I went out on J29 sailboat BlackJack again on Sunday, the day after sailing 20+ miles by myself. This time Mari came along.
She claimed she’s only coming along because she wants to see the dolphins. To be honest, I think that was just an excuse. What she really wanted was to drive the boat. She snatched the tiller from me and drove most of the track below.
Once we were out of the bay, the wind came up to 12+ knots. We were sailing with #3 jib. I must say she drives pretty well, especially for someone who has not had a whole lot of hours at the tiller. One thing she had trouble handling was the shifty and puffy wind near the bay entrance. It always blows a few more knots there due to the downdraft from Pt Loma. We saw gusts of 18+ knots and this intimidated her a little.
It wasn’t enough for her to hand back the tiller though.
As we sailed in the gusts and flogged our sails, I saw a batten fly out of the jib and fall into the water. The batten pockets were taped shut so how this happened was a bit of a mystery till we got back to the marina and inspected the sail. The tape chafed through completely. I should have noticed this before losing the batten. My bad.
