Very consistent winds, but for the area close to the Eastern Shore. Consistent in both direction and speed. Do not remember having winds like these in Annapolis. Could it be a result of Hurricane Florence located at 33.6N 75.9W with winds of 105mph at 1pm today. The display at Windy.com seems to support this idea.
Sailed downstream with a light but strengthening breeze that veered into the ENE as I approached R "4". Good to excellent boat speed, low 6 knot range on a course of 125. Boat sails faster better to having the apparent wind at 40 or even 50 degrees rather than less. Helm was rather lighter than has been the case at other times. Boat tracking well. Full outhaul. The new main from Interrupt seems to be in far better condition than the main that came with the boat. Seeing as much as 15kts apparent wind and the boat, while well heeled over, has the rail out of the water and feels better behaved, not pressed down. Very happy sailing, a marked contrast to the rest of the week.
Lost the groove in the area of R "2". Wind veered further as I approached the Eastern Shore. To this point, the entire sail has been a single board on port tack. Previously, the boat has felt slower, a times, on port tack. Today, starboard tack felt and measured slower, with significant weather helm. After a mile and half sailing towards the eastern supports of the main span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, fell off on to a broad reach. Still significant weather helm, too much. Speed over ground immediately jumped about one knot.
Checking the Chesapeake Channel LBB 92 station shows currents ebbing SSE at nearly one knot, see chart from NOAA below. This may account for the speed over ground, as shown on the GPS, difference between port and starboard tacks.
Sailed across the course of the J/22 Worlds. Once I had crossed the course and reached the point that I could see down the line of the two buoys marking the leeward gate, gybed to port tack to get below the starting line to watch the start of the last race. What a mess. Just before the start, up goes the AP so they can reset the line. Then two starts and two General Recalls, see rule 29.2. For the last attempt to start, the committee chose to fly the Black Flag, see rule 30.4. Six boats were disqualified as a result ... 10% of the fleet.
Seems that the boat left to herself, with the main sheeted in and genoa rolled away, will slowly tack. Need to look into this some.
Need to compile a table of apparent wind angles and speeds so that I may decide GPX formatted Track distance: 16.0nm, average speed: 5.3kts, duration: 2:59