Playing Hooky

After having to cancel the last two outings, I decided it was high time to take a day off work and take advantage of what looked to be a solid day for sailing. The night before, the weather forecast was for temps in the 80's and winds from 10-20. I had warned the people at work to not expect me if the weather looked good.

After seeing my daughter off to the bus stop, we dropped my son off at Julie's parents' place. My father-in-law tuned in the weather on his scanner. Winds were now expected to be 15-25. Well, we could start with a reef in. The winds around here tend to be on the lighter side in the morning, building through the day; I was confident we'd be okay.

As we crossed the I-94 bridge over the St. Croix, we could see whitecaps. Definitely 15mph, maybe more. We got to the ramp and rigged the boat, motoring towards the good sailing area of Lake St. Croix, a wider expanse of the river south of Hudson.

As we pulled into deeper water, I got to test my new downhaul for the rudder. Adapting Roger Garland's design from his MacGregor 26, I had redone the Potter 19 downhaul. Julie was motoring at no-wake speed, so I gave a good pull on the downhaul line. Perfect! The rudder swung to its fully down position with no problem. Another successful project.

As we passed under the I-94 bridge, we began to feel some serious pounding from the chop. A 20mph wind blowing from the south against the south-flowing current was doing a number on the river. I was on deck getting ready to hoist the main, and I was getting wet from the spray. At one point, we broached under the force of the wind, and had to circle and increase throttle to maintain control.

About then, we both realized that we were not going to sail in those conditions. The sun was out, it was nice and warm, so we decided to just motor a bit and find a beach to have a picnic. We turned back downwind and headed for the islands just north of the Hudson marina. Finding a deserted one, we beached the boat and took a walk. There were only a few boats on the other islands on this workday afternoon. Our island was in the lee of another, so the wind was not so strong as it was in the open river. With the warm temperature, fresh breeze, and soft sand under foot, it was almost like being on a tropical island.

We sat on the foredeck and ate our lunch, feeding two white geese that were hanging around. We lounged for a while before shoving off and heading back to the ramp, getting pounded once again by the relentless chop. At the ramp, we had to gauge our approach carefully; the ramp docks are broadside to the wind. We were both tired from fighting the elements, and the temperature had climbed to 92F, so we parked in the shade and took our time getting Necessity in her trailering configuration.

Even though we didn't hoist a sail, it was still a great day to be out. We later learned that there had been frequent gusts to 35mph that afternoon.

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