Tropical Storm Nicole: 1 Cat Maudy: 0

Now that the rainy portion of Tropical Storm Nicole has moved north of Baltimore - we are left with her tailwinds. A bit fiesty (some call this GALE FORCE) - and strangely I was game for a sail to Annapolis.

We waited til noon - giving me ONE LAST EXERCISE OP and the gale winds a chance to subside based on professional weather forecasters. If you ask me, the winds got stronger after noon - but hey, who's askin'? Paddy and I finished provisioning for a trip of unknown length, and only one known destination. Where the wind is blowing. The wind is blowing from the north - so it should be a fast sail - to whereever we decide to stop.

Left the A Dock at Anchorage Marina around noon...and we are quickly blown out past Ft. McHenry. "Maybe we should double reef the main?" I suggested to Paddy? Captain Paddy positioned Cat Maudy upwind and had plenty of work to do to hold her in place, while I attempted to raise the main to a double reef point. Once in place, all 3 of the reef lines need to be tightened.

I tried using my strength. No luck in tightening these lines. I tried the power tool....it sounded like the rigging would break. I tried step 3 - which usually works...."salty sailor talk". No avail. The reef lines are jammed up - and in these heavy wind conditions...there was no fixin her.

We had only one choice...to return back to base camp. The problem now, is that our A-DOCK landing (perpendicular to the winds) would be very tough to land a wide-ass catamaran. So, we made an emergency landing on the Anchorage P-DOCK. From a dock point of view, we traveled about 500 feet today.

And the reef lines? They were just "tangled". Likely I never noticed the "tangle" - as I usually do not depart knowing I have to double reef. For today, Tropical Storm Nicole wins. Cat Maudy will depart dockage tomorrow.