June 18, 2010

Set sail from South Beach Harbor at 1700 with Lynne, Dan Brown, Sean McEneaney, and Michael Barr for a tour of the waterfront. Winds were at 20 knts as we left the harbor. Once we got the sail up we went on a run towards Alameda point so that we could have some food after a long day. The winds, however, continued to build and by the time we were 3/4 across the bay they were 25-28 knts. I decided to tack back to SF at that point, but the chop had already built up, so when we turned back upwind we were in for a wild ride. Fortunately I had already put on one reef when we originally set the sail. but as we tacked up wind it became clear that we needed another one. The mates were great at handling the lines and we eventually got the reef in and were back to banging through the chop. Lots of water came crashing over the bow. The winds at one point were gusting over 35 knts. But all turned out well and we got back to the slip by 2100.