I've been out sailing a few times with friends, keeping in mind that I intend to do some single-handing in the future, and thinking about how I'd deal with situations alone.
Was out yesterday under full sail in glorious weather off Plymouth - it was lovely! But as we began to head back up river, the wind started to seriously pick up, and was changing direction on occasion - and was gusty.
We made a hash of it but got the sails down in the end by starting the engine and heading into the wind as best we could. This didn't stop us heeling over almost all the way at one point! Eeek!
If I'd been alone, I guess I could have done the same, and used the auto-helm - but the wind was pretty shifty, so I'd have to keep tweaking the auto-helm.... and I'd prefer not to always have to resort to starting the engine if possible - or at least would like to know how to deal with things if the engine wouldn't start.
But with no engine, if I point into the wind so I can go forward to reef the main, I'll lose steerage speed, turn off the wind, and end up with the wind from the side again surely.
Any suggestions on how I could better approach this situation?
I've a feeling we had the main sheet in tight so boom in nice place to stow the sail - but that was probably the cause of a lot of the problems maybe.
Thanks!
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