What choice do you make when there's no wind?

Merlin Clark · Jun 29, 2013

Throw out the hook and rig the boom tent. Relax and enjoy the peace, bbq and go for a swim if the water is warm enough!
Any time spent on a boat is good time.

kito · Jun 29, 2013

We go out with the sail still covered. Maybe anchor in a cove and swim and float around, drink a few beers and cook something for dinner. Then later, some cabin games

Beats looking out the window wishing the wind was blowing.

Ross · Jun 29, 2013

Much will depend on air temperature and cloud cover. It can be very pleasant or it can be like sitting in a car in a parking lot on a hundred degree day.
nancy and I talk about writting a book called, "sailing in a dead flat calm". We get a lot of those days on the Chesapeake Bay.

JerryA · Jun 29, 2013

Re: No Wind

It depends. If we're planning to go somewhere, then we go even if that means motoring. If we're just out sailing and the wind dies, then usually I'll anchor and enjoy the day. Along the lake a breeze will usually pick up in the afternoon and I'll pull up anchor and sail while it lasts. Some no-wind days I'll just motor out and visit other marinas, looking at boats.

JerryA

walt · Jun 29, 2013

Rick D · Jun 29, 2013

How light? Depends. If it's a planned trip somewhere, we just motor there. If it's a day sail with friends, we'll go out and ghost along waiting for more wind. If that does not work, we'll just motor around and sight see. We have some places to anchor near our marina but that's pretty rare in SoCal.

John Nantz · Jun 29, 2013

Doug - I feel your pain!

We're down here in Poulsbo with the same conditions you have - nice blue sky, heat wave in the forecast, and probably worse yet, there is NO WIND !

This morning we're looking at a max of 3 to 4 knots and it falls off this evening.

As for the suggestion of "ghosting along", I'd be okay with that except for all the lumpy waves caused by the various powerboaters out there running around. For them this is heaven, for us, there isn't enough wind to keep the sails full enough to counter the lumpy seas.

Our plan for the day is to go and tinker on the boat while it is in the slip. I've got the usual little projects to work on and my wife will be tidying things up so we're ready to go when the weather improves and there's some wind.

Wind is nice. It tends to keep most of the mosquitos and the powerboaters down.

Bill Roosa · Jun 29, 2013

If it is Ross's dead flat calm then I chase the first mate around the cabin and cockpit. If there is 1-2 the we hoist the spinnaker and keep sailing. We run into light winds so much in the bay that we bought the spinnaker for that purpose. Can move a 0.5knot in 1 knot of wind.

kloudie1 · Jun 29, 2013

Yup.. If I am going somewhere to hook to shore power so we can sleep in the AC, we'll motor if the wind is less than about 5 knots.. This time of the year here is pretty hot and if you don't have air moving through the boat, the sun load drives the temperature up a lot!. In a real calm on a clear day, the radiant heat from the bimini will bake ya even in the shade. We have to scoop water and wet the bimini and ourselves to have any relief. But as soon as a breeze shows, things get a lot better, even in the heat.

Stretch · Jun 29, 2013

Inflows up here, should be bigger on sunday, heading out right now for the SOS Rendevous at McNab Creek, might be 100 boats out there tomorrow.

Thats for the desert heat you sent us for Canada Day, neighbours! It has been a cold wet June.

rpell1@msn.com · Jun 29, 2013

C'mon guys........"Power Sailing" may be distasteful to a purist, but it's certainly NOT a sin! So, you make your own breeze to avoid "roasting" in irons and you get to enjoy some time on the water. About 1200 rpm will give you about 3 knots, or so, and it's not that noisy.
Be happy, don't worry...............

YVRguy said:
So here I am looking out the window Saturday morning at the start of what will be a beautiful Canada Day weekend. We have planned for a while to go sailing but the forecast has just been revised - "Winds Light." Bummer.

What do you guys do when the wind dies? Do you go out and enjoy your boat anyway? Or make other plans and wait for the wind to come?

As a new sailor I just love being out on the water - wind or no wind - but I feel badly asking my GF (or anyone else) to go out and just putter around.

Thoughts?

justsomeguy · Jun 29, 2013

Stretch said:
Snip-

Thats for the desert heat you sent us for Canada Day, neighbours! It has been a cold wet June.

Sorry.

Ross · Jun 29, 2013

It's fair, we got your snow and cold last winter.

Ross · Jun 29, 2013

Quite often we wake up in an anchorage and in the fall it will be flat calm and just a little foggy and completely quiet. I love to ship the anchor and motor out at an idle. Sometimes we will travel several miles before we encounter another boat.

Stretch · Jun 29, 2013

I am happy for the hot weather the inflow was 20 knots tonight.

Chris Patterson · Jun 30, 2013

I would give ANYTHING for a light air day, or just ANY day where the wind is not blowing 40 miles an hour, or raining. Sometimes both. Here in this part of the Carolina's, the weather hasn't been fit to go out for weeks. Everyday I go to the boat, (the weather sucks too bad to stay ON the boat), and watch this accursed weather. Yeah, some years ago, like in the last century, I would have tore out in this mess, but I suppose most of the hard adventuring is out of me, and seeing little reason to get beat up for the entertainment value of it, here I sit.
I've got a brand new headsail that I've been trying to string up the stick for over a week. I realize that it CAN be done, and yes I've even done it on a rolling deck. But I'm not 30 anymore, or 40, or...well, you get the idea. I stopped at 40 because it made me feel better..
So I sit here another morning watching it rain torrentially, and decided to just moan about it here on this thread, and I'm sorry I guess. I would take the light air. Hell, I would like it if there was no white water in the ditch, much less outside.
I'm like an alcoholic without a drink. It be's callin' me, man..

Merlin Clark · Jun 30, 2013

You can always whistle....

Anonymous 121765 · Jun 30, 2013

YVR,

Kudos to the guys' responses. There are good friends/ & advice on this site.

In response to no-wind days & sailing I keep it simple.

Let's break it down:

#1. you're a boater.
#2 is a type breakdown, your a power boater, or a sailor, or a paddler, or a pole boater.

It doesn't matter what type of boating you luv, but rather loving what boating you do.
I have equal enjoyment sailing, motoring, hook hanging etc.

If the wind Gods are not in your favor, you're a power boater.
Your still floating and/or moving. Your what I call "Bonding with your boat".
You've broken the umbilical chord to land, yet it's you and the boat floating in (hopefully)harmony, that makes the magic.

Enjoy the time you are given in the passion that drives you, and make the most of it.
Hell, I'm the kind of guy that looks forward to rainy conditions to sail in with sails up if just to wash them......

CR