Weather forecast was looking great for the weekend, so went for a day sail with friends Chris and Sanya. Forecast was 15 -20 knot NW possible rain showers. Sounded ok ...
We sailed upwind over to Motuihe and tacked up the channel in about 15 knots, full main and jib, sailing well. Had a rain squall around 11am, then the wind died and we were bobbing around the back of Motuihe. Once the wind resumed, we flew a little spinnaker for fun, and took off down the back of Motuihe, and Sanya served apptizers while we sailed downwind. We stopped in Calypso bay for lunch, bit of sun, and after lunch everyone had a bit of a snooze on the boat !
There was a rain squall or two while we had lunch, but thought nothing of it in our calm peaceful bay. Once we decided to head out, with a reef in the sail, just with the jib up we found out how windy it was outside the bay... 30 knots? After a bit of indecision, and the boat being blown downwind, I gave up and motored us back to the shelter of land. The consensus was to head back, but just the storm jib up, and motor running.
This ended up being the perfect setup, to make headway up wind, and as comfortable as possible.
A relative term it seems, as that NW blowing down the harbour was causing some 1.5m rolling waves !
Super wet ride back, everyone drenched, I had to put the storm boards in to stop the boat filling with water! I'm sure Chris got some photos, but it was a pretty wild ride ! It took some 2-3 hours to motor all the way, the other boat in the gulf seemed to have about the same amount of difficulty out there, seriously pounding through waves!. Made if back to the estuary and Half moon bay, against a very strong outgoing tidal stream..
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