We woke up to a big rain storm this morning, so I put on my Henry Lloyd rain gear and cleaned the hell out of the boat. By the end, I was soaked. Henry didn’t do such a good job. But I did. The boat looks beautiful. We motored to the fuel dock, filled up, dropped off Mike and were on our way to the Berry Islands, weather be damned! And it was.
We started out with the jib and one engine in 17 knot winds, making 7.5 – 8.5 knots. Then we decided to put up a single reefed main and kill the engine. We were sailing along quite nicely until Jeff decided we should be going faster. After tweaking the sails, we ended up sailing at 6 – 6.5 knots. I had a small bout of sea sickness, so I wasn’t much help. After a regroup, we altered course a bit closer to the wind, tweaked the sails a bit more, and ended up sailing between 8 – 8.5 again. Then the weather turned shittier. The winds went to 25 knots, and seas built to about 7 – 8’ with some 10’s. We ended up surfing down some waves at 10.5 knots. The sky was ominous. Everything was this misty shade of either grey or green. (Maybe it was just mimicking the way I felt.) It was like we were entering the twilight zone.
As we approached the Berry Islands, we dropped the sails early because I didn’t want to have to go up and pull the main down in the rain. We ended up motoring up this beautiful channel on the east side of Frazer’s Hog Cay and anchored just east of an abandoned marina off the beach. It rained, then it poured, then the sun came out just in time for a beautiful sunset. If the weather predictions are close to being right, we’re going to stay here again tomorrow night.
December 2019