Sailing Up a River

When you think about sailing, you probably picture a yacht under full sail slicing through the blue sea! The only thing around the yacht is more waves as it chugs along through the water towards an endless destination. This thought might seem romantic, but at some point, the yacht will arrive on a shore and make its way up into a port. Old ports tend to be located up a river, offering them ease of access to the open waters but yet still protected from the fury of the waves during a severe storm.

For those with a powerful diesel motor onboard, these journeys up the river to the port city are no challenge at all. All you need to do in these cases is turn on the motor and power your way up the river until you reach your destination in a timely manner. For those of us who have opted to forgo this luxury, traveling up the river may be a bit more intimidating. 

Rivers have a few standard qualities, and understanding these features will make navigating them all the easier. A river will always flow from the land to the sea. There may be a slight flood as the tide rises, but it will be much weaker than the current as the tide retreats back into the ocean. This preferred direction of rivers is due to the fact that rivers drain runoff from the land into the sea.  

This means that the force of the current is directly correlated to the amount of rainfall that has occurred in that area . If they have been having heavy rains, expect a stronger current pushing against you. If it has been dry lately, expect an easier to at sailing up the river. 

The other challenging thing with rivers is their width. Rivers can be wide, but they can also get very narrow at times. The area of deep water will also be narrower than the width of the river as well, meaning that you will be forced to sail in a relatively narrow space. This can make it difficult to work your way up a river, especially if your are working into the wind. Short tacking against the wind and against the current is equivalent to Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the mountainside forever.  

It may sound like rivers are the worst thing you can encounter on a sailboat, and you may be inclined to think that you need a motor to get to the port town located miles up the river. This thought may seem well founded, knowing all the natural forces are stacked against you, but remember that these old towns were established long before diesel motors existed. All trade that occurred in these old towns was done by sail, and if the town is old enough, by square rigger! 

While it may sound like it is next to impossible to sail up into a river and reach a port town, the truth is it is very doable; you just need patience.  

When sailing up a river, you want to plan on traveling with an incoming tide, after a period of dry days, when the wind is blowing you up the river. This will give you the easiest go at it, as the river will not be flowing too hard, the tide will give you a bit of a push, and the wind will carry you all the way up. 

Winds are another problem with rivers. You might start out with the wind on your stern, but as the river bends and twists, the wind may begin to blow from the wrong direction. Trees that line the river will also make winds light and variable, further adding difficulty to the entire process. Traveling up a river can be tricky at times, and if you find that you are loosing ground, the most prudent action would be to drop anchor and wait for conditions to improve in your favor. 

Arriving at a small port town by sail can be fun and exciting, especially if you had to time it with natural events and work for a few days to finally get there!  

On a side note, an important thing to carry while sailing up a river is cheese. If you get stuck somewhere and have to wait for conditions to improve, cheese may be your best tool to free yourself from your predicament. Sitting in the cockpit waiting for the winds to change or the tide to come back into your favor will drive you crazy! These events take hours to change, and the changes occur very subtly, especially that far up a river. Cheese will work to take your mind off of the situation, help you relax, feed your belly, and keep you happy. As you sit back and relax with cheese in your stomach, you will stop worrying about time and simply enjoy the sights of the river bank as you await better conditions. Once conditions do return to your favor, you can raise anchor and continue on!

Danger of Relying on Electronics

Electronic charts are great, they offer volumes of information in a tiny concise package! Paper charts need to be purchased, printed, stored, and retrieved individually; whereas electronic charts can be downloaded for free and searched quickly and easily. 

Most electronic charts will change to lower scale charts as you zoom in automatically, saving you the trouble of finding the chart inset and relocating your position on the new page. Since electronic charts are so easy to manage and carry, it is easy to keep your chart collection up to date with the most current charts, all in an easy to carry and read electronic device. 

One favorite seems to be the iPad. These little computers have incredible battery lives and a wealth of programs that load seamlessly into the unit. I can sync the iPad to my Delorme InReach and see our exact position on the most current chart of the area. When we are leaving for new waters, we just need to download the latest charts for our intended destination and any other points of interest along the way (in case we get side tracked). There is no trip to the chandler or payment for tubes containing our paper charts, and best of all, no cost!

Each paper chart usually costs around $20. Most programs that will display navigational charts are free! Those that are not free are still only a few dollars, and then you have the ability to display any and every chart. Technology really is amazing!

While technology is great, it is also fragile. I keep the iPad in a protective case to prevent accidental damage to the unit, but that only goes so far. One morning, I was carrying a block of wood that I had been working on out the companionway. A wake hit the boat and the block of wood slipped out of my hand and fell straight onto the iPad. Luckily, the screen didn't crack from the impact (thanks to the protective case it lives in) but the screen did die.

When I turned it on, half the screen was gray bands while the other half was static. I know that the unit was still functioning because the clock appeared at the top of the monitor. Sadly, the time will not tell me all I need to know about the waters I am cruising in. Because we also carry paper charts, the loss of the iPad was not as detrimental of a loss. We were still able to navigate the waters and sail without questioning where we are.

The take home message is that electronic gizmos are great, but you still need to carry a paper backup in the event that the electronic device were to fail.

Speaking Cloud

The best weather forecast comes from the sky itself. Instead of going online and downloading a grib file, or listening to the WX station on the VHF, simply look up at the sky!

As weather approaches, different cloud formations will appear, telling you exactly what is coming and when. Should the weather patterns change, the clouds will inform you of this and you can relax again.

One of the most vocal clouds is the Cirrus Cloud. Cirrus clouds are wispy, high altitude clouds, usually composed of tiny ice crystals. If you see one or two of these clouds in the sky, they don't really have much to say. If you see the sky filling with these clouds, then you should listen to what they have to say!

Cirrus clouds tend to indicate the approach of deteriorating weather. Cirrus clouds will be blown off the tops of an approaching cold front, or blown off the top of an anvil cloud. Cirrus clouds that are accompanied by alto stratus indicate the approach of a warm front.

When all the cirrus clouds point in the same direction, they are telling you that they are all being blown from an approaching weather pattern. When you see them creep into the sky, they are telling you that in 1 to 2 days, bad weather will approach. If they are alone, it is either a single thunder cloud or a cold front. Either of these cases will cause the wind to shift and begin to blow from the direction the clouds originated. 

In other words, when you see these clouds appear, it is time to make sure your ready to reef or set up your storm sails. As the main weather system approaches, you can quickly set the appropriate sails and wait out the storm. If these clouds are approaching late in the day, it would behoove you to set the storm sails before nightfall. It is always easier to rig the storm sails by day in calm weather, as opposed to waiting for sloppy seas and darkness.

These approaching cirrus clouds are being followed by slightly denser clouds. This usually indicates the approach of a warm front that will probably bring rain and some winds. If we were out at sea, we would ready the rain catching equipment!

By learning to read the clouds, you can prepare your yacht for the weather that you will be experiencing without the need for complicated communication systems or fancy weather forecast subscriptions. This will let you sail farther than your standard communication channels will reach without the fear of coming across foul weather without a proper warning.

Pilot Charts

When you think of a chart, you probably imagine a piece of paper with tons of numbers on it that tells you how deep the water is and where rocks are. This type of chart is known as a Nautical Chart, and these charts are very useful for navigating in a specific area. While Nautical Charts offer a very narrow view of the world, focusing on a small area of coastline and water, Pilot Charts offer a much broader view of an entire body of water.

Pilot Charts do not give information about depth and obstructions, instead they offer information about weather. Pilot Charts denote wind directions and strength, likelihood of encountering a gale, ice, or fog, as well as the typical direction and intensity of currents. Pilot Charts are about the weather what Nautical Charts are about the water.

Pilot Charts are organized by region and by month. Each month has its own weather patterns and needs to be represented on its own chart. When you look at a pilot chart, one of the first things that will jump out at you are these little wind roses placed all over the page.

Wind roses are set every 5 degrees and represent the average wind for that area via their arrows and feathers. The wind strength is denoted at the end of the arrow with the feathers according to the Beaufort scale. Each feather represents 1 force.

The arrow points into the wind, telling you the prevailing wind directions that month. The more often the wind blows from that cardinal direction, the longer the arrow will be. If the wind is particularly prevalent from one direction, it will be written on the arrow. In our example, Force 4 winds will blow from the NE 67% of the time. If it is not blowing from the NE, it will be blowing from the E. Looking at the rose, you can see that the winds tend to be Force 3 or 4 for the month of January. 

The number in the middle of the rose represents the number of days that month with absolutely no wind. 

If you are planning a cruise, choosing a route where the prevailing wind will be a broad reach with no becalmed days would prove ideal. 

If your planned route follows along wind roses that look like this, you may want to look for another route. This wind rose denotes that 1 day out of the month may be becalmed, but otherwise the wind blows from any direction and very strongly. The average winds in this area are Force 5 and Force 6!

Aside from prevailing wind information, Pilot Charts denote average currents and their strengths using green arrows. 

When choosing a route, try to find a course where you are not only on a broad reach, but also sailing with the current. The current can either be your friend or make the entire experience much less enjoyable. If the wind and current oppose each other, you can expect to encounter much larger seas! 

Picking a route where you sail downwind and down current will make passage making much easier as well as much faster than if you choose a different route where you are fighting the elements as you voyage.

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Below are links to PDF copies of pilot charts for the entire world. They are organized by ocean, and sub-organized by month. Clicking on the desired month will open the link to that pilot chart in a new window. Using these pilot charts, you can plan the best time and route for any ocean passage.

North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Mediterranean Sea

South Atlantic Ocean

North Pacific Ocean

South Pacific Ocean

Indian Ocean

Chart Symbols: Wrecks

A very important notation on navigational charts are wrecks and other hazards. These are represented by a variety of symbols which demonstrate the variety of wrecks that you can encounter on the water. 

The dotted line is to delineate an area where a hazard exists. It would behoove you to not sail over these marked areas. Some dotted and shaded areas will have a depth mark on them, these are somewhat safer to navigate over as the depth shows the depth of safe water over the hazard.

This symbol surrounded by dotted lines indicates a wreckage which may show part of the wreck through the surface of the water. PA stands for "Position Approximate" which means they don't know exactly where the wreck is. In general, this is a good warning to stay away because the wrecked vessel could be just under the water and cause serious damage to your yacht. 

Another symbol for a wreckage looks like a boat coming out of the water. This symbol refers to a partially submerged wreck where part of it can be seen above the water. 

Asterisks are used to denote rocks that are awash. Rocks marked by a plus sign (+) signify a rock of an unknown depth.

In general, dotted lines signify places that you should avoid while navigating. If a depth number is marked in association with the obstruction, and you will have enough water between your keel and the obstacle, you may traverse over this area. While it might be safe to pass over, the ocean is huge and there is plenty of water around the obstruction, so why not play it safe and go around the potential hazard?