Sailing Backwards in Vineyard Sound

In Vineyard Sound you can actually sail backwards while going to windward!
Last weekend Cheryl and I went out for a sail on Saturday. I'd checked the noontime currents, and they were running fairly strongly towards Nantucket. 2.5 plus at times. The wind was just right, although they were calling for 20 knot gusts. We headed out, and met a strong current running into the inlet at Lake Tashmoo. I had to gun the engine to get Yuletide moving through the current. I had a reefed main, which turned out to be a good thing, as we met an 18 knot gust right after we cleared the jetty.

I hauled out a portion of the roller furling Genny, and we headed for Nobska Light. Weaving our way through the fishermen off of Middle Ground, we had a fresh breeze and were making a good five plus knots on the knotmeter.
By the time we got across the sound a half hour later, Nobska light was to windward. We tacked in time to avoid the Island Home (the steamship authority's new floating city). On our return to the Vineyard we were considerably downstream of where we had started. Another windward tack out and back brought us to the entrance bouy to Vineyard Haven. So, in two hours of sailing we had gone backwards by a couple miles!
I could have continued sailing backwards until the tide turned in the late afternoon, but the storm clouds were threatening, so we started up the motor, and powered back up to the entrance to the pond.
A fun day of sailing, but thank God I did not have to get somewhere!