IT'S RAINING, IT'S POURING, GREAT TIME FOR A SAIL!

The NOAA forecast for Friday was 15 to 20, building to 20 to 25 in the afternoon.  Windyty’s charts showed a peak of perhaps 15 knots at noon, dwindling to about 5 knots in the afternoon.  As I rounded the Shilshole breakwater it was blowing 15 with some slightly stronger gusts.  I’m single handling a Mapleleaf 42 and decided on two reefs, just to be safe (don’t want to break the glassware) and tacked across the sound, headed for Eagle Harbor.

For about an hour it was a lovely sail.  Just under 6 knots over ground and as the rain hit, the wonder of sailing in an enclosed cockpit with a full windshield hit me again for the umpteenth time.  Laugh at the windshield all you want.  Call it a ‘trawler with a stick’.  I was having fun.  Dry and comfortable in a driving rainstorm.

Last year in February I had been in Port Ludlow and on a Sunday headed back to Seattle.  Small craft warnings and just been posted by NOAA about an hour before I left, but didn’t cause too much concern.  Two hours later I was in a near gale burying the bow on multiple occasions.  Two local meteorologists who later reviewed the available information leading up to the event suggested that someone at NOAA was effectively (or ineffectively) asleep at the wheel.  They blew a forecastable event.

Which is why, on this current day, I had chosen to put 2 reefs in the main.  But as the afternoon wore on, and the wind dropped exactly as Windyty predicted, I finally lowered my sails.  And my faith in NOAA.

The purpose of the trip was a ‘safety at sea’ seminar, but the club dock had been reserved for a ‘mini cruise’ event.  I had signed up for the event, but acknowledged I would miss many of the activities owing to the seminar.

Docking took place without incident and I was very fortunate to join 3 different groups of folks throughout the night.  Great evening and looking forward to the seminar tomorrow.