Gusty weather
After last week’s mayhem at work I was not sure if I should go out sailing or just lay asleep on a hammock. Sailing prevailed.
Launching in our home harbor is tricky: narrow ramp which needs to be entered from 90 degrees turn. It took me three trials until I managed to enter the slip.
Weather forecast was warning against heavy wind gusts in the afternoon. Since I started around 10 a.m. I waited with reefing and went upwind on full sail.
Beating against the wind in the narrow Vätösund took me a while but eventually we arrived to Norrtäljeviken. The wind was mostly from South so I could sail in a comfortable beam-reach all the way to Flaten, club island at the entrance to Norrtäljeviken.
Closer to Björköfjärden wind gusts started to reach us more and more frequently. Normal wind was weak, around 4 m/s, while gusts were reaching 12-14 m/s. Too much for unreefed sail on my dinghy.
I moored to lee pontoon on Flaten, to reef the sail and prepare some food. The place was well protected from wind but quite unfortunate as I was laying exposed to swell from motorboats passing by so no cooking, just sandwiches.
With one reef set I cast off and head back the same way home. Mostly beam-reach, upon entering Vätösund turned into broad reach. Gusts were getting stronger while wind between them was dying out to almost nothing.
By this time I was getting tired and seriously considered dropping sail and starting the engine. I gave it a few more minutes and luckily the wind came back. We entered Vätösund with vengeance!
Close to the harbor I dropped sails and tried entering the slip on oars. With heavy side-wind I quickly realized that I need more power so engine woke up to life.
We entered the slip and could retrieve “Louve” but with a few problems - mostly due to side wind. It was close but none got hurt.
I will need to re-think my retrieval routines before next sailing.