A frustrating, yet necessary, weekend

Looks pretty, right?  Well, not so much in 30 mile per hour gusts and rain.  That's what we faced when we tried to charter a boat here this weekend.  First lesson in chartering a boat.  You have to go when you say you're going to go, regardless of what the weather is doing.  I do not believe that, had we been on our own boat, we would have gone out based on the forecast.  But we went, because we only had a (very expensive) 24 hour window. 

Leaving the slip was trickier than we had anticipated with a party pontoon directly behind us and a strong wind blowing us to starboard and into another boat.  We managed to back out, though we tagged the boat next to us with our bow. I am still kicking myself for not dropping a fender.  Nothing was damaged, but it was the principal of the thing.  

Sailing downwind was great. And I had my first experience cooking in a galley while underway.  I'm happy to report that was a success.  But then we realized that one key bag of our groceries for the weekend was sitting in our refrigerator at home.  Choices dwindling, we headed back into a headwind so strong that we could not make any progress with the reefed mainsail up.  Again, had this been our boat, we could have messed around with the jib.   Instead, to play it safe, we motorsailed back at a much slower speed than we had earlier in the day.  What started as a nice sail quickly turned into us bashing into wave after wave as the gusts hit 29 knots.  I struggle with seasickness, so to play it safe myself, I ducked down into the cabin where things were a lot bumpier but at least I could lie down and close my eyes (which always helps me).  Unfortunately, this left Henry and Reese alone in the cockpit where the adventure got trickier.  The reef line that someone before us had tied came loose, and Henry was forced to tie it down while underway while being pelted with the waves. 

When we finally got back in, I questioned the plan the boys had come up with. That went over like a bag of rocks, and I'm now kicking myself for that too. I was groggy and in no position to know what had been going on up above.  It turns out it didn't matter, because after three unsuccessful tries at our slip we ended up docking.  Second lesson in chartering a boat. People are so nice.  Several other sailors came out to help us tie up to the dock and were very reassuring about the wind and the difficult conditions.  One very experienced sailor told us he even had trouble. I doubt he was telling the truth, but I appreciated his kindness.

Overnight, we had a storm but all of us seemed to survive that without too much of an issue. Henry complained of seasickness because of sleeping on the boat, but I slept really well.  That we both experienced some seasickness though has us both questioning whether this lifestyle will work for us. I'm curious to hear about others' experiences with this. 

Confidence shaken, we mulled over whether we should attempt to take the boat to pump out and fuel up. Finally, we decided to go for it.  And we pulled it off without a hitch!  We even managed to put the boat back in the right slip when we returned!  Another sailor came over to tell us how brave we were for doing it.

Now, almost 8 hours off the boat, I still feel like I'm moving...or the ground under my feet is.  I wonder if one eventually acclimates to that or if I'll always feel a little unsteady after sailing. 

Next up - Florida in December.  This is the big test. It's a full week on a catamaran.  Yikes!