Sailing Fast

I'm on 2 to 6 tonight. A squall passed through a few minutes ago, accompanied by driving rain that gave Quijote a good wash down. There's nothing wrong with removing a layer of salt off the boat. Here comes another. I have the throttle dialed back to about 3/4 of what it usually is. We're motoring into the wind, waiting for it to shift back off our nose. There is no reason to burn a lot of fuel doing that. The wind shift will overtake us; we won't overtake it.

The mainsail is restless and slapping off and on. It's as tired of inactivity as much as we are. We keep it partially rolled out, even when it's not configured to provide lift because it helps calm the boat motion. Waves drive a lot of lateral and rolling motion that the mainsail and the keel help dampen.

We had a really good day of sailing today. It actually started last night. My watch started with light wind, but mid-way through it started to pick up. I let out some sail and slowed the engine. The boat speed climbed. I did it again. Each time increased our speed. Eventually the engine was shut down and we had full canvas up, flying along at 7 knots in a 10 knot wind. That held for most of the day. When the wind speed climbed again and we started pushing 8 knots, we put in a reef. It was nice to have a fast sunny day for a change.