I was kicking myself that we hadn’t gone sailing on Saturday, when the wind was blowing pretty good in Bellingham Bay. When we left the dock on Sunday afternoon with Dale and Nancy Button, the water was pretty calm, and I thought we were going to be motoring in the sunshine. Nancy even brought some soup that we were going to heat up on the stovetop.
iWindsurf wind chart
We were cruising along at a respectable 4 or 5 knots out toward Lummi Island when we decided to head over to Chuckanut Bay to drift while we had lunch. But that was not to be as the wind shifted and picked up pretty good around 2 pm.
We were heeling over pretty hard as we sailed into Chuckanut Bay between the little island and the rocks. We guessed the gusts were about 15 or 20, but the windchart I looked up today shows it gusting at more than 20 knots.
Woohoo! It was chilly, but we all bundled up and sailed right back out of Chuckanut Bay into Bellingham Bay. We reefed the jib and had a grand old time doing about 6 knots in an unexpectedly beautiful sailing afternoon.
Nancy took the helm and liked it so much she made us fight her off to regain control. (She and her husband have a power boat, which she says is boring to drive. Hee hee.)
I made us some PB&J on bagels while standing at a 45-degree angle in the galley. And we had the soup and a home-made rhubarb pie for dinner when we got back to the dock.
Just another beautiful day in Paradise.
Tags: sailing Bellingham
