Dude, look astern...
oops...
steerage?
Plan was to get off the mooring, ride the paltry flood tide up to the docks, hang a right, put up the jib-top and ghost out of the creek, DW, and then maybe put up the main once in the river.
Boy, was that a great plan!
Until without my having noticed, the 5 kn breeze from the north turned into 8-10 from the south.
I had not even noticed until it was time to put the helm over and head out of the creek. And I was already having second thoughts. I had the 3.5 HP on the stern and two sets of anchor and rode snugged up aft to add enough weight to keep the short-shaft O/B's prop in the water. But that was dicey. Then, add insult to injury, the g.d. outboard was crapping out at RPMs slightly above idle.
Meanwhile a solid 10 kn was cranking in from the river and I barely had enough RPM to make head-way back to the mooring, with less than adequate steerage.
What a CF.
Everytime I trtied to goose the RPMs up to make some progress to windward the O/B would crap out. But, with patience and vigilance, I finally made it. Never been so happy to snap a mooring pennant! Brought the 3.5 home to see what's up with the HS jet. Maybe a bit of a clog.