Spicy sailing and spiders

8 knots with 6-12 m/s wind! 💨

We spent a grey, windy, slightly rainy Friday night on the boat and went out for a quick but spicy midday Saturday sail. There was a small craft warning for high wind yesterday (definitely not going out in that!) and today was on the high end of what we’re comfortable sailing with wind wise. Wind was about 6 meters per second with gusts up to 12. There was wind in the sails and force in the sheets and we went a lot faster than usual, 7-8 knots, which felt great!

Things we learned:

• Reminded how to put up the capellet (tent over the cockpit). It goes pretty quick, you have to unclip the boom from the side and remove the traveler but then the boom can go on top.

Capellet is cozy!

• The capellet - to put away needs to be wrapped tightly around/into the metal so it all fits in the cover. Last should be the loose rear piece that can fit around everything and keep it in place.

• We pulled too hard on the capellet zipper pull and broke it. We were able to replace with a zip tie for now but don’t force it too much, put away correctly (see above).

• We decided to just squish the million spiders that live on our boat. I’ve been avoiding it or just flicking them into the water but I don’t enjoy sharing our small space with them and all the cobwebs they make. There were some HUGE ones living in the capellet that’s been bundled since we cleaned it in May!

  

• When it’s just the two of us docking, we should focus on getting a line around the rear mooring post rather than stopping the boat from the front (it’s easy to go a bit too fast and kiss the dock with the front lantern).