Downwind Sailing in the Atlantic!
27 November 2022 | Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco
Steven Cowart | Sunny and Pleasant
We are about halfway to the Canary Islands and we have some great winds behind us. For those of you who don't sail, the most efficient point of sail is actually having the wind at a 90 degree angle to the boat. This is when it takes the least amount of wind to reach a given speed.
When you sail with the wind directly from behind, every knot of boat speed takes away one knot of wind. Therefore it takes a lot of wind to really make good speed. This is also what makes for a very comfortable sail when the waves and wind are from behind. We are currently experiancing some really large swells from behind, but they are so spread out its not at all uncomfortable. At time they are easily 3 to 4 meters, or up to 12 feet.
Our winds have reached as high as 18 to 19 knots, but with the boat making 8 to 10 knots its really great as we only feel about 10 to 11 knots of wind on the boat. The picture is our Spinaker which is a dedicated downwind sail. It's a really great sail and fun to fly.
All is great onboard and I will try to keep posting more updates as long as our Starlink Internet keeps working!