Good News - Bad News
31 December 2014 | 14 31'S:118 8'W,
Maggie
The good news is in the photo we're having a beautiful afternoon of sailing at 7.5 knots! The bad news is it's mostly in the wrong direction...
As the sailors among you know, a salboat cannot sail directly into the wind. The sails have to be angled to one side or the other (or with the wind behind) to get the air flow that translates into the motion of the boat.
We want to go south-southeast, but the wind's been blowing out of the south, so we can't go straight there. Combine that with a current taking us west, and the closest we can sail is West Southwest. Yes, that's going significantly west to get some south. There is hope in the weather fax, which shows this course will bring us to more favorable winds. It's a circuitous track on the chart. But we're getting there under the mercurial, but natural, energy of the wind!