Windy and waves 2-3' every 6 seconds. Waves had white caps but not breaking. Every few minutes we would encounter a set of 3 or 4 larger waves. We were racing a front to our home marina, the York River Yacht Club, and were sailing west while the front was coming in from the east. Wind was from the south and both wind and seas were building throughout the day. Windy app showed the winds arriving a few hours later but arrived just was we were entering the York River.

Last hour was a bit hairy. Should have reefed the main but was trying to push it as we were so close to home. USCG Yorktown was clocking gusts over 20 knots and we had way too much sail area for such a small boat.The waves at the entrance were hitting us on our aft port quarter and gusts were hitting us right on yhe port beam. Weather helm was brutal, even with the main traveler all way eased and the main out as far as I could get it without luffing wildy. Every gust pushed us further over and I started round up and putting her into the wind for the biggest gusts. Once every 5 minutes or so, the wind and waves would hit us at the same time and threaten to knock us down.

 After two close calls, I finally gave up trying to make the marina under sail and pointed into the wind. Main came down fairly easy, furled the genoa and motored up the river for the last half hour. River was choppy but the big waves weren't reaching us anymore. Learned a valuable lesson about reefing too late and trying to race the weather to a destination. 

Return From Weekend at Cape Charles

Crew: 2

Crew Logs

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