Wednesday, July 15: Day 42: Time to move to Jedidiah Island and a Reefing Lesson

🗺️ A Short Leap to Jedidiah Island

We had a relaxing morning, drinking our coffee and having a small breakfast while looking over the Salish Sea Pilot to see which anchorage we might want to head to. Just on the other side of Lasqueti Island lies Jedidiah Island—a gorgeous Marine Provincial Park—which has a small spot called Deep Bay. We decided to go check it out. It would only take a couple of hours to get there, depending on whether we actually sail or not.

We started getting ready to go around 10:30 AM but didn't actually lift the anchor until about 11:30 AM (my tracker keeps an honest record!). It was a beautiful passage winding through various little islands.

From the anchorage at False Bay just before leaving

The photos never do the actual being there justice

A couple of the islands on the way

Once we rounded the other side, the wind was only blowing about 6.5 knots. I've been thinking lately that we really need to put up our mainsail and see how it behaves with the reefs in it (after our big tear on day four!).

I took a photo of the sail with the reefs in before we hoisted it, and a couple of views of it once it was up. I couldn't believe how much sail area was still left! It’s really not that bad looking at it from down here in the cockpit. I can certainly see why some sailors have three reefs in their mainsail—we definitely have room for one more.

The sail with the two reefs in it before opening it up

Near the end of the boom with two reefs in

From below looking up at the main sail; It goes up as high as the third spreader. You can also see the rip hanging out of the reef a bit - nothing to hold it in.

Both sails are up (from below). The main sail is massive, compared to our old 26' Grampian.

We did put the sail up, as you can see, and sailed at only 2 knots or so. There were a lot of huge logs in the water here. One had to keep a sharp watch for them because you couldn't always see them until they were a close distance away. We sailed like this for about an hour then decided, when it was getting closer, to take the sails down and motor the rest of the way in.

⚓ The Deep Bay Stern-Tie Mystery

When we arrived at Deep Bay, there was already one other sailboat and a beautiful motor cruiser stern-tied. This is a very small bay—a lot smaller than Prideaux Haven or Smuggler's Cove—but believe it or not, they have at least 14 stern ties installed here! Navionics only showed 12, but I counted more, so BC Parks must have added some since 2022.

But here is the darndest thing: when high tide comes in, the stern-tie chains and the yellow tags marking them totally disappear underwater—and so does our stern-tie line! If someone wasn't paying close attention, they could motor right over your line because it is completely invisible from the shore side.

I don’t know what they were thinking when they installed these. It’s not an easy job to put these systems in, but I think someone made a big booboo. If you came in here at high tide, you wouldn't even know there were stern ties here. Even if you did know, it would be a real struggle to reach them since the tops are at least a foot underwater!

⛵ Sailing School: How to Reef a Sail

In an earlier post, I promised I would explain what a "reef" is and how you actually put one in a main sail. Today is finally the day!

For those of you who already know how to reef, feel free to skip this section—or read along to see if I actually know what I’m talking about! For those of you who have always wondered how it works (like me, before I asked), this is for you. I hope you can follow along. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions, and hopefully, we can both learn from the experience!

Now, I still haven't physically done this myself, but I checked with Greg and I've got the gist of it. I have certainly seen the end results of it in place.

To understand reefing, we first have to learn the anatomy of a sail. Sailboats have a whole other language you need to learn if you want to communicate with other sailors!

The Anatomy of a Sail

Our mainsail has three sides:

The Luff: The straight-up side that goes against the mast.

The Leech: The outer, trailing edge of the sail.

The Foot: The bottom edge of the sail that runs along the boom.

This three-sided sail also has three corners, and of course, each one has a specific name:

The Head: The very top corner of the sail (not to be confused with the "head" inside the cabin!).

The Tack: The bottom corner that is fastened where the mast meets the boom (it is "tacked" in place).

The Clew: The outer bottom corner of the sail. (My favorite memory trick: if that corner swings and hits you while attached to the boom, you will not have a clue!).

Putting in the Reef

Reefing is simply the process of reducing the size of your sail when the wind gets too strong.

To do this, you start by lowering the sail a bit. As the canvas comes down, you gather and fold (or "flake") the bottom portion of it so it sits balanced across the boom. (The boom is the heavy metal pole that swings back and forth across the boat—and yes, if it hits your head, it goes boom!).

You lower the main until you can hook the reefing cringle (reinforced holes in the sail) onto the heavy horn on the mast right where the boom meets it. This firmly secures the new Tack of your reduced sail.

Next, to secure the trailing edge of the sail (what will become the new Clew) we pull on the reefing line. Greg mapped out the exact path this line takes to give us the mechanical advantage we need:

• It starts at the cabin top, runs through a rope clutch under our dodger, and feeds out to the mast.
• From there, it goes around a pulley (a sheave), travels up the mast to the boom, and around another sheave.
• Then it runs completely inside the boom all the way to the far end.
• Finally, it comes around a trailing sheave, heads up along the angle of the leech, (the back edge of the sail), passes right through the reef cringle from one side to the other and drops back down to secure around the boom.

When we pull this line tight, it simultaneously pulls the new clew of the sail down to the boom and out toward the stern, beautifully flattening and tightening the foot of the sail.

At this point, just above the new foot of the sail, there is a horizontal line of reefing cringles with thin ropes called reef ties hanging down on both sides. You simply tie these around the loose, gathered sail cloth to hold that extra fabric tightly and neatly out of the way.

This entire procedure is called "putting a reef in" (specifically, the first reef). If the wind keeps building, you simply repeat the exact same process for the second reef!

Greg's sketch of how a reefed sail looks with my added captions.