Weather: Sunny and nice. Winds: E-SE 10-15 gusts to 20. Seas: Flat
71nm, 9hrs dock to dock! Rocket ride with off shore winds!
Intended destination was Leland, but made Leland in 3hrs. Pressed on to Charlevoix.
After fueling, departed Frankfort early in company with a Catalina 42. They attempted to keep up initially, but rounding Point Betsie, the winds hit a sweet spot, HR got dialed in and we were off to the races. Averaged 8-9kts. Around Sleeping Bear Dunes, made 11kts and saw 13-14kts consistently peaking at 15.1kts! Left the Catalina in the spray!
Once past Leland, slowed a bit to 7-8kts. Slowed to 5-7kts around Cat Head Point. Crossed Grand Traverse Bay at a pleasant, flat sea rate of 8.5kts and made Charlevoix in time for the 1730 drawbridge.
The marina staff was great and really curious about HR. Harbor master is a school teacher moonlighting during the summer. Most of the staff are college students. The marina was recently renovated and the shore side is a heavily used park. Charlevoix is one of my favorite towns, complete with a Kilwins! Just a pleasant, bustling summer community.
We were tied next to a smaller boat which allowed us to extend one of the amas. The docks are not restricted to the crews, but are open to the public, which takes advantage by strolling the docks, looking at the boats while eating their ice creams! Overheard one woman walking by HR from the extended ama side, "That is the ugliest catamaran I've ever seen!" Then, as she got to the bow, "Oh, its a folding trimaran! How cool is that!"
For some reason, I had left the VHF radio on. About 2000, a call came over the radio, trying to get the marina's attention. There was no response as the marina closed around 1800. I responded, letting them know the marina closed, to just pick an open slip and catch up with the harbor master in the morning. Turns out, it was the Catalina 42! I have no idea when they finally arrived.
Lesson Learned: What the Dragonfly 1000 can do. 10-15kts of wind from a broad reach direction, in the sense of the true wind direction. With the speeds involved, it was more of a beam reach relative winds. Full main and screecher. Clipping along at 10-11kts, gust would hit and the boat wanted to go to weather. Initially, I let it, keeping the boat slow and under control. After the third gust, I got a feel for it, started to trust the boat, fought the weather helm and we took off! Once at speed, the weather helm went away. This is when we saw 13-14 and then the 15.1.
Lesson Learned: The screecher adds at least a knot and more often 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment