We finally got down to some real sailing last weekend, hooray! We had winds approaching 10 knots and with Honey Bunny at the helm, were able to sail 6.2 knots on a beam reach. Of course, I probably deserve most of the credit for exceeding hull speed because of my expert sail trimming. All bragging aside, we could not be happier with our Precision 23. She handles very well and gives us great confidence. At one point we were heeling past 20 degrees, which on previous occasions, on other boats, gave us much concern, but not this time. We just sailed along in the puff and when the wind eased, the boat flattened out a bit and all was fine.
The winds for this weekend sound like they should be more challenging for us, mid teens with gusts as high as 21 knots. The weather we have been having since we put her in the water has been perfect. The first weekend showed us very light winds, the next a little more and now a little more. Each time a slightly bigger challenge. The wind gods are cooperating very nicely. Honey Bunny is a wind sign, so we are fortunate that she is favored by them. Notus, the Greek god of the south wind, should be with us this weekend. I am a water sign, the crab, and that’s why we think we sail well together. Some negative thinking people might be so boorish as to suggest that the crab may define other traits in me as well, but we will pay them no mind.
One of the things we really like about sailing on Lake Pepin is that you are always treated to seeing many different things. We had a fly-by from an ultra-light, saw some eagles, the usual gulls flying around and Pearl of the Lake going by on one of her daily cruises. Not to mention the spectacular scenery provided by the Glacial River Warren back in the day. Back in the day being 11,700 and 9,400 years ago. I even spoke to the Captain of the towboat, John M. Rivers on the VHF to find out how we could best stay out of his way as he made his way up river. A bit after we spoke he announced that they would be conducting man over board drills. The day before we had done an impromptu MOB drill when a seat cushion went overboard.
An aspect of spending the day averaging 3.1 knots, according to the Raymarine Bidata, is that you have the chance to contemplate all of these things. Just another one of the many reasons we are so glad we took up sailing.
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