Beautiful night on the river and, in a totally unexpected fashion, the breeze built all evening from the predicted 5 kn to 12-14 gusting 18. Of course one of those gusts just happened to hit as we were headed upwind approaching a symm-sailed boat that was struggling with the gusty conditions sailing downwind.
As we approached we got hit with the larger puff and started to round-up into the path of the other boat. Our boat was on its ear. This was just at the time I needed to completely blow the mainsheet, but I was struggling to remain in the cockpit and it took me a while to get my foot under the cleat to kick the sheet free. I mean it was close. Finally kicked the sheet free and that gave us enough steerage to avoid the other boat. By seconds.
I mean...it was close.
In crossing situations upwind, I always have the sheet looped over my leg that's most forward, as I am constantly playing the traveler with my other hand. Anticipating a close crossing and the possible need to dump the main to duck our competitor, I am usually very much prepared in these upwind situations. But I didn't recognize the threat in this situation.
Lesson learned: an emergency dump is very much possible with DW boats approaching in big breeze. I should have been more alert and thank god we didn't hit as it could have been very ugly.