The winds died, or at least died in the right direction.
We are getting close to Portugal, and the winds shifted to be on our nose (if we were heading East). For part of the day, we sailed North with the wind comfortably ahead of the beam (which translates into: barely past the beam). We can sail to windward, as long as our angle to the wind is somewhere between 70*-80* off the wind. I know this is equivalent to the wind angles that square riggers could sail upwind, but on our boat, we sail rather quickly and comfortably at this wind angle, be it almost a beam reach though!
Our speed holds just as well as if we were beam reaching, but the moment the wind comes further forward of the beam, everything stops! Our speed can be 7-8 knots on a beam reach, and if we try to turn up into the wind, our speed will quickly drop to 3-4 knots. Heading into the wind, the apparent wind on the sails is greater and should therefore generate more drive, but the boat does not want to go and everything comes to a grinding halt!
So, with this experience, we first set sail on starboard tack heading North, then we tacked onto port tack and began heading South. We were not really trying to get anywhere because there was no point. Sailing at these wind angles out in the ocean is the equivalent to parking your car and taking a coffee break. Wisdom was simply holding her position out in the ocean and waiting for the winds to change. Eventually they would and we wanted to be relatively in the same place; not too far North or South, and without drifting West in this East wind.
Now, if you are thinking that a full keeled cutter is dangerous because it can’t sail off a lee shore. Stop right there. 70* off the wind is sailing to windward and can sail off a lee shore. We have many times sailed to windward out of a harbor and that would entail sailing off a lee shore. We can sail much closer to the wind, going as high as 40* to the wind, and when you factor in Velocity Made Good (VMG) it ends up being about the same. Slow but upwind is a shorter route at a slower speed compared to Fast but less upwind with a longer route sailed more quickly. It all depends on which sails we are flying and how fast we want to go.
If we are leaving an anchorage and the winds are nice, we will set our jib and be pulled to windward with considerable speed. Suddenly, we can sail to windward as well as a sloop (being how they also have their only headsail tacked at the stem). If the conditions are pitiful, we are not about to set a full jib way up front at the tip of the bow. Instead, we reef down and fly the staysail and reefed mainsail or trysail. All of these sails move the Center of Effort (CE) closer to the middle of the boat and that also means that we are not being pulled along fiercely by the large jib at the front of the boat. Instead we are more like a well balanced cork floating through the water, staying steadily above the waves.
If we really needed the drive to windward, we could always set our jib with a reef in it like we have done in the past when we were in the Bahamas sailing to windward from one island to the next. It was rough, but it was effective. Pounding into waves at 6 knots made for a very smashing and wet ride, but it also got us to windward. Out in the ocean, we do not have the desire to be beat up like we were then, so we do not set the jib and merely float around as we wait for more advantageous wind in the middle of the ocean.
