Pensacola FL Sailing Blog - sailingnightwatch

Last weekend was rainy and the weekend before was racing. This weekend forecast was dismal. Saturday had the possibility of sever thunderstorms. Sunday was to be better. By noon, the few storms that were around had dissipated and I got the itch to go.

Currently I have to back out of my slip to the starboard. Then turn hard left to head out the cannel. That is my normal prop walk so one would think that this should be easy. The clipper bow is about 6 feet off the water and has a lot of area for the wind to catch. This was one of those days. Instead of turning about 70 degrees while backing out, I turned about 20. Then the wind got the bow. A friend of mine who is an excellent boat handler and has taught many a new power boaters always said that if you have to rev-up your engine, either you do not know what your doing or you screwed up. Well, I used enough RPM to cover both categories. Even got my neighbor across the cannel out on his deck to watch. When I am cross ways in the cannel, I have enough room between my dock and said neighbor’s dock with about 5 feet to spare.

My game plan in this type situation is to move the bow in to where it will be blown against the last piling of the pier. There are those on board that do not believe I have a plan and what ever the maneuver is, it really stinks. After 42 years you do not get a lot of respect from the mate. After leaning against the piling, one just waits for the wind to swing us around. Everyone needs a little excitement to make the pleasures of sailing really have meaning.

We sailed in 12 to 15 knots for about 3 hours. Wonderful, magnificent! We decided to come in for the night because of the forecasted warmth of the night. Good choice. Not only did we have the air conditioner, the storms finally arrived around 11 P. M. Remember Sunday was going to be a better day. It started raining about 11:30 and did not let up till around 4 P. M. Coming in Saturday evening was the right thing to do. God looks out for us dumb ones.