Weather: Variable. Winds: W 10-15 building to 20kts. Seas: Flat building to 5ft
Interesting day, in a Chinese curse way.
Departed Harrisville with great conditions. Off shore winds, 10-15 gave us a northbound rocket ride making 11-12 with excursions to 15 all the way to Thunder Bay. Slowed to 7-8kts to cross Thunder Bay as the fetch pushed the waves to 2-3ft. Went outside the islands off shore from North Point. Totaled 20nm in 2hrs, from Harrisville to the Thunder Bay Light.
Past the islands, new course was NW with small, less than 1ft waves and made 6-8kts. Made Presque Isle at 1330! Decided to press on to Rogers City, another 13-ish miles. Continued our heading out into the less protected Lake Huron. Waves built and wind increased to 20kts. Kelly at the helm, she started to fall off, having fun while increasing our speed. "10kts, 11kts 12kts" she called out in rapid succession. I was down below and realized what she was doing and jumped back up admonishing her to get back on course. "But the ama was hardly out of the water." "It is not how far out the upwind ama is, but how deep the downwind ama is!" I then explained pitch poling...I scared her unfortunately.
To compound this, 30min later the waves had built to 5ft and the apparent wind was 25. This sucked and 30min later, we tacked back hoping to hug the shore and relieve the beating we were taking. Reefed the main and genoa, relieving some of the instability and making 7kts, but still taking a pounding. Once on course, I saw we still had 13miles to go to Rogers City...2hrs of this? Only 4nm back to Presque Isle. Add in some rain. Kelly was really scared at this point and these conditions were BS. So, with Kelly displaying a tremendous amount of courage, white knuckling the helm, holding us into the wind, I dropped the main and furled the genoa. We started motoring downwind back to Presque Isle.
Fair winds and following seas.
Suddenly, heading downwind, things seemed calm. Kelly asked, "What happened, why is it so nice now?" I brought out the genoa, killed the engine and explained apparent wind vs true wind and how direction of travel influences conditions. She now understands the US Navy's good will saying of "Fair Winds and Following Seas."
The 4nm to Presque Isle were uneventful, though inside the marina, the winds were still strong. First attempt to moor was into the wind and the bow weather vaned, resulting in a prang on the dock, creasing the starboard ama when I tried to muscle it in. Once away from the dock, I motored to the other side of the dock where the wind was now at our back while entering a slip. HR handles very well in these conditions and mooring was easy, keeping the engine in reverse as a brake and parking brake.
Lesson Learned: The beginnings of reef early and reef often
Lesson Learned: The Dragonfly handles very well with wind on the stern, let the bow weather vane
Lesson Learned: Kelly has a lot of courage
Lesson Learned: Think about what the winds are doing and how conditions can change. If I had thought about it, the fetch on Lake Huron should have been obvious.
Lesson Learned: Wear the damn life jacket
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