10/23/09

Hola,

We had a nice sail on Solera a couple of days ago. Cyn and I headed out of the bay in light winds under full sail. The new staysail is a perfect fit. It has the same shape as the genoa and sets very nice. The old staysail is a smaller high cut yankee that is heavily built and will now serve as our storm sail. The wind steadily built up as we sailed out and was blowing about sixteen knots when we decided to head back. The forecast called for a norther with possible winds in the high 20’s. That’s a little more than we wanted on our first sail of this trip down. Solera was clipping along at about seven knots in a strong swell that was running out of the north. The troughs were so deep we would loose sight of the horizon from the cockpit.

Tacking a cutter rig requires a little extra effort with the two head sails. We furl in a little of the genoa then backwind the staysail as we tack. The staysail gathers up the genoa sends it through the slot between the two forstays. Then we release and re-set the staysail. This system gives us a smooth tack every time. On the way back the wind picked up even more and was starting to blow the tops off of the swell. I should have reefed the main sail but decided to just go on overpowered a bit since we were so close to San Carlos. We quickly reached the protection of Punta Doble, dropped sail and headed to our slip.

Maneuvering a large boat in the tight quarters of the marina is a little intimidating. To maintain control you have to tread a fine line between not enough speed and too much. There are a number very expensive yachts to hit and I don’t need that on my resume. Solera handles really well in tight quarters for a full keel boat. No close calls while in the marina. We stayed in a slip until after Hurricane Rick passed, then we moved to a mooring. Rick ended up being intense in the open ocean, the strongest ever measured in the eastern Pacific, but calmed down as it turned east toward land. Gave us a good scare though.

Being on this mooring is kind of bitter sweet. A SCUBA guide named Tommy had a cabin cruiser on it until hurricane Jimena hit. His boat rolled over and eventually sank while on the mooring. He lived aboard, but was in Tucson during the hurricane. Poor guy lost everything. He still says he’s “living the dream” but I sense a touch of sarcasm now. Of the boats in the bay during the hurricane most that suffered damage were either power boats or small sailboats.

I went out on Bombay, Oscar’s Pearson 34, for an afternoon sail. Winds were strong so we double reefed the main and went for it. The only time I’ve sailed faster was in Hawaii on a charter of America II. We really had Bombay moving, over hull speed much of the time. We ran east to the far side of Bahia San Francisco then worked our way back upwind to San Carlos bay. We were tacking her like a race boat. It was great fun. Bob Perry would have been proud of Even Keeled’s big sister.


Adios,

Ric & Cyn