I go away for a short cruise and come back to over a thousand messages!
Anyway had a great sail to a nearby offshore island (40 nm as the crow
flies). Nice reach that turned into a beat for about 30 nm. Worrying
moment when a pod of humpbacks decided to cruise around. Whalebreath
stinks! Had to start up the engine for safety and the cats hate that! 2
r4estful exploring days later, with the barometer dropping 10mb that
morning the ridge of HP was moving off to give way to a major blow. 45 k
forecasted. Got up early to lots of dew, slipped on deck and bashed foot
hard (I usually wear shoes but the sun was out...). Anchor winch gave
a bang and smoked. Damn! Muscled anchor up but then saw that anchor rode
in the well has a new set of depth markings as I did not notice all the
blood until the anchor was up. Set sail (full main and #4), then the
wind died. Uh ho. Then it kicked in from the N and built. Short confused
seas built quickly and there was a nasty corkscrew that paid havok with
the headsail in a very broad reach. Decided to save wear on the headsail
and took it down. Was then visted by dolphin for 30 mins. Final reach to
home was a blast under main alone -8.5 knots a record for just one sail up.

Tied up in 20 kn just before the rain started... Settled down to pain
medication and rum. What a great weekend!

Cheers MC