Weather overcast with light rain. The water was evaporating almost as fast as it was falling, so I count sail in the "rain" while staying dry. Some fog or mist onm the water that did not lift till I was halfway back to R "4" from Hacketts G "1". By the time I reached Y "A", Annapolis was hidden. Out on the Bay, it was sailing in a world without visible land.

Sailed out past the Y "A" and stopped to reconfigure the first reef to use the Antal low friction ring and soft shackle so that both parts of the reefing line will be on the same side of the sail. The bunt is all on the other side of the boom and not crushed between the reef cringle and the boom. Works well. Fully satisfied with the change.

Tacked up the west side of the Bay past Hacketts G "1". Compass was showing courses of 90 and 0 degrees. Leeway? Wind instrument need calibrating? Sailed based upon the ST60 windmeter, aiming for forty to fifty degrees off the wind. Boat handled very consistently with the single reef and full jib. Wind instrument reaading 15, 17, and peaked once at 20. Faster on port tack than on starboard again today. Waves more fully developed, a bit of shouldering them aside and a bit of bashing into them. Seemed to knock the bow down and change the course by twenty degrees. Again, significantly more helm on the starboard tack than on port. Port tack seemed to have a bit of lee helm, even, at times.

Wind dropped markedly for the return from the Bay channel to Annapolis. Easy to use the GPS to determine the course back to R "4" from R "92". Saw only one other sailboat out on the bay. One power cruiser. One work boat. While entering the harbor, saw a catamaran making its way outbound, slowly, despite jib and main, while I sailed back in on starboard tack hitting 6 knots.

Confirmed that the boat left to herself, with the main sheeted in and genoa rolled away, will slowly tack making about one knot of headway. Without the main up, the boat will turn about broadside to the wind.

While turning the enter the slip, moving close to dead slow, a gust of wind blew down the alley shoving the boat bodily sideways. As a result, no longer able to complete the turn into the slip, I slipped the engine into reverse. Reversed up the slip, back towards Spa Creek, a couple boat lengths. Tried the turn again, again dead slow. No wind gust, no problem. Docked quietly as per usual.

GPX formatted Track distance: 11.9nm, average speed: 4.6kts, duration: 2:33