THE WEATHER - is our main topic of conversation!!!!

You know the old rhyme

Whether the weather is cold or whether the weather is hot
We'll weather the weather, whatever the weather
Whether we like it or not!!

Sailing is a bit like that.  Sometimes you can sail to your planned destination but more often you'll have WIND ON THE NOSE.  When you are day sailing between ports you may be doing between 20 and 50 miles but when it comes to the time to return home to BLIGHTY from BRITTANY you are undertaking a trip of about 70 to 100 miles depending on your desired port.  This could be 12 to 20 hours sailing.  The factors that you need to consider are wind direction, wind strength, daylight hours, visibility, tidal flow, wave height and swell, the capabilities of the boat you are sailing and the experience of the crew.

In the English Channel at this time of year we normally expect to see south westerly winds which will carry you home on a beam or broad reach which is the most comfortable kind of sailing.

 

NOT FOR ROBIN

For the non sailors among our readers a sail boat will not sail direct into the wind.  If you stand facing the wind and turn either left or right by about 40 degrees that is as close to the wind as you can sail (called beating into the wind) you can see it on the diagram.  so there is a zone of about 80 degrees within which you cannot sail and if your destination is within this NO GO ZONE you have to sail a zig zag course to get there (this is called TACKING).  The most comfortable point of sailing is a reach.  This is where the boat is pointing roughly 90 to 120 degrees from the wind so to travel from Cherbourg to Portsmouth with a SW wind you would be reaching but when the wind is in the north you either have to tack or turn on the motor.  Sailing on a beat also means that you are often sailing towards the waves so your bows are butting into the water causing spray which can become quite tiring.

 

I'd like to also try to explain that a boat sails on what is known as the apparent wind.  Consider that you are in a train in a station and there is no wind at all.  When you open the window and lean out there will be no wind.  However if the train was moving at 30mph when you lean out you'll experience a 30mph wind.  The train is dragging you through still air and so you feel the resultant wind.  A boat uses this combination wind to sail.  If you have wind blowing from the west at 10mph and you are sailing east with the wind behind you at say 5mph then the wind you experience across the deck of the boat is 5mph i.e. 10-5=Apparent wind of 5mph.

 

In exactly the same conditions if the boat was sailing west into the wind the apparent wind would be 10+5=15mph so a beat will always be more tiring because the wind you experience is much higher and if you add to that a cold day the wind chill can be significant, so if planning a long trip you often have to wait for the wind direction to be favourable rather than just going regardless. 

 

Ask any cruising sailor and they will agree that one of the most frustrating things is when you have wind on the nose and as we speak Chris and I are sitting in a harbour called L'aberwrac'h waiting for a North wind to alter to a West wind so that we can make a comfortable trip home to England across the channel.  It looks, at the moment, to be Thursday before we'll get a favourable wind for our crossing.