We were sailing along on Saturday afternoon in typical Wrinkles fashion. An easy downwind point of sail, sun shining, talking about the big beautiful homes along the shore we were following just enjoying the day. The boat was gliding along so nicely until it came to a very quiet stop. Dead in the water, stuck on a low spot that neither of the attentive crew had noticed was all around them. This was the first time we had explored the shoreline of this particular bay and you would think the crew would be paying some attention to the water depth (or at least turn on that depth sensor).
We tried the usual solutions; power in reverse, weight to one side of the boat, weight forward with no luck at all. Our boom doesn't have a topping lift, so we couldn't swing it out to the side to use it as a lever. We'll try rigging up the spare halyard as a temporary topping lift next time. Time to either start kedging out with an anchor or jump in the water and see if the reduced weight would allow us to push the boat out. Since he weighs "slightly" more than Brenda, Mike jumped in and pushed Wrinkles to freedom. Another lesson learned along with a good laugh. We certainly sail with a Wrinkles In Our Sails mentality.
The rest of the weekend was wonderful sailing as the winds were better than predicted on Saturday which made for some pleasurable time on the water. On Sunday the winds really started to kick up with some nice strong gusts. The sailboats were all trying different tactics to deal with the stiff winds and it was fun watching how each of them was doing. There were boats with just their main sail up, others with jibs only, and some with their outboards on heading back in. Lots of flapping sails and luffing everywhere. We sailed Wrinkles with a double reefed main and a matching reef in our jib furler. This combo worked really well as the boat handled the conditions easily while still attaining hull speed. One gust still got our rail in the water which is surprising with so little sail up.
Sunshine, good winds, a great boat, and time on our hands to enjoy it all! Perfect!
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