01/04/2025 ICW Day 4 : A Sailors life for me


There is something magical about being able to harness the wind and use its energy to travel in 315 different degrees. In my eyes, the magic is only enhanced by the pure simplicity of the craft - a single sail and a line called a “main sheet” to tailor the sail’s shape to power you to almost any direction you want to go.

Unfortunately, today the winds were blowing straight on the nose of where we wanted to travel… in sailing, this is called “beating into the winds,” and that is how it felt for Janet - like she was taking a beating bouncing up and down. For me in the back, there must be less movement.

My aim is to always maximize the speed of the boat - not because we’re in a hurry, but because sailing is a slow moving activity, and part of the joy is tinkering with this-and-that to minimize your drag in the water and maximize your propulsion without overpowering the vessel. With Janet on board to counterbalance, the boat can accept a lot more power.

It ends up becoming a puzzle of studying winds, tides, currents, landform shapes, satellite imagery and mishmashing that data with intuition, dead reckoning, and keeping your partner happy to get where you want to go.

People have traveled and explored this way for so long; it gives me shivers every time i think about the Polynesian boats that our modern plastic machine is modeled after.

Unfortunately, Janet does not share this passion. She enjoyed the previous days, but even though it is warm here (with warm water), she did not enjoy getting splashed and bumped up and down today. We will need to discuss our future goals for the trip on our rest day tomorrow. Today we got stymied by shallows on the East side of our camping island, and had to backtrack to deeper water. Then, when Janet had enough of the splashing, we retreated into a private dock to collect ourselves and for me to do chores and don my rain gear.

Last night on the “houseboat” went well, but not perfectly. The winds picked up last night..20 mph with gusts to 30. A small craft advisory was announced several times by the coast guard. We had tucked into the mangroves, but with the large tent atop our floating platform, we still had a lot of windage - enough to break our little anchor free. So, at 11:30 AM I paddled us towards the mangroves, hoping to NOT see and Aligator’s gleaming eyes. Doing some acrobatics, I managed to tie the bow to a submerged branch, and then set the stern using the anchor. When the tide bottomed out at 3:30AM, we were resting on mud, which increased our stability for the 4 hours before its return at 7:30 AM. I’m definitely going to continue to use the “big tent” method - and ship home the small tents. It was so much more comfortable by comparison.

Photos:



This is what the splashing looks like rom my seat. Even though the water is warm, I put my jacket on.

Photos from yesterday-didn’t take many because of the splashing.


Photos from yesterday-didn’t take many because of the splashing.

Strava Comments:



Osman I.
Might the 'hybrid power' feature of your boat allow you to widen the 315-degree window by pedaling under sail?

Brian L.
Osman Isvan - pedaling together, directly into the wind today, we made about one point eight MPH (rewriting because Strava stripped out my decimal number thinking it was a URL). Sailing an estimated 30 degrees off the wind, we moved at a satisfying 5MPH: Pedaling not necessarily required, but maybe adds 0.5MPH to the 5MPH. I haven’t gotten around to doing the math, but my gut feeling is that it is fastest to go as close to the wind as the boat will sail (about 25 degrees) but not any closer, otherwise, the speed drops dramatically, the sail gets loud and shifty, and the “thrill” goes down.

Osman I.
Does it mean that when the objective is to minimize the time to a direct-headwind destination, tacking at +/- 30-degree angles is the best strategy with your boat. Adding human power to the wind power would surely make the boat faster in any direction, but I wonder whether it may synergistically affect that optimal tacking angle or possibly increase the power you can extract from the sail. Is the optimal angle absolute wind or apparent wind? You know this is highly relevant for cycling, right? 😂

Judy I.
I don’t know sailing but I think Janet is a saint, a saint that must love you very much! 😅

Janet W.
Thanks to you Brian Lucido for managing all aspects of this new type of travel by boat! Seeing you enjoy it so much makes me happy. Taking today off to clean up and plan the nexts steps is just what I need!

Osman I.
Judy Isvan​ ...like we didn’t know already 😄

Ride Stats:

Elapsed Time Moving Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Elevation Gain Calories Burned
07:47:39
hours
06:03:51
hours
39.17
km
6.46
km/h
12.76
km/h
370.00
meters
1,993
kcal

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