Heavy Weather Training
Yesterday afternoon I got back from practice out in the lake and it was a pretty crazy 24 hours! I went out to the Ontario Buoy and back to practice, and as usual Lake Ontario served as a great training ground.
I had been watching the weather carefully for few days before I left, so I knew that I would be in for some intense weather. We started out on Friday night in a fairly sedate NW 10 knots that built to a pretty solid W 20 knots. I was barely able to make it close hauled on starboard tack once I was out in the open lake.
There is absolutely nothing that can describe how uncomfortable a mini can be bashing upwind in 20+ knots and 1-2 metre swell. The noise and jerky motion of the boat falling off of the tops of waves is so violent. I drove the boat for the first 8 hours and then let “Auto” do a lot of the work after Psyche Shoal so I could nap a little. Same schedule as before, trying to sleep for 20 min and then getting up to check the heading, speed and look for traffic. Did a lot of changing gears, reefing and un-reefing as the wind speed changed.
I met with two freighters on this leg, dealt with between naps. It’s always scary when you encounter freighters. You must determine their heading and speed and alter course accordingly, and both times we passed I had to alter course and we passed quite close. These things are huge, like floating cities on the water, and they are almost always coming straight at you.
I rounded around 0200 and then bore off for the ride home. I un-reefed the main and kept the jib as gusts were up to 25 knots and I didn’t want to blow out the kite. The breeze was up and down and shifting between W to NW. As I got to passed Point Petre and headed toward Psyche Shoal, I had a nice 12-15 knot breeze that let me get the kite up for a bit. The breeze built as I past the Ducks and I had to take the kite down for fear of it exploding.
Passing into the outer harbour, I had a beautiful rainbow on one side, and scary dark wet clouds on the other side with blue sky and 30-35 knots on the beam in between. What could be more perfect! It was fast and furious sailing, with the boat lifting up and surfing down the 1-2 m swell. I was averaging 9-10 knots (12 knots was the high speed, the fastest 680 has ever gone!) and I have to admit that I was a little nervous about this, as my pilot had finally given up because the batteries were on their way out. Without the pilot, I had to completely stop the boat to make any sail changes, and with the big breeze and waves, changing sails is a rough job.
I had to put in a couple of reefs on the final approach to the harbour so I could gybe safely down to the club. It built even further as I was approaching the club and I could have turned around and gone out again, but I was totally done and ready for a beer and some sleep.
When I got home, Alison had a hearty meal of spaghetti (sauce done on the slow cooker, so the house smelled awesome!) and we had a great dinner together. I fell asleep on the couch and Alison got me into bed around 2200.
(Aside: It’s Alison’s birthday today, Sunday, so be sure to wish her a happy belated.)
I think these training runs have tonnes of value and I am really enjoying the sailing. This practice was about heavy weather and I definitely learned a lot about handling in relatively heavy air. (I’m sure I will be sailing in a lot heavier than 35 sometimes…) I hope to keep the boat in the water for as long as I can, and continue testing both the boat and myself.
I know, I know: Pics or it didn’t happen. Well I was too busy to take any pictures, but here is a video of a figaro training in similar conditions with the same sail combination as I had. Like I said, fast and furious sailing!