Spectacular sailing yesterday in Milwaukee! Temperature was in the mid ’70s and the wind was from the Northwest at about 20-25 gusting to 30. As the day wore on it dropped to 15-20 with gusts of 25. I started out with one reef in the main and the working jib up. This seemed appropriate at the time because the wind did not appear to be too strong where I launched from. I guess I should have known a bit better when I saw all of the community sailing center boats high-tailing it for the dock… Anyway, I got out past the breakwater and the wind increased to the point where it was very strong. Too much sail up. So, I doused the jib and put another reef in the main. I hate sailing under main alone, but this seemed the prudent thing to do since I had my 7 year old daughter with me. After poking around for a bit to ensure that the boat was under control and that I could indeed make it to windward, we set off down wind for a great ride. Under double-reefed main alone we were averaging 5.5 knots and regularly hitting 6 to 7 plus knots. On a few occasions we actually hit 8 plus knots. Our top speed, according to the GPS was 8.9 knots! We made it to our destination, the bell buoy a few miles outside the harbor. I decided to go forward to take the jib off the deck since we were going to turn around and slog to windard. I didn’t want anything that would impede our windward progress. With this done, we started the upwind journey at about 2.5 knots. Did I say I hate sailing under main alone? Anyway, I decided to put my 70% “storm jip” up. It took a little adjusting but we made it work. With this, we were making 4-5 knots to windward. The seas had built up a nasty chop so we were pounding our way through it, taking lots of spray off the bow. In the gusts we were overpowered, but I played the main and kept the boat upright. We took some water over the combings a couple of times but nothing too worrying. When we made it back to the harbor, we decided to do it again! The winds had dropped by then to 15-20 with gust to 25. 6 hours of sailing and about 24 miles later we were docked again. All through it, my daughter had a great time. When I asked her what she liked the most, she said the sailing, the wind and the waves. John M-15 Jester