Santa Cruz and a little Sail Primer!

We are in lovely Santa Cruz and planning to leave tomorrow or Saturday for Ventura. We’ll go overnight and get there later the next day - about 200 miles total. Jeff's currently putting our tracks on our paper charts. Yes, with all the electronics we have, we still have and love paper charts!

We’ve really enjoyed the rest days here in SC. As soon as we tied up, we cleaned up the deck and took a nap. We are rafted next to Peter and Tom and their Beneteau 36. Super nice and laid back; they are headed south to Mexico too but on a longer schedule than us.

It was a long 74 hours from Coos Bay to Santa Crus with 95% of it motoring. So, you might be wondering why we motor so much and just can’t sail all the time. Trust me… I get it. When we first bought the boat, I couldn’t figure that out either. But, let me try to explain.

When a sailboat is headed in to the wind, the sail acts like a vertical (as opposed to horizontal) airplane wing. Bernouli’s Principle, the same one the that makes planes fly, is at work and moves us forward. Don’t get too hung up if you don’t get that part. The important thing is that the wind needs to come from about 40 degrees or a bit more  on either side of the bow to effectively move us this way. So, if the wind is directly in front of us (what we call “on the nose”), we have to zig zag (called tacking) back and forth while moving forward so the wind stays at 40 degrees or so on either side. Doing that, of course, adds a lot of time and mileage to a trip. Think of it this way; while walking, if you wanted to keep the wind on only 1 side of your face but still walk forward, you would zig zag back and forth. That’s tacking! But, you also see that its a longer distance you have to go to move forward. 

Now, if the wind is from the side of the boat (a beam reach, sailors call it just so they can use different words to confuse non-sailors), its the best way to move effectively forward.  Bernouli is still working for us, but there is also more of a direct push of the boat forward. Again, don’t get too bogged on this part - we just always wish for a beam reach.

Now, if I haven’t lost you yet, lets talk sailing downwind. That should be easy, right? No, of course not - this is sailing!  Wind from behind pushes the boat and the sails now work like a parachute (not like a wing). However, you need enough wind from behind to hold the sail out while moving forward at 6-7 kts.  SIDE NOTE here, KTS is the abbreviation for knots or 1 nautical mile. Its about the same as 1 standard mile. Really, its close enough for most mere mortals. So, for Salpare moving at 7 kts, we need to have at a minimum 15 kts of wind behind us to move forward at a decent speed. Add in to that equation, BIG rolling seas that flop the boat back and forth. Then the wind also has to be big enough to hold the sail out while rolling on the waves. If it isn’t, the sails “deflate” and flop, then inflate again when they fill with wind. Its really tough on the sails and reduces their lives by months and years. Its also tough on the crew who hear these loud flops back and forth…

In the “old days” and for some who are purists and do not have a motor on their sailboat, you just sailed what you were given; and sat around a long time. They had years to get across oceans. We don’t and can just fire up our fantastic 54 hp engine.

Now, getting back to our last passage. From Coos Bay to Cape Mendocino, we had ok to light winds directly on the nose - zero degrees on either side of the boat! Past Cape Mendocino, we had winds directly behind the boat; but they were only 10-15 kts. With the big seas, they were not enough to keep our sails filled. We tried once and within an hour, were back to motoring.

I hope that helps you understand sailing a bit more. It’s taken me years to figure this stuff out and I still feel like a novice! 

Next stop Ventura!