CYC, 55'f wind wsw, 12-15 w/gusts....

November, sure it is.  Sure most of the boats are on the hard and wrapped in blue plastic.  Sure it was sunny and breezy and warm in the sun and a great day to go sailing!

With the reef row complete and set in we had a pretty good run around the bay.  I had to change down to the smallest jib and even then the gusts had us healing over pretty well and made the tiller strain.  All great fun.

I do have a concern about this boat.  It seems to have very strong weather helm.  Even with the main flogging and only the jib drawing the gusts can have the boat rounding up into the wind.  I haven't tried sailing with just the jib, which I will do next time out to see if she still seems to have weather helm.  Don't know what I'd do if she does.
On the positive side though she does round up when the wind is overpowering, rather than being knocked down or running away down wind.

The only other challenging thing about this boat is that the tiller is hard to get away from for a moment.  Today I tried using a bungee cord stretched across the cockpit and wrapped around the tiller.  This is easy to adjust or over power if I need to and actually allowed me to go forward long enough to shoot this video.

By the time I returned to the marina boats I had seen in slips were now sitting on land, banished from the water for the season.

Not so many years ago I was pushing the sailing season too.  One night, during the dark,  the river iced over and my boat got caught out in it.  It took a week before the ice was clear enough to get to the boat, and by that time the boat and it's 300lb. mooring anchor had dragged quite a ways up river and towards the shore.  In truth, nothing bad happened to the boat and a few weeks later when the river ice flow was clear enough I got to sail down closer to the ocean and the salty water that wasn't frozen solid.  The trip down was great and adventurous and I had 2 good friends on board to share the excitement with.  We took turns at the bow calling out ice hazards.  It was an experience that I wouldn't trade, not even all the worry about loosing my boat as I watched it heel over and ground every low tide, all the time worrying that the ice would consume it.  I learned a lot about my boat, ice, and my attachment to things.

I don't want to have any drama this winter, but I do want to have fun sailing, adventure sailing, and even a chance to learn more about my boat, the water, and myself.

The entire CYC membership.