Weather: Stormy to sunny. Winds: SE 15-20. Seas: >3ft.
Now missing the ama support strut, I rigged a line from the bow cleat to the outside end of the aka. Pulled it as tight as I could. Best I can hope for....
Original plan was to head south to Bowen Island. Departed Smuggler's moments before C-mast and headed south in the lee of South Thormanby Island. Raised main and genoa, both with single reef.
RT dropped back, maneuvering around outside the entrance to Smuggler's and appeared to be too close to the rocks. Turns out he was and abandoned the attempt to recover Emma's minnow net. He attempted to raise sail, but had a lot of trouble as MM could not hold the wind on the bow.
Meanwhile, we made 7kts on an east tack into Halfmoon Bay, felt completely in control, but the ride was rough. Could we do 6hrs of this? Probably, but why? Called RT on the VHF and told him we were turning around. After the above, he was ready also.
About 5 minutes after the about face, RT called, "Wanna go to Pender Harbor?" "Sure!" Turns out MM was not ready for another night on the hook in Smuggler's and so she played cruise director and called all the Pender marinas looking for space. Only The Pilot House had space. Very nice downwind run. Furled the genoa and brought out the screacher, but left the reef in the main. Made 8kts and closed the gap on C-mast.
Pender Harbor was interesting, definitely had the feel of a working port. Once in the marina, met an older gentleman who had spent 20yrs building a beautiful Norwegian sailing fishing boat in a barn. "20yrs?" I asked. He stated it kept him out of the bars wasting his money on booze!
This same gentleman came up with a screw for RT to repair a sail bag fitting that had popped while raising the main earlier in the day!
Easy walk to the ice cream shop, our first since Nanaimo! By the way, the ama anti fold line mentioned initially worked!
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