Our first “big” winds

this morning we wait for the tides so they can push us to deception pass. Listening to the VHF radio while still huddled in our sleeping bags it crackles and warns of Gail force winds building in the afternoon. Yesterday we crossed to Whidby Island in winds of 10 to 20 knots and it was fun but harrowing, only my second time sailing in these boats and maybe the third time I’d sailed anything in my entire life. In a big boat these winds would be easy but in our little kayaks it was fierce with confused seas from an outflowing tide that buried our hulls in water as we surfed down three foot waves. Lil’ bit sat tucked in my spray skirt and gave up trying to poke his head out after a wave washed over us and funnled down his neck into the cockpit soaking the once dry lap were he sat. As we approached land the wind seemed to want to test us just one last time as it picked up to 20 knots and whipped the seas into a greater confusion and taunted my already brittle nerves. Waves crashed on to my spray skirt left and right, sea water swallowing my outrigger and the nose of my kayak up to the mast. Waves running and catching me from behind lifting me unexpectedly like the cool uncles used to do when I was a kid. Stomach sunken like a rock to the bottom of my torso where it shivered. Jaw clenched as tight as my bone white knuckles that clasped the sheet raining in the sail.
Then we landed, our kayaks skidded up the sand beach, I relaxed and let the sail flap in the wind. We ate lunch and the skys cleared to a light, docile blue and the wind and water looked calm enough to swim in…