Voyage date: 6-28-10 Wind 9-12 kts SW gusts 16 voyage time 5:30-7:30 pm cold front approaching ETA 8:45 PM close isobar lines to indicate great sailing. All I can say is I am glad I have radar! I can pick the perfect window of opportunity! Check out the ominous black clouds in first pic. I subscribe to weather alerts from http://www.weather.com/ and I heard my Blackberry beep on my outbound course. The text msg indicated a strong line of thunderstorms from Martinsville VA to Sandy Ridge approaching my position! The good thing was I had a three hour window and I milked every minute of it! Sailing today was awesome! With the winds coming from the southwest, as soon as I departed my slip and was able to turn the boat around, I quickly raised my new mainsail and jib halyards from the cockpit and I immediately felt the power of the wind and the surge of forward momentum as the boat began to heel on a broad reach port tack. Temperature was in the mid nineties, but with the strong wind it was very comfortable. Several tacks while I was beating a zigzag upwind course upon arrival I used the shade of the mainsail to feel even cooler! I never tire of this feeling of the wind especially when it is above 10 kts! Heel angle was at least 30 - 40 degrees! This is truly hydrotherapy! I love the power of the wind and how I feel when I sail. The boat seems to come alive with the wind fills the sails! I achieved another transcendental zen state where I seemed to slip in and out of consciousness as I tacked and jibed several times today sharpening my skills! The arresting line worked well today as I came in hot. I need to bleed more speed so I don't exercise Newtons third law of motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. With the strong wind today, I was concerned if I did not have enough speed I would drift north of my slip. Docking without motor assistance is definitely a fine art and requires a lot of skill. You have to approach at the perfect angle, the perfect speed, and you must lower your sails quickly at the perfect time! I must be somewhat of a purist in the sense I truly enjoy the challenge of this maneuver. My new arresting line acts like a rubber band and forward motion quickly becomes reverse motion if appoach speed is to high. Upon arrival today I has a perfect port close haul tack since the wind shifted toward WSW. I had to crab into the wind to maintain course directly into slip even though the bow was pointing away toward the south. The fact I am a private pilot, has definitely helped me with the physics of sailing. When you are landing an airplane with the wind off the left wing it is necessary to crab into the wind and point the nose of the aircraft into the wind until the very last moment before you touch down on the runway. At this point before you land, you align the airplane with the runway and touchdown safely. Sailing is identical in the respect you also crab into the wind and at the last moment slide into the slip. There is no margin for error. I need to practice these approaches and learn how to reduce speed by periodically turning in and out of wind in a z pattern to slow approach speed into slip. Another successful sail and fun in the sun!
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