and left it home. Stupid!!! Note to self: wearing cotton on heavy air nights is not smart....