Spirited Sailing

Yes, we did some sailing today.

Up and gone by 6 AM to catch high-water slack at Gunboat Passage at 8:15, then proceeded to Dean Channel. As soon as we entered Dean Channel we encountered a following SW breeze and immediately launched our Genoa. After a couple of hours drifting along at 3-1/2 knots, the wind freshened, and we soon found ourselves handling more and more waves as well as wind. The winds kept rising until, by 1:30 PM, we were surfing in 25 to 30 knots downwind, making a boat speed of 8 knots through the water at times (although with the current against us we only achieved about 7 knots over ground), with lumpy seas from every direction - quite uncomfortable but we were making good time.

By 2:00 PM, we were in Elcho Harbour (a pretty little 2-mile long fiord) and had the anchor down in about 70 feet of water, and were mostly out of the wind. All in all, we sailed for about 4-1/2 hours, all of it in the direction we wanted to go. And we covered almost 40 miles. Yee-haa!

Now, looking at the charts, it appears the only way out of here is basically back the way we came, and we can expect the same wind pattern tomorrow. So we will get up early again so we can motor back down the channel before we have to face the nasty wind and waves on the nose. A bit of a cop-out I know, but it is really not that much fun trying to fight upstream in these narrow fiords.
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