Heaving To

We had a very lazy and relaxing day on the boat last Saturday, May 17th. My parents came down on their way home from a tour of the Central Coast with the Aston Martin Owners Club. We hung around the marina, showed them the boat, and had a chance to catch up. They used to do a lot of sailing on their Catalina 38 and Lancer 44 when they lived in Orange County. Our plan was to sail over to Anacapa Island, have some lunch, and do some fishing. However, there was very little wind and a heavy overcast. So, we did the next best thing and took a nap after my patents left!

Lonny was thinking of taking his Cal 25 named Irish Mist out for a sail and convinced us to take Julianne out for a comparison sail. After leaving the harbor, Lonny suggested we try to heave to. Although LeeAnne and I have been sailing for many years, and I've read about heaving to, I've never actually done it. We gave it a try by back winding the Genoa while going half way through a tack and then moving the tiller to leeward until the boat stopped. It actually worked remarkably well! We then brought the tiller to windward to complete a jibe and continue on our original tack. We tried this a couple of times and now feel comfortable doing so.









We then had a friendly race down the coast to the Port Hueneme buoy. We got off to a good start and pulled ahead of Lonny while we was setting up his "sheet to tiller" rig. The wind was shifting a bit and he actually sailed faster via his "automatic" sheet to tiller rig than he did manually. We encountered dozens of sea lions around the buoy. They seemed to be having a good time playing, relaxing, and feeding in large groups.