Pierless Adventures - April 23 - Windy Times - Moving Slow

Today we saw our highest winds.  Weather was building in the evening and by midnight we had winds from 18 - 24 knots.  We peaked out with gusts up to about 30 knots.  Not crazy conditions, but still a challenge.  Waves were around 8-10 feet with large swells.  The boat handled it well and the cockpit felt secure, though there was significant motion and more noise. We sailed under staysail and double reefed main.

During the night the boom topping lift broke.  It is a line from the end of the boom to the top of the mast and is used to raise or lower the outer end of the boom.  While inconvenient, I had rigged spair jib and main halyards, so we used the spare main halyard as a temporary fix.  It worked fine.

Our progress was still slow.  At our current rate, we would not make San Diego in time to meet our schedule for the crew.  It was a difficult reality, but turning back seemed the only reasonable option open to us.  With a bigger engine and more fuel capacity, we may have been able to motor through and stay on schedule.  It just wasn't going to happen for us...

We turned back to Cabo around noon.  Running with the wind brought some relief from the harder boat motion and a break from having the wind in your face all day.  The motion of the boat going downwind is much different as well.  More rolling and yawing, so we had some difficulty negotiating the cabin spaces (translation - bruising).