Frionted!

Ok, that last post was not intended to be a prediction, but that's what it was. The yankee jib is now fully shredded. A bunch of new work for Cynthia, since we really need it for the upcoming lighter wind. This front was pretty violent, and laid Columbine on her side when it hit. We had doused the mizzen, but still had up the full main and the now-ruined yankee jib. We had also switched the music to Nine Inch Nails blaring on the inside stereo (that's our official storm music). We are now sailing under stays'l only, waiting for the storm winds (and driving rain) to pass. By the way, we are now dialed in enough that everything below, in the cabin, stayed in place during this event.

We have been dissecting this frontal encounter, trying to learn from it what we need to do differently. So far we think we need bigger, stronger headsails. Columbine seems to need a lot of sail area to get going, but the present lightweight yankee jib can't handle it when the wind rises. We need it to be both big and strong for these stormy ocean sailing conditions.

Another option would be to go with a roller jib, but we have been reluctant to do that. For one, they are very expensive. We are also, as Cynthia pointed out in an earlier post, weird northwesterners, so we tend to do things the hard way. This definitely qualifies. Let's just cut another set of facets into this square stone wheel.

Anyway, the front has passed, and we now have some strong upwind sailing to do. 420 nm to Cape Flattery!