What a slog back up the channel !
Get to within 3 NM of the Isthmus when we heard "we are all sold out". Listened for a while to confirm that all the coves were on a waiting list.
Should we try the new anchor and windlass or go to Cat ?
We opted for Cat harbor and did 4 tacks to get around the west end. I cheated the last tack and powered for about 5 minutes just to clear the tip as the wind shifted.
Spent a very nice day on Charlie 3 at Wells Beach (Cat harbor) caulking the new porthole and installing the last hatch latch. More about the caulking in a separate thread ...
On Sunday morning we decided to go back to Cabrillo via the East or South end of Catalina. We cast off at 9:30, expecting to be back in the slip by 7 PM or so.
Everything was great but the wind ended up not putting us on a reach from the southern tip, but almost right on the nose ! To make a long story short we reefed the main around 3PM. Reefed the genoa 30 minutes later. Furled the genoa completely maybe another 30 minutes later and started up the engine leaving the main up just to soften the motion in the building chop.
We finally had to take down the reefed main and just power through the building chop and 30 kts on the nose.
We usually power at 5.5 kts at 2000 rpm, but we were knocked down to 3.8 kts a few times and even buried the bow a couple of times, only by a few inches, but enough.
The dodger got a real workout and so did the hatches and portholes. All the portholes leaked, including the one we just did
but since it was done with butyl it will be easy to re-do. None of the new hatches leaked but I sure was happy we finally got the latch on the forward one done, that sustained 30 kt wind could probably have ripped it open and torn it off and then we would have had a lot more water down below.
Other than wet-wet-wet we had no damage. One thing I don't understand is how the weather can vary so much over short distances. There was another boat sailing under full canvas 10 (?) NM to the south of us, maybe in an eddy or shadow caused by the island ? At the southern tip of Catalina it was dead calm.
The Spot track is here (will be taken down in a couple of weeks by the Spot folks):
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0JiV9BZ8bbCyBbE0qoybcYJqRlMxOhrYS
Sore muscles, tender hands and a bit of extra sun on the face ... but it was a great weekend.
-Sven