It’s an old saying, “Gentlemen don’t sail to weather”.  I guess it’s a good thing no one has ever accused me of being a gentleman.  Sailing to weather is hard.  I guess I should back up.  Sailing to weather means that a boat is trying to sail towards the direction that the wind is coming from.  Since a sailboat is powered by the wind this is problematic.  A boat cannot go directly towards the wind unless it is motoring.  However, a sailboat can point, in my case, to within about 45 – 50 degrees of the direction the wind is coming from.  So, no big deal, right?

Well, the reason they say gentlemen don’t do such things is because it hard on everyone and everything involved.  The waves out there in the open water make up the swell and the swell comes from the same direction as the wind.  So not only are you trying to beat into the wind, but you also have to punch through the waves that are beating you back.  That’s why they call such sailing courses, “a beat”.  Now comes the kicker.

The next 10 days show winds steadily out of the SE with some variance to the S and E.  This is not the window I had hoped for, but I do think it is my window.  Winds will be fairly consistent between 10 – 20 knots with swell starting at  6 – 8 feet, but easing to 3 – 5 the further SE I progress.  I’ll talk about fetch later.  There is a very small low coming down on Monday that will give me about 24 hours of easterly winds letting me sail due south out of the oil rigs on my first day.  After that I can adjust course and sail a close reach on whatever tack will take me closest to Progresso or Campeche.

A few people will argue with me on this window so I want to go a little deeper into why I think it works.  First, it’s consistent.  Assuming I leave on Monday I’ve got 8 straight days of 10 – 20 know winds.  That’s beautiful sailing wind, even if it isn’t exactly from the direction I’d like.  Eight days should be perfect for the crossing.  Second, the swell is as or more moderate than it would be if I were to wait for another cold front.  No, I am not excited about going against the swell, but it’s really fairly easy swell.  Plus, I am not racing so I can fall off course as much as I want to ease the ride if it does pick up.  Third, I’ve still got the waning gibbous moon.  That will give me light when I want it most in the early morning hours from around 2:00 a.m. to sunrise.  Finally, Florida would be a beat also only a much longer one.  The ditch would easily take three times as long motoring all the way and anchoring every night.  South Padre is just the wrong direction.

When you put it all together, everything tells me to go south on Monday.

Lee Winters
Phone: (281) 336-0855
Satellite Phone: 8816-316-59853

Web: www.SailingForSOS.com
Email: Lee.Winters@SailingForSOS.com