Ouch

Saint Augustine, Fl 29 53 N 81 18 W

Boy, that last 56 miles into this harbor was the hardest 56 miles I ever sailed. The wind was very fickle. It changed directions and/or velocity seven times while we were sailing in. My judgment was terrible. Each of those seven times I made a decision for how to act. I decided to sail for Saint Augustine, no Jacksonville, no Augustine, no Jacksonville, no Augustine. I put sails up and took them down. I reefed and unreefed. I motored and sailed and motorsailed. Every one of those decisions except the last one I regretted and reversed myself when the next wind change came. Our course track on the GPS screen looks like the mark of Zorro gone wild.

The bottom line is that we are here and safe and resting, but we could have been here 20 hours earlier and we could have sailed less than half the linear miles we actually did. It was not one of my finest days as skipper.

One problem that I must figure out is that Tarwathie's performance to windward stinks. It is much worse than a year ago. I have no idea why.

An unfortunate side effect of this trip; Libby's back is hurting her a lot. She suffered from her hours on watch as the boat pounded up and down beating into the waves. As the boat pounds, and if you're not laying down, your spine takes up a lot of the shock. How and where you sit can alleviate it some, but when Libby is on watch she feels compelled to sit where she can see the instruments. She sits upright and braces herself with stiff legs and feet on the far side of the cockpit. That directs the shock load directly to the spine.

When it first started to hurt her, I tried to take all the watch time, but even I must rest sometimes, and there is no one else onboard to take a turn. Eventually she did a second watch starting with a hurt back and that aggravated the problem. I hope she'll be better tomorrow. We need to find a remedy to prevent any recurrences. Does anyone have suggestions?

On the bright side. Tomorrow we play tourist and tour Saint Augustine. The dinghy dock is nearby and there are lots of carts and trains that carry the tourists all over the interesting parts of the city. This time we'll be customers.

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