My better half had work to get done so I set sail solo with
an unknown route. As soon as I departed Constitution Marina I knew it would be
a fun day. I tapped into the buoys and the winds looked to be consistent for
the next 24-36hs at 10kts from the SW. I took kit with me for an overnight,
just in case. Once I had reached the coastgaurd station sails were up and I
headed off. In the harbor I was on a beam reach, turned down the narrows, left
the harbor on a coarse to Minots ledge. As I got closer to Minots ledge the
winds grew and once past it I had at times 25 kts apparent on a beam reach.
Holy mackerel, this was fun. They say that when you wonder if you should reef
your sails is the time to reef your sails. I wondered, then the wind dropped to
a 12 kt apparent: the first violation of the reefing principle. I continued on
a course to Provincetown and slowly the winds grew.
When the winds were high I tapped into Boston buoy and it
was showing 8kts. The great winds off Minots ledge must have been a local land
effect.
The joy of cell phone coverage is its possible to monitor
weather patterns and tap into buoys to get wind forecasts and current
speeds. Deep down my goal was to try to
break 100nm solo non stop and to do this I would sail to the P’town breakwater
and back to the marina. However, I had been watching a weather system in Indiana,
Virginia, Pennsylvania and anticipated it would hit Boston and the Cape at
about midnight, and possibly for several hours. Since this would coincide with
my tired phase and could be while trying to navigate Boston harbor I decided to
turn back. That being said, I did want to beat 50nm on this trip. I sailed on
one tack until 12:55pm at which point I had sailed about 27nm (wanted to give
myself a 2nm buffer as at would have been bad if I needed to turn circles back
in the harbor to achieve my goal).
As I was heading out to my turning point I had made notes in
my log book of true wind speeds at various phases of the trip which was a great
guide allowing me to anticipate reefing just in advance of when needed. As I
was sailing back the wind had turned very slightly to my favor so I made most
of the trip on a close reach and managed to keep good speed and relative
comfort. As I was about 5nm from Minots ledge I reefed the main by about 2feet
(in mast reefing), shortly thereafter, I increased the reefing, then yet again.
I have never sailed with so little mainsail but it did the job of balancing
weather helm beautifully and I was able to keep speed pushing us forward. Every
time I reefed, speed increased. I was sailing at consistent winds speeds of 25
kts and gusting. But it felt safe and under absolute control.
Once past Minots ledge the winds dropped and I was able to
sail with a full sail all of the way home. Coming through the harbor was fickle
since there were areas with only 5 kts of wind and I refused to put on the
engine. I returned to the marina area for putting out fenders at 6:31pm.
Elapsed journey time of 10hours 31 minutes, total distance 55nm.
After cleaning and putting things away I headed home for
dinner and at about 10pm it started to pee down with rain. I felt dry and wise!
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