GALE STORM PASSAGE VANCOUVER TO SEATTLE | Sailing SV Indigo, Season 2, Ep. 6

[@HittingtheroadMatt]

Beating into the swell and wind makes for a long day! We have the San Juan's on our bucket list to visit, beautiful area.

[@SailingSVIndigo]

Yes, the straits can get pretty rough, and also be like glass. Hope you can make it south this year!

[@haydenwatson7987]

I have found that on those days when you must head directly into a strong headwind, a little bit of sail, sheeted very tight will pay huge dividends. I do not have a furling main like you so I use the genoa but you would probably get the same results with the main. I have been in those exact same conditions only worse in my 30-ft sloop so I can feel your pain. I was coming out of Pender Harbor heading south to Secret Cove with 65-miles of fetch to windward and the depth had gone from 700ft to 100ft so the waves where short and steep. +2m / 3-4 second. The anemometer read steady 35 with gusts to 40. The apparent wind angle was about 15º to 20º. At wide open throttle I could only make 1.7-kts. Every time we slammed off the peak of a wave crest, it felt like the rig was going to come down. I told my wife that we needed some sail up to provide enough power to punch through the waves, but she threw a fit at the idea of my leaving the cockpit (and frankly I was not too excited about the idea myself. I talked her into my rolling out just a bit of jib to help punch through the waves and she relented. I let out 6' at most and sheeted it in tight and then put some tension on the lazy sheet which pulled the clew closer to centerline. I then fell off just until the tiny bit of jib filled which was about 15º apparent wind angle. The results were nothing short of miraculous. The speed shot up to a steady +7-kts and the boat completely quit slamming. We felt like Moses parting the Red Sea. The bow would punch through the crest with the top of the wave at about waist high when standing on deck. Even though the waves were well above deck height, they did not come aboard because the speed through it pushed them outward and we slid past before they could come back to us. The ride was so good that my teenage daughter climbed up in the v-berth and took a nap. Now that is my go-to technique when I need to go somewhere dead into the wind. Motor sail with just a bit of jib hauled in tight. At first it baffled me as to why the affect was so dramatic, but I think I have figured it out. When motoring, the thrust of the prop is below the center of buoyancy, so it tends to add to the bow lifting that the wave does. With that little bit of sail, the resultant center of effort is 10' to 15' above deck with a significant forward pull on the masthead from the forestay. This lets the mast act as a huge (45' in my case) lever-arm that prevents the bow from rising up and forces it to punch through the wave rather than rising up over it.

[@SailingSVIndigo]

@@haydenwatson7987 interesting technique! Will have to try it next time we run into those conditions. Thanks for the tip!

[@AirRaidBaby]

Like that background music! 5:15, 5;28 Can you share the artist and where available?

[@SailingSVIndigo]

I think that music is DuDa Florian Remix by DuDa-available on artist.io. The music in each video is listed in the video notes. Most of our video music is either from artlist or epidemic sound.

[@danielpearson6306]

Just saw yesterday that Point Roberts as of 2023 will be part of Canada.

[@kddidit08]

I wish!