a day in the wind

What a great day for sailing! I had planned on sailing with a friend on his boat, a 14 ft skiff (here is a picture of one) we got out there an rigged the boat... it was a question if we should take the boat out... the winds were howling, literally. So we rigged up the boat and got away from the dock... we made it about 100ft then gibed... and into the water we went. (the water temp in Puget sound varies between 52-56 degrees) We made the decision that the winds were too strong and we shouldn't take the boat out...

So we decided to de-rig his boat and take mine out. so we headed to my dock... stowed everything quickly and left the dock with me, Eric, and bill (my neighbor) aboard. The winds were holding steady at 30 kts. and gusting up to 45- 50kts. We sailed on just the head sail, which was carrying us at 7.50kts. (which is faster that we usually go with full sails up) We sailed for a bit and they the head sail ripped... we took the sails down and were still "sailing" at 3 kts. so we headed back to the dock, we where a little nervous about docking because the winds were so high... but as we approached the other dock & buildings sheltered us and the wind dropped to 5-10kts... we docked and tired up without incident...

After sailing raanan called me, about kite boarding... how could I say no? so I joined him to fly his 3m kite... it was picking me up and dragging me around... what a blast... jen even came and joined us... I had here fly the kite too. it was fun



It was a fun day... and kind of tiring. and I am fairly sore from it too...