If at first you don't succeed... try sailing south again

After the last post, Monty and I set sail... upwind. The noise of the wind and impact of the waves made things pretty unpleasant, not to mention the strength of the wind dipping our lee deck in the water, not to mention the old vinyl window cracking and letting in the abundant salt spray. After six exhausting hours of fighting... and taking another look at the forecast that said my worst conditions would be at midnight... and looking at Monty's unhappy face [seasick?], I reconsidered and turned back to Dutch Harbor. The sail back took only an hour and a half and, with huge relief, we dropped anchor in the fading daylight and hit the hay. 

The next day, I climbed the mast to check on the masthead and found the forestay was failing. I had been putting off the replacement, but since I had at least five days to kill I tackled the job. I have since climbed the mast at least six times and gone through a lot of grumbling, but finally tightened the stays and raised the jib yesterday, just as the wind started to rise for the storm coming through today. 

And I've gotten a lot of compliments on the boat appearance/character while working on it. I DO enjoy having a boat I've done so much on.... although there IS something to say for a boat you don't need to think about much.

SO... this afternoon I should head out through the fading storm, wind across my beam, racing along at six knots or so, straight for the Chesapeake Bay. Waves should build to about five feet by midnight... although I might skirt Long island to avoid them... then diminish steadily. Winds should max out at 20 knots [at midnight: ugh], then drop. It SHOULD be a simple and fast passage, but you never know. When I get to the Chesapeake I can consider whether to haul out and paint the boat bottom or continue on to NC or even FL. I would really like to get the bottom paint crossed off my list.

I feel sorry for Monty on the long sails,although he does fine. He really enjoys being in a place where he can get to shore twice a day, take a nice walk, and sniff things.

Somehow I don't think he enjoys sunsets, shooting stars, and the rush of water nearly as much as I do. But he sure enjoys a comfortable spot beside me.