The predicted strong northern breeze indeed materialized, I was immediately able to run using the spinnaker. Initially I tried to bring the jib into play as well, but it proved hard to balance and I eventually pulled most of it in, it made little difference as I was already running at top speed. Things were going really well.
After a few hours I passed White Lake, where several other sailboats where crossing my path sailing on beam reaches, they were having a hard time as by now waves had grown pretty high and caused them more rolling than could have been comfortable. The wave size was indeed starting to be a bit of a concern, as the dinghy started to occasionally hit me when racing down the crests. Some waves were starting to break, and I was wondering what would happen if one broke over the dinghy.
However, while approaching Muskegon my luck was over - the spinnaker pendant suddenly parted. That was wholly unexpected as it's a pretty hefty wire construction. The spinnaker itself was fine, so maybe it was better this way, the pendant is easy to replace with rope.
I hauled in the spinnaker and switched to the jib, but found that running straight before the wind with it was very rolly, so I switched to a zig-zag course to maintain some semblance of stability. The wind and waves kept increasing to a size I had never seen before, and I had to partially furl the jib, feeling I was in danger of rounding up otherwise. It seemed safer to steer by hand, too.
My plan to make it all the way to Holland was becoming unrealistic with the speed loss from zig-zagging and I was getting rather tired from steering anyways, so I again ended up at Port Sheldon.
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