Wren Greene

Near miss into red buoy but Susie sounded alert.

Wowee, what a perfect sail from start to finish. Left the dock, rolled out the sails, and a nice fresh breeze took us all the way out off the point. We hove-to for a few minutes and just rode the gentle swells. The sunlight turned golden as we turned to head home. The breeze picked up and soon we were gliding through the bay at seven knots. Rolled the sails in and came in with with a perfect docking.

The sail started out amazing, a 3-hour beam reach out to this Southern Island of Islas Los Coronados. We hit top speeds of 8.7 knots surfing down the waves. We rounded the Southern tip of the island, and headed back via the back side of the island. Things started to get rough, no longer protected by the island, the winds picked up to 20 knots. We were getting pounded by big waves and fighting a very strong current. As we turned to head back to point Loma, we finally had to throw in the towel and start the engine. We motor sailed most of the way back making barely 4 and 1/2 knot against the wind and current. Then we went from one extreme to the other, the wind just died! Alas we were happy to to get inside the bay for the golden hour. We cut the motor and rolled the jib back out to let it dry and drifted the rest of the way home. We all decided that was a once in a lifetime sail, as I would much rather have a destination port to visit after an 8-hour voyage! Still, it was a wonderful and exciting experience.

Headed out to Mission Bay, making it in about 3.25 hours. The wind got up to about 12 knots as we arrived. We lounged around in Mariners Cove for a couple of hours, heading off at 3:30 p.m. Halfway home, the wind completely died so we had to motor sail for the rest of the trip. Such a pleasant day!

We were expecting a warm, leisurely cruise around San Diego bay, but soon the winds picked up to over 20 knots. Sea spray drenched the foredeck passengers, who continued to stay up front laughing hysterically. Iris handled beautifully, giving me absolutely zero weather helm when close hauled. Coming back, we clocked along at over 7 knots on a beam reach, with max of 7.53 and 8 knots over ground. Quite an exciting day!