We all want to go sailing but sometimes you might find yourself doing it alone. Can you solo sail and single hand a bigger sailboat?
How far can you go?
Electric motors run reliably as long as they have enough power supplied to them. The question of “how good are they?” is just the incorrectly asked question “how good are the batteries?”
We have crossed the Atlantic twice and visited many ports along the way. We have managed this on just eight 100ah batteries hooked up in series and parallel to give us 200ah at 48v. As a result, we have practically no range and as a result do not count on our electric motor to take us far. We have been using it just for docking and maybe for maneuvering around an anchorage, otherwise we rely solely on the sails to get us from port to port.
After 4.5 years, we have never actually done a proper range test to see how it works. Now is the time to see what this baby battery setup can do!
Sailing during COVID
Long after the pandemic has calmed down, Sailing is still affected by policies and policing in the name of COVID. See how it affected us while sailing around the open waters of the US Virgin Islands.
Sailing the Caribbean: Season 6 is Coming
Normally, people go cruising just to sail the Caribbean; these people also sail straight to the islands in the most direct way possible and thoroughly enjoy life. We went the really long way to get to the Caribbean, arriving after 4 years of cruising and two Atlantic crossings. It’s a good thing we did the other sailing first because we might have never left the Caribbean!
How to calculate wind shadows
Hiding in the lee of an island is a great way to protect yourself from punishing winds. The land blocks the sea from building waves that will rock your yacht as well as blocks the wind m, allowing you to anchor rather peacefully in some horrible conditions!
When you are looking at a new place to go cruising and need to find happy hiding holes that you can tuck into if the wind builds, how can you figure out how far away from land you will still be protected?
Navionics will tell you the elevation of various points on a landmass. Some are in feet, some are in meters, but the math all works out the same.
The equation is simple:
Elevation in Nautical Miles x 20 = Distance of wind shadow in nautical miles
For example: 564 feet (elevation) / 6076 feet (number of feet in 1 nautical mile) = 0.09nm tall
0.09nm x 20 = 1.85nm wind shadow
In other words, if you are within 1.8nm of that point of land, you will experience much less wind as you will be shielded from it.
Another example would be 168m right next to it:
168m x 39 (number of inches in a meter) = 6552 inches / 12 (number of inches in a foot) = 546 feet / 6076 (number of feet in a nautical mile) = 0.089 x 20 = 1.79nm wind shadow
To make it easy, just do these calculations:
If the elevation is in feet:
Elevation / 6076 x 20 = Windshadow
If the elevation is in meters:
Elevation x 39 / 12 / 6076 x 20 = Windshadow
