So it's a night crossing. There's nothing between Hope and Wingfield to be concerned about, however I'd rather not reach the Hope/Christian Islands in the dark. A quick map recce and time estimate suggest we leave in the early evening rather than the afternoon.
We leave at 7:00 PM, wind is from the Northwest, can't remember the strength, about 10 to 15 knots I think. Despite the lighter wind the waves still seem large. Noticed that on the bay proper it doesn't take much wind to create large waves.
We motor for an hour to make sure the batteries are charged up then put up the sails. Since this was our first night crossing I had already decided to use the
jib alone. That way we would not have to leave the cockpit. As we were now on a run this made even more sense to eliminate any accidental jibes.