We woke up this morning around 8am tucked in a nice little anchorage between Kendrik and Valdes Islands. It was glassy calm in this quiet, little anchorage. However, the calm was misleading as the weatherman was promising a great SE wind to take us North up the strait today. I hardly believed it, however, as I never get such a great gift when heading North.

Looking out past the island, I could only see a few ripples on the water, but put the mainsail anyway and headed out. Within half hour the wind had built to 15-18 knots and, yes, it actually was coming from the South East, about 25' off of our stern on our course towards Merry Island on the mainland shore.

With a full main and jib up we had a romping downwind sail in waves that were rougher than they should have been since there was a strong ebb current opposing the wind. But, sitting up so high in our cat it was still perfectly dry.

As we crossed the strait the wind continued to build to a peak of 26 knots! Since we were heading nearly dead down wind, we didn't set any spead records, but still peaked at over 11 knots and held 9+ knots for much of the way across in our fully loaded cat.

This was a great opportunity for me to learn more about how to sail a cat. One lesson that was reinforced once again was reef often and reef early! The specs for a Manta 42 says to put the first reef in when the apparent wind touches 20 knots. We weren't at that yet, but even at 16-18 knots of apparent wind the boat was cork screwing quite a bit and was really working the autopilot in the short, steep seas. This is an easy boat to reef so, I reefed early and was rewarded with a much more stable ride - and increased speed! I guess the work that the autopilot was haivng to do was slowing the boat down. A smaller main balanced things out and life was more peaceful - and just as fast.

After just a few short hours we were nearing Merry Island with the wind dropping to about 13 knots. I shook out the reef and jibed to head outside of the Thormandy Islands in search of better air. As we neared Texada, I jibed back in towards the mainland and, bingo, the wind built back to 24 knots. With a quick reef back in, we met up with another cat of similar size so I jibed just to leeward of him and we raced side by side down the strait! Yes, we were a bit faster! It was pretty awesome with 10 knots regularly through the water.

As we approached the North West end of Nelson Island we, regrettably, parted ways as I jibed towards our anchorage as our dance partner continued shooting up the strait.

53 miles from our anchorage this morning, we are now stern tied with a few other boats deep inside the small cove in the South end of Ballet Bay. It's glassy in here, just like our anchorage last night, but I bet that it is still blowing outside!

What a great day on the water. A little nerve racking as I continue to get the feel for how two hulls perform so differently than one hull. So far, faster, dryer, and comfortable are the words of the day for Speakeasy!