Qualifying sail

As a new entrant to the GLSS events I was required to complete a solo passage on Tin Lizzie that was at least 24 hours and 100 nautical miles.

I completed that last night. Left Tuesday evening around 10 pm and got back in at 3:00 this morning

I picked a nice weather window – light winds, no rain. There was fog for the first half, but yesterday was pleasant and sunny.

It was a useful exercise. I managed to sleep a couple of times with alarms set, but slept through one of the alarms. Need to make sure that I have something that rouses me.

Boat performs well. When I realized half way through that I was going to have trouble making 100 miles I started just trying to go fast in whatever direction I could, which meant spinnaker reaching. So I did a bunch of hoists, douses and gybes to work out my procedures.

The autopilot works very well. I have ordered new wind instruments that will be here tomorrow. Lots of final things to do before I leave Friday afternoon, but doable.

As expected I used my tablet extensively inside and out. I’ve ordered a waterproof and tough tablet. The AP remote worked reasonably well, but I’ve got a bit more fiddling to do. And I’m replacing the valve system for the water ballast.

I took a few pics. This is me in one of my cockpit napping stations, comfortably lying on a spinnaker

Got a new harness/pfd that is very comfortable and have my tether points all figured out.

More sailing shots. The sunset under the spinnaker has the Chicago skyline. Look close. Saw one other boat in my time on the lake.

The T10 main is better suited to my intended use. Quite a bit smaller than the class main, which has a huge roach. But much easier to handle solo and I won’t worry about thrashing it to death.

Weather here has been lousy. Currently raining, grey and temps in the 50s. But the weather is looking pretty good for the weekend, warmer with moderate reaching winds.

I’m feeling confident that I’ll make the start reasonably well prepared, but it’s still going to be a last minute effort. That’s the way I roll.