It's been a mix of sun and clouds, mostly clouds, today. The relatively benign winds decided, no more mister nice guy, about midnight. I know very little about weather but some kind of localized pattern with gusta in the high teens descended on the boat. At first I furled the jib down to about 50 percent which helped. Unfortunately the sustained gusts were not going to let me off that easy. Getting Fairtide turned more into the wind, I reefed the main, a process of alternately easing the main halyard and winching in the first reef line, then repeat until I can get a slightly smaller main with decent sail shape.

Not that I'm necessarily great at planning ahead, but knowing that I would probably be reefiing to main in total darkness, I marked the halyard at the point where the halyard would be on the winch and at the line clutch, a corresponding mark is on each reefiing line so I have a pretty good indication when the refrigerator is pulled down tight and without having the main halyard either too loose or too tight.

I was able to get an hour or so of sleep between getting up to be sure Fairtide was going to stay on her feet and on course.