An Evening Sail

It has been much too long since I posted. This is a (true) story I wrote back in 2002. First of three stories.

Thursday I went out after work (temperature on land was above 90 degrees) with the one and only lessee, Joe, on Serenity (my sailboat). Had stiff winds when we left - highest I saw was 19 knots. Had full mainsail and jib up, and we were hauling ass out there. Got her up above 6 knots. We headed N, tacking upwind. Got across the little bay (you know - to the other side of the water over by the north end of Bainbridge Island), and the wind dropped off to a measly 8 knots.

So, just to see how it would work, we put up the asymmetrical spinnaker (sometimes known as a geniker, or a drifter). That's a lot of sail! Headed mostly downwind - straight for downtown Seattle, aimed right at the Smith Tower, and she performed beautifully. We were doing 5+ knots. As we got closer to Seattle - sort of back where we came from - the wind started picking up. Once the winds got around 12 knots, Serenity got real squirrelly. If I let her bow come up at all, she'd catch the wind and try to turn into the wind. Normally, you'd think that would be good - into the wind spills the wind out of the sails and lets the boat come more upright. However, when you're heading downwind to begin with... into the wind puts you more broadside to the wind. With that much sail out there, she really heeled under those conditions. I was afraid at one point I was going to lose control - the helm didn't respond and I was just about standing on the side of the cockpit. (Who needs drugs when you've got that much adrenalin?) Hit 6.5 knots at one point. That may be the fastest I've ever had Serenity moving.

I wore a short sleeved T-shirt, shorts, and boating Tevas the whole evening. In the middle of the sound with a 15+ knot breeze, I considered adding a sweatshirt. Then we'd get close to the shore and the wind felt like a blowtorch coming off the land. It was great!

As we got close to Seattle, the wind tapered a bit (and so did I). We were almost dead square in front of the incoming Bremerton Ferry, so we moved north a bit so as to not block the dock. We were going to drop the Geniker, but decided to leave it up until the ferry passed us - it is a beautiful rainbow-colored sail - for the enjoyment of the ferry passengers. Then we headed north again back to the Marina. A very successful evening.