Holy Squall

Fiona and Katie came out for a sail at 3PM. 

We had a fairly boring sail from the club channel to the gut and sailed around until the race. The winds were so calm I had to start the engine to get to the race area. I thought for sure the race would be cancelled. There were some Altostratus to the north, but no particular rolling patterns I associated with squall... or so I thought.

The race was postponed. Then there was a flash of lightning.  The race was shortly cancelled and shortly the winds went up to 18 knots from the North East.  We started sailing back to the Gut and after about 3 minutes from the Gut, the winds picked up to over 35 knots.  I had the full sail and I decided to tack back west to sit out the squall.  The toe rail was well underwater... 

After tacking, I reefed the head sail and the boat was more manageable.  I was expecting the squall to last 15 minutes.  It was lasting longer. I checked the radar app and another cell was coming in from the North West.  I decided to head back to the Gut and motored to the club channel.  Took down the main and motored back to the harbour.  

I requested Chaos crew helped us to dock.  I called for help because I needed to confirm our pick-up line was still in the pick-up tube.  It was and we had a reasonably easy docking with a North Wind.

Fiona and I had a shot of Springbreak 15-year-old scotch before returning to the clubhouse for supper.

No winds before the Squall