Got around two and a half decent hours of sailing between storms yesterday. Brought the storm jib, but didn't need it with the winds E-SE between 8-10 MPH. As reccomended in Seidman's The Complete Sailor, hauled the centerboard up about 1/3 when sailing at a beam reach, and making sure the jib channels air to the main when sailing close-haulled.

Saw two sea planes while out, as well as a flock of geese and a hawk nabbing what appeared to be a fish.

Heavy Weather

Weather like this makes a storm sail a solid investment.
Made two attempts to circle Gooseberry Island, both in gusty winds that swirled from the NW to W. The lower part of the circle was fine, even comfortable. Once we attempted to head back to the W we had to tack from NNW to almost straight S. Could bear SW by loosenign up the sheets and spilling wind, but the boat was overpressed with canvas when gusts hit, carrying the head to S or even SE despite the tiller being hard-over. Our only options were to run back around the island and shoot straight N through the channel between Gooseberry and Breezy Point, or complete a long series of NW to S legs.

This is what age-of-sail sailors called "over-presssed," and is why much larger vessels would only carry only staysails in heavy winds. These scraps of heavy canvas were more than enough to keep the ship going at top speed, but not enough to overload the boat, causing it to heel dangerously. A storm jib would be an excellent investment in this case, allowing us to travel much closer to a heavy wind.