Gale force winds Feb. 10

I was looking for some strong wind this weekend and found it! Saturday evening was spent in a beautiful anchorage on Mill Creek off the Patuxent river. I was expecting 25-30 knot winds from the west overnight, but it was calm the entire night. The strong winds did not really get started until 1:00pm - then they blew at a sustained 30 knots from NNW with some gusts up above 40. Rincewind handled well under stays'l and double-reefed main. I discovered that I could not tack with that sail combination unless my speed was above 5 knots. Below that speed, I had to jibe, but that was an easy maneuver with the small sail area. Boat motion was good. When the wind speed dropped below 30 knots, I had to put out a little of the genoa to keep the boat speed up. This wind was stronger than anything I sailed in last summer going to Nova Scotia except for the storm off of the New Jersey Coast. The tiller pilot handled the boat well, but did not repond fast enough to some of the gusts - it was best when hand steered close to the wind. This was the first time that I was on the Bay and saw no other boats. I found some problems with the shape of the stays'l - neither the foot nor the luff would trim correctly. The block on the deck seems to be in the wrong place for the cut of the sail. The shape of the double-reefed main seemed pretty good - nice and flat.