Sorry it took so long for me to give you guys a recap of our trip last weekend. To answer the above question, my sailplane is a Standard Cirrus 1972 model. I just sanded and applied new gel coat last winter so she looks marvelous!
Lee and I headed down to Panama City last Thursday after work. Arriving at the slip we quickly packed for our four day trip and motored towards open water at 10:45 pm. We had decided to sail off shore during the night which would let us arrive in Destin during daylight hours. I had never entered the Destin harbor so daylight docking would be the safest. The forecast was for perfect conditions Thursday night through midnight Friday. Saturday and Sunday were forecast to be 20-25 knots with 4 foot waves.
As we turned westward the ocean was as smooth as a pond and there was not a breeze to be had. With 13 gallons of fuel on board we just kept the sails stowed and putted westward at half throttle making 4 knots. Lee hit the settee birth at midnight and slept soundly until she was back on deck at 2:45. Taking her turn at the helm i turned in and slept like a baby until she awoke me at 5:45. The wind was starting to pick up and she suggested we hoist the sails. So up with the sails and secured our faithful Tohatsu. The conditions were perfect! 4.5 knots and smooth seas. After a few minutes Lee hit the bunk again. I sailed in peaceful bliss the rest of the night and watched the sunrise over the stern. This is why I love sailing!
After ten hours of motoring and four hours of sailing we arrived in Destin shortly after noon.
As a pleasant bonus we tied up at my Wife's cousin's vacation house. It is one of the last houses left on the bay from the 50's. In the house there are pictures of them landing their amphibious Lake Renegade in the front bay during the 70's. My wife remembers water skiing in the front bay. Things are much different today? Having a dock with water, power, a hammock and real bathrooms was a treat. We could walk to dinner.
On Saturday we planned a 3 pm departure for another off shore sail. The winds were forecasted a 20 knots Saturday and Sunday so I thought we could handle it. Remember I am a rookie to anything larger than 14 feet! At the appointed time we motored out of the bay and through the jetties. The water was very choppy and the wind was blustery to say the least.
Like a true amateur I raised every piece of canvas we had while clearing the jetties. Once we turned Eastward you guys know what happened
We heeled over 20 degrees and the tiller took on a mind of its own. Lee and I immediately realized we had too much sail up but getting it down was something we had not practiced in a gusting wind with waves breaking on the side. Kudos to my wife for keeping her cool and doing everything she could to help me. After some experimenting I realized that heading out on a broad reach was the most stable point of sail we could muster. Of course the shore was getting smaller and smaller. After five minutes of catching our breath, making a plan and gathering up the necessary reefing ropes we were ready to find a point of sail that would allow us to reef. I had made up the necessary ropes for reefing over the weekend and when we started out of the harbor we donned life jackets and buttoned up the hatches. So, we were pretty prepared for neophytes.
Lee cranked the outboard and then we turned into the wind and used the outboard to keep us from falling off. This had the added advantage of taking us back towards the beach. The reefing of the main went very smooth. It was at this time that I regretted only ordering one reefing point in my new sail. After getting it reefed and jib rolled in we turned back east. Good news, we were able to sail fairly comfortably but there was a tremendous amount of pressure on the tiller. As an experiment we started cracking the jib back out and quickly got the boat in better trim. Things were stable, we were heading east and catching our breath. As a precaution Lee once again checked the wind forecast. The new forecast showed increasing winds during the night. No way were we going to tackle stronger winds! With unanimous agreement we turned back for Destin.
The new plan was to sail the intercoastal.
Let me just say that the bay was as rough as the open ocean. Everything was piling up on the south shore. It was wind, waves and tide galore. We beat north for a couple of hours before we could turn east. It was miserable. The yachts were fighting it also! Once we turned east I cracked the jib and she settled down and went from 1.5 knots to 5 knots.
We sailed towards the intercoastal dodging bouys and gradually adding more and more sail. During the night we "hove to" for the first time while I removed the main reef. It worked beautifully. Lee could not believe we were "parked". By 9 pm we were under full sail, making 5 knots and heeled over. Basically we were getting more comfortable with the boat, the conditions and our experience level was increasing. In hindsight we could probably have stayed off shore if we hadn't scared ourselves so bad.
We anchored at the mouth of the intercoastal at 10:45 pm and slept though the night. It was windy, very choppy and I must have eyed the flashing buoy light a dozen times during the night. Had we gone another 1/4 mile we could have anchored within the ditch and slept on glassy water. I just didn't know the lay of the land and it was a moonless night by this point. We were safe, we were tired and I was in 4 feet of water. So I set the anchor.
The next morning I moved us into the intercoastal at first daylight (after coffee of course) and we started a peaceful four hour motor eastward.
Lee didn't cook during this time because we hoped to eat at Boondocks (turned out to be closed).
Emerging from the ditch at noon we were in for more rough conditions. We were beating directly into the wind with the Tohatsu giving us all it could for four hours. During that time a fellow sailor passed us heading downwind. Lucky guy. He was almost planning!
Once we turned the "long point" and headed southeast I started adding sail and it all got better again. 5 knots, heeled over, both hands on the tiller and it was daylight. We flew on into the south bay, under the Hathaway bridge where a sailboat was floundering about trying to decide how to get things under control. Jib flogging, bow bobbing and weaving. I felt sorry for him and thought we were there just 24 hours earlier. Racing towards home we picked up a couple of larger boats. Both larger, one was sailing under main only and we were slightly faster. The other had everything out and they were having a blast. About a 40 footer and it was heeled over like a Hobie 16! Six retirees in the back cockpit hooping and hollering. Obviously a more experienced crew than us.
All in all it was an excellent shake down cruise. Hoosier Daddy was up to the task and was a better sailor than we were. All of my rigging held up in the windy conditions. My electrical system functioned as planned as did our navigating. No one went in the drink and we didn't loose anything to Davy Jones. I'd say we learned more than a year of reading would have taught us. Sometimes you just gotta leave the dock.
Lane
