Pushing the Limit

The weather on Saturday could be described as variable: sometimes it rained a bit, sometimes it rained a lot, sometimes it rained with wind, other times it rained without wind...
We did not feel like sailing in the rain, so stayed in Middelharnis, did some shopping and went for a jog (in the rain).

Middelharnis old harbour in the rain.

The rain finally stopped around 4pm. Even if it was still quite breezy, we had seen enough of Middelharnis, so decided to move on to the historical town of Hellevoetsluis, some four miles away, on he other side on the Haringvliet. The weather forecast said SW wind, so with careful steering we could do it all on port tack with a reefed genoa only. I prepared the main with one reef, just in case.
As soon as we got out of the Middelharnis channel we had two nasty surprises:
Surprise one: the wind was much stronger than we expected.
Surprise two: it was blowing from the W, not SW.
We carried on anyway. Even if it did not feel so comfortable at the time, in retrospective it was great sailing. The wind was well 5 Bf, with crests and foam everywhere, and the waves were higher than Mekicevica's gunwhales. In the middle of the crossing there were even breaking waves, looking more like 6 Bf wind conditions. Only a big yacht and a wind-surfer (brave soul) were out.
Manta 19 owners, you will be pleased to know that if your boat is well prepared she will take this sort of seas gallantly! It was a joy to see how Mekicevica's bow pushed into the waves, even with only some 2/3 of the genoa, no main, and close-reached.
The only thing was, we were not going to be able to reach Helevoetsluis without tacking, and I was not sure we would be able to do that under such conditions and without the main. First-Mate was adamant that we should not hoist the main with only first reef, and I did not prepare the second reef. Meanwhile, we were already a stone-throw away from Hellevoetsluis town harbor, right in front of the fishing harbour, with the lee shore too close for comfort, especially since it was likely that the tack was going to fail. And fail it did! The lessons of previous adventures were well learned (see Aan Lager Wal). I immediately decided to bear away and return to Middelharnis, despite the protests from First-Mate that she did not feel like facing the crossing again. On a broad reach things were more comfortable (still rolling a lot), and soon we were safely back in the channel to Middelharnis.
It was a great experience and we were never at any undue risk. The reefing system definitely has to be improved, so I can reef "on the fly". Oh yes, and the sealing of the port winch needs to be checked. My sleeping bag was in a pond of water.