Sailing TERN

Yesterday I went for a great sail.  The only downside was that I had to come back!

The wind was a steady 10-12 kts. from the southwest,  a perfect breeze to get TERN moving nicely under genoa and main.  I live in an area where understanding and using the currents have a huge influence on successfully arriving at your intended destination, and decided to head west, even though I knew this would mean fighting the flood on the way back.

Some tricky tacking and utilization of puffs in Wasp Passage--a notorious lee with strong current and a few reefs had us out in the open at the N. end of San Juan Channel on a close reach toward Jones Island.    As the standing rigging is still relatively new, I took this opportunity to sight up the mast to determine if any adjustments to tension might be needed.  Seemed like the upper section of the mast was bending slightly to leeward so I made a mental note to tension the upper shrouds when I was back at a dock.  Ideally, the mast should have a slight and fair curve to leeward for better foil shape in the main.  This usually means that the lowers give and take a little bit more than the uppers, but none of the shrouds should ever be "flopping" or totally slack.

At this point I was really wishing I had a couple weeks' supply of food, my passport,  and my small kayak "dinghy".  The water in the leeward wake was effervescing beautifully and the occasional wave on the windward bow would smack and splash onto the foredeck.  TERN felt quite alive!

The flood was just starting to crank now and I could see our strong set to the north using visual transits. I decided to jibe and cruise into Deer Harbor to escape some of the current as we made our way back to the east.  So far, the whole sail, including leaving the marina had been without the engine, but as we  approached Pole Pass I conservatively made the outboard ready for use as I knew the current might be 4 knots on the nose and there's a frustrating absence of wind there due to geography.  I ended up motor- sailing for about 5 minutes uphill through the pass, then cut the engine again.  The wind had freshened up nicely and we sailed against the current into the entrance to West Sound to escape it.  Using eddies all the way to an unnamed point, we tacked back to the south and ferry-glided into Blind Bay.

One of my favorite things is to sail TERN amongst all of the anchored boats visiting Blind Bay.  It's a great anchorage with lots of room, great holding, nice sunsets,  and Shaw Island's low topography doesn't block the usually good breeze coming up from the Straits of Juan De Fuca.  Once all the way to head of the bay, there was nowhere to go but aground or home; jibe, wing and wing, jibe, wing and wing, through the narrow passage to the west of Blind Island, then across to the marina.

Even when sailing TERN in strong winds, the helm is incredibly neutral due to the balanced rudder.  With the tiller held in a reasonable position, one can even adjust course by tightening the jib sheet while slacking the main a little (to fall off) or loosening the jib sheet while hardening up on the main (to come up).  These are great observations to make for anyone wanting to understand their boat better, to understand how some boats can be steered without a rudder, and to begin to plan a sheet-to-tiller self-steering setup.