A bit more on this morning's excursion

We’ve been finding a bit of evidence about how violent those rolls were. Big standing waves, VG hitting them at 8ish knots and rolling about 80 degrees. We found things that had jumped off shelves with 4 inch high netting and lodged across the boat just below the shelves on the other side. We almost filled the cockpit a couple of times. Nothing I could do – 2 reefs and about a quarter headsail. VG needs a third reef-- As a verb – to shorten sail, to use reefing lines or other techniques to make the working part of a sail smaller and so reduce its power as the wind rises. --- As a noun, (1) the part of the sail that has been shortened, folded or rolled. May be referred to as a slab or a slab reef which is a particular way of forming a reef. -- As a noun (2) – a bank of coral, rocks or other obstruction usually close to a shoreline and potentially dangerous to sailors. and we’ll get that done when we can. We probably hit the worst point of wind and current – science is about observation, hypothesis and testing. Coming back here was also interesting – same standing waves, wind dead astern, incipient gybeGybe - A sailing term for turning the boat so that the stern passes through the wind. Potentially dangerous if not controlled because the wind can fill an uncontrolled mainsail from the wrong side and crash it across the boat, possibly causing damage to the rig and anyone getting in the way. all the time and making about a knot-- Speed: definition of speed at sea. One knot is one nautical mile per hour. The nautical mile is about 1.15 % longer than the "statute" mile used on land. A knot is about half a metre per second. -- A knot is also the result of winding a rope around itself or another rope to make a join or a loop . . Lowest I saw was 0,2 knots. We kept as close inshore as seemed safe – the current marginally less but violent rips in places. Fun, but also a bit scary. I was able to sail alongside the dock un der fully sheeted main with a margin of speed just in case. Bit of a bumpy but safe arrival. We’re now happily tied up to the private dock and we’ll stay here at least till this evening’s forecast. Lesson from playtime is that anything over 20 kots on the nose and against the stream is likely to be too much for VG. The owner’s representative visited us and gave us tacit permission to hang about. Apparently, they built the dock 6 months ago and we are the third boat to use it. Yay. We have a resident otter who has left us half a biggish fish and will no doubt be back to claim it. Packet soup is way too salty. Medicinal compounds soon to alleviate dehydration. ————————————————-