Century Club: AJ Batcheller

It has been incredibly windy the past week.  My neighbor texted me a picture of my boat on the lift with the jib sock flapping in the breeze along with the sail.  Not in a million years would I have thought that wind could unzip the sail cover, but it did.  The jib had seen better days and I had already purchased a replacement hence no big deal. Fortunately, the jib sock was not damaged.  Went out for a quick sail with the ripped jib before the sun went down.

Lucky day # 13 was a continuation of day 12.  Near perfect weather with just the right amount of wind.

A very windy Friday evening limited my boating to a very brief outing in my kayak, maybe 150 yards total.   My judgement and boating skills are both improving.

They were predicting another strong, gusty wind day but I decided to go out anyway.  It was about 8:30 when I left and it didn't look that bad.  A strong wind from the west pushed me out of Mattox Creek quickly and I realized it was getting windier and should head back.  When the winds died down a bit, I should have taken that opportunity to furl my jib and lower and secure the main but I didn't.  By the time I decided I should secure everything it was too late.  I furled the jib okay but wasn't able to secure the mainsheet very well so it just flapped around as I motored in.  It was very challenging getting onto the lift with the high winds and I came close to having the head of the mainsail getting cut or caught in my outboards propellor.   I thank God for making it back safely and fortunately no damage to the boat.  I will definitely think twice before I go out when they are predicting gusts over 20mph.