After almost twenty years of cruising under sail, I have finally noticed
that the wind is always coming from the direction of my destination.

I have also noticed that the wind is either: "Variable less than ten
knots" or "small craft warning."

I wonder if Eole went to school with my first wife and if i should not
just sell the sailboat and buy a trawler?

Have fun

stormtactic wrote:

After almost twenty years of cruising under sail, I have finally noticed
that the wind is always coming from the direction of my destination.

I have also noticed that the wind is either: "Variable less than ten
knots" or "small craft warning."

There is an article in Chesapeake Bay where the weather forecast is
for winds of 10 to 20 knots, and a tugboat captain says that when he
gets a forecast like that, he adds the two figures together, and that
is more nearly right than the original forecast.

I wonder if Eole went to school with my first wife and if i should not
just sell the sailboat and buy a trawler?

Have fun

stormtactic wrote in
:

After almost twenty years of cruising under sail, I have finally
noticed
that the wind is always coming from the direction of my destination.



I see your problem. You have a "destination". Eliminate it and just
sail at the best point of sail to wherever it leads you and you'll be
lots happier, not to mention finding some great new places. Sailors
don't need a "destination".

You're right about the wind. Whatever the wind is, you have the wrong
rags hanked on the rigging. You can use this to your advantage, however!
If a bunch of friends are coming to the dock for a party, break out your
smallest storm jib and put all the reefs in the main. This will cause
the observing weather gods to make the wind dead calm, but you don't care
because the party is at the, now calm, docks. On race day, hank on your
biggest genoa and bring out your spinnaker early that morning. The
weather gods will see you doing this and make the wind blow like hell
making the race a success. On the way motoring out to the race course,
casually change sails at the last moment before the race. The weather
gods won't have time to make it dead calm before the race is nearly over,
giving you a big advantage, even if your handicap isn't as big a number
as ours....(c;

Larry
--
250 miles from port, the wind stops. "What do we do?", cap'n asks. "I'm
going to bed.", I answer taking advantage of the situation. I put a
plumb bob on the ships bell under a flag so if the waves or wind pick up
again before my nap is over it'll wake me and we can get underway again.

If anyone aboard has to "be somewhere" at a certain time, throw him
overboard BEFORE he starts ranting and waking up everyone taking a nap in
the dead calm.

I have to be there by.....say......November 25th....or before the beer
and food run out....(c;

Why would anyone who has to "be somewhere" try to get there in a
SAILBOAT? They need a JET!

Gentlemen never sail to windward.

Alec



"Larry" wrote in message
...
stormtactic wrote in
:

After almost twenty years of cruising under sail, I have finally
noticed
that the wind is always coming from the direction of my destination.



I see your problem. You have a "destination". Eliminate it and just
sail at the best point of sail to wherever it leads you and you'll be
lots happier, not to mention finding some great new places. Sailors
don't need a "destination".

You're right about the wind. Whatever the wind is, you have the wrong
rags hanked on the rigging. You can use this to your advantage, however!
If a bunch of friends are coming to the dock for a party, break out your
smallest storm jib and put all the reefs in the main. This will cause
the observing weather gods to make the wind dead calm, but you don't care
because the party is at the, now calm, docks. On race day, hank on your
biggest genoa and bring out your spinnaker early that morning. The
weather gods will see you doing this and make the wind blow like hell
making the race a success. On the way motoring out to the race course,
casually change sails at the last moment before the race. The weather
gods won't have time to make it dead calm before the race is nearly over,
giving you a big advantage, even if your handicap isn't as big a number
as ours....(c;

Larry
--
250 miles from port, the wind stops. "What do we do?", cap'n asks. "I'm
going to bed.", I answer taking advantage of the situation. I put a
plumb bob on the ships bell under a flag so if the waves or wind pick up
again before my nap is over it'll wake me and we can get underway again.

If anyone aboard has to "be somewhere" at a certain time, throw him
overboard BEFORE he starts ranting and waking up everyone taking a nap in
the dead calm.

I have to be there by.....say......November 25th....or before the beer
and food run out....(c;

Why would anyone who has to "be somewhere" try to get there in a
SAILBOAT? They need a JET!

Gentlemen never sail to windward.

Alec



"Larry" wrote in message
...
stormtactic wrote in
:

After almost twenty years of cruising under sail, I have finally
noticed
that the wind is always coming from the direction of my destination.



I see your problem. You have a "destination". Eliminate it and just
sail at the best point of sail to wherever it leads you and you'll be
lots happier, not to mention finding some great new places. Sailors
don't need a "destination".

You're right about the wind. Whatever the wind is, you have the wrong
rags hanked on the rigging. You can use this to your advantage, however!
If a bunch of friends are coming to the dock for a party, break out your
smallest storm jib and put all the reefs in the main. This will cause
the observing weather gods to make the wind dead calm, but you don't care
because the party is at the, now calm, docks. On race day, hank on your
biggest genoa and bring out your spinnaker early that morning. The
weather gods will see you doing this and make the wind blow like hell
making the race a success. On the way motoring out to the race course,
casually change sails at the last moment before the race. The weather
gods won't have time to make it dead calm before the race is nearly over,
giving you a big advantage, even if your handicap isn't as big a number
as ours....(c;

Larry
--
250 miles from port, the wind stops. "What do we do?", cap'n asks. "I'm
going to bed.", I answer taking advantage of the situation. I put a
plumb bob on the ships bell under a flag so if the waves or wind pick up
again before my nap is over it'll wake me and we can get underway again.

If anyone aboard has to "be somewhere" at a certain time, throw him
overboard BEFORE he starts ranting and waking up everyone taking a nap in
the dead calm.

I have to be there by.....say......November 25th....or before the beer
and food run out....(c;

Why would anyone who has to "be somewhere" try to get there in a
SAILBOAT? They need a JET!

Agree.

For denizens here, cruising means sailing with no timetable, schedule
or destination.

A voyage is taking the boat from splash in to mooring. Then the
cruising can begin.

For those who cannot be sailing, I reccommend this You Tube sailing
kite camera

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKGup...elated&search= the
music is Enya, "Orinoco flow."

I love this!

Terry K

In article . com,
Terry K wrote:

Agree.

For denizens here, cruising means sailing with no timetable, schedule
or destination.

A voyage is taking the boat from splash in to mooring. Then the
cruising can begin.

For those who cannot be sailing, I reccommend this You Tube sailing
kite camera

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKGup...elated&search= the
music is Enya, "Orinoco flow."

I love this!

Terry K

Philosophically I totally agree with you.

However... there is sometimes the constraint of a specific holiday
period, which has to be matched with the wife's holiday. Furthermore...

Other variables may include: the flood starts at dawn; it will cancel
the river current for a period of two hours; the ebb will follow for a
period of six hours with a tidal current of 7 knots on a spring tide,
the tidal current starts 1.5 hour after slack; there is a fait amount of
maritime traffic; often there is fog; the channel runs between two rocky
shoals, at this point it is narrow and the freighters are steaming at 20
knots so watch behind your shoulder.

I like dealing with all these variables to get the boat and crew safely
from point A to point B. If you can sail with no timetable, schedule, or
destination, you sail in a beautiful playground.

Have fun

On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:48:05 -0400, stormtactic
wrote:

I wonder if Eole went to school with my first wife and if i should not
just sell the sailboat and buy a trawler?

After making the same observations, that's what we did.

Currently underway south of the Florida Keys at 8.5 kts, dead into an
8 kt easterly.

Buy a double-ender, turn it around and back-down all the way to your
destination ..... problem solved.

In article ,
stormtactic wrote:

After almost twenty years of cruising under sail, I have finally noticed
that the wind is always coming from the direction of my destination.

I have also noticed that the wind is either: "Variable less than ten
knots" or "small craft warning."

I wonder if Eole went to school with my first wife and if i should not
just sell the sailboat and buy a trawler?

Have fun

In article . com, Terry K wrote:

For those who cannot be sailing, I reccommend this You Tube sailing
kite camera

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKGup...elated&search= the
music is Enya, "Orinoco flow."

I'd be interested to know what kind of kite he used for this, it's got
to be damn stable, and generate a lot of lift to carry the camera. It's
also got to be predictable enough that you aren't going to dunk the
camera. At first I thought it likely to be a rokaku, but they're just no
fun getting in the air; the only other thing would be a big(ish) delta,
but he lets it out so steady, I wouldn't have thought a delta, carrying
weight would be up to the job.

Fascinating stuff, and a great way of filming yourself sailing at minmal
cost.

ooohh! Perhaps it wasn't a kite, perhaps it was a bunch of helium
ballooms tied together!

Justin.

--
Justin C, by the sea.