What's your wind report?

[Scott T-Bird]

Sadly, this has been a very disappointing season. We are approaching late August and we have not had a single day or even a portion of a day on Lake Hopatcong with any decent wind for sailing this year. I hate to be looking forward to October, but if October brings wind .... :neutral:. I know that I have missed a few for various reasons, but still ...

A normal season is not nearly as disappointing for wind. I spend time around the Hudson from the GW bridge south during work and have noticed frequent days with good winds, but I get home from work and the flags are limp.

What's been your experience this year?

 

[Ed Schenck]

Interesting. Our sailing club never schedules races in July due to lack of wind. But this year it has been breezy here in Ohio. More than once I have had to cancel plans to sail the Highlander because of too much wind. Yesterday on Lake Erie working on the big boat I was missing one of those great offshore winds. I ride my bike a couple times a week. Many of those rides I have had to fight a tough headwind. Nope, around here this has been an unusually windy summer I think.

 

[DanM]

Scott,

What a bummer! We've had a very odd season (or two) in Galveston Bay with a lot more wind than usual. Normally the summers are hot, humid, drifter kind of days but for the last 18 months or so we've had a pretty consistant 15kts or better. I've spent many nights at anchor where the water is glassy calm on the bay and now I can't even remember a day like that. I've sort of got used to the boat sailing a bit on the anchor in 10 or 15 kts all night long now! Heck, you even mentioned the limp flags and I noticed last week that my US flag is starting to fray from all the flogging. I've never had that problem before, and I only have my flag up when I'm sailing.

Hopefully your lack of wind is short lived and you'll get some good sailing in before it starts to get too cold for you.

Take care, DanM.

 

[gpd955]

Scott,

Been out a lot. Took advantage of the first full season of having a boat that actually works. I have to agree with you though, wind has not been cooperative. We've had a few good wind days (I say wind days because for me, any day away from the dock is a good day!) but for most of them, I spend a lot of time practicing sail trim! Being on the ocean, we usually can find something!

I have found that, in compliance with Murphy's Law, we get a wonderfully lively easterly breeze the moment I enter the fairway! Which my dockmates think is hysterical.

The really good wind days this season have been accompanied by these horrific storms, one of which we are having right now!

We shall see what the weekend brings!

 

[Forrest15112]

Wind here, on the lake north of New Orleans, has been OK for the times I have been able to go. It seems like the normal cycle around here. We get almost regular afternoon thunderstorms. I am on the north shore of L. Pontchartrain and last weekend the winds ( before the afternoon t-storm rolled in) were out of the north. That means very little to no chop relatively close to shore. I began making plans to go out when my wife came back but the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in and my favorable winds turned around and a look out on the lake had large white caps as far as I could see. It would blow over in an hour, but was not to be. It's so damned hot right now, the only time to go is late afternoon when the thunderstorms typically roll in. I can sail year round here and look forward to cooler days with prevailing winds from the north and predictable weather. There will be days in the middle of winter where the temps reach the 60's to even 70 degrees. It gets cold here but the water stays liquid and the cold is temporary and warms up usually between fronts. Our winter is probably comparable to your fall weather, maybe not even that cold. I haven't been out of the marina in nearly a month. Looking forward to this weekend if weather permits.

 

[Tim R.]

Coastal Maine is usually always good. The land warming up during the morning and pulling in the cooler air from the sea almost guarantees a southerly that comes up around 1pm. Most days you can set your watch by it.

Raced in 10-12 last night.

 

[Ross]

Been ungodly hot here for most of the summer with light and varible winds most of the time.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

It has been a juicy August, though ... the lake is filled to the brim and the ground is saturated, so we probably won't have to worry about low water at the take-out dock before the deep freeze begins.

 

[FourPoints]

here on LIS it has been pretty poor wind conditions most of the season. I have actually not been able to take my boat out and actually sail it (aka no motor running) since July 2nd, in fact I have not even had the brand new 135 Genoa out of the sail bag in over a month, and that includes a weekend trip to NYC and another one Port Jeff.

We have had wind here from time to time, but it has never been when we were underway.

I rigged the spinnaker Sunday coming back from Port Jeff, just in time for the wind to go from ~12kts to 4kts, where it remained until we were within 4nm of home, we just motored the last bit as it was DDW with large trailing seas, and I didn't want to use the main, or re-rig the spinnaker...

 

[jdratlif]

Ed,
I am not sure what wind you were seeing? I sail out of Breast Bay on Lake Erie and I thought July was very disappointing. Every weekend we planned on going to the boat the weather was in the mid 90's with less than 10 kt winds all weekend. and on top of that, whenever there was wind it was out of the East. This month has been nice though, the cooler weather has brought stronger Westerly winds. But really your July was that nice?

 

[Steve Dion]

Northern California is experiencing one of the coolest summers on record. I do not know if we have seen more than one or two days over 100 in the Sacramento Valley. We have had many days in the 80's. Winds have been on/off. Last weekend we had a rally than ended with all of the boats having to motor across the finish line to finish.

During the summer we can often see 25-40 kts of winds in our area. Who knows?

 

[dscribner]

Tim has it! The wind is at least 5 knots at about every time. Except for about 45 minutes in the afternoon when it's swapping direction. But, last week, we sailed up-Maine. At times we had 5 knots, at others 15+. One day we just hunkered down at Damariscove Island and waited for the 8.4 foot waves to abate. It's been a good season so far.

 

[Deadhead]

Very Breezy I Think

I agree with Ross that it has been exceptionally hot on the Chesapeake this summer; however, I have found excellent wind conditions just about continuously. Actually, I was discussing the conditions with a guy at Georgetown late last month. We both thought the winds had been unusually good all summer.

Mid-May to late June we sailed most weekends in steady 10 - 15 kts. In fact, the Friday after Memorial Day we screamed from the Sassafras River to the Magothy River in a little under 5 hours on a beam reach. That is about 38 nm from red #2 on the Sassafras to Eagle Cove.

July was good too. We spent a couple of weekends sailing to Still Pond on a Saturday, anchoring overnight and sailing back Sunday. I remember 1 night on the hook with steady WNW winds of 10 -12 kts.

We have spent the past 2 weeks cruising the middle and lower Bay. Again, the sailing has been excellent. 2 Saturday's ago we tacked back and forth down to the Magothy River in 15 kts. Last Saturday we raced from the Rappahannock River up to the Mill Creek topping 8 knots on a broad reach with a following sea. A couple of days ago we sailed close hauled in 18 - 20 kts. up the Bay from Solomon's Island.

I have loved it!

Just my 2 cents . . .

DH

 

[Dan Johnson]

Gotta agree with Deadhead...

We've had pretty good winds most of the time on the northern Chesapeake. Last week we had to cancel our Jr. Sail Program's on-the-water lessons one afternoon when the wind started topping the high teens, dumping Opti's, Sunfish, and Lasers right and left.

Recently on both weekends when out with guests on the boat I've had little or no wind at all and had to do the trawler thing. I'm feeling cursed!

 

[CaptChuck]

Ed was right ! Here in Buffalo on Lake Erie we have had a great summer. I am on the water 4 - 5 times a week and you can count on one hand the number of times the wind has not cooperated.

 

[CalebD]

Closer to Lake Hopatcong we have had enough wind to race every Wednesday night since our racing season started here at Nyack, NY, on the Hudson River.
Summer here usually has lighter winds but thunderstorms can bring some challenging conditions. We had one race this summer when an F1 tornado touched down in Springfield, MA and the sky looked pretty scary. We had some wind that night.

 

[TomY]

As mentioned, mornings in Maine usually start out light and as the sun warms things up mid morning, the southerly winds begin to build.

Still we found enough wind last weekend in the early morning. The bay was flat and an easterly wind in the 5 knot range moved us down the bay for a couple of hours before the noon time southerly kicked in.

This is leaving Gilkey Harbor early morning and heading south on the bay. I was on the bow reading a book as the AP steered.

 

[Maine Sail]

Yeah winds have been fairly light this year. Tim R. & I are leaving in a few hours for a 100+ mile sail to Mount Desert Island and this is the current forecast.. Looks like the Japanese genny will be our friend for at least some of it, probably mornings, if we want to put the miles under the keel..

TODAY
S WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 2 TO 3 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND
TSTMS THIS AFTERNOON WITH VSBY 1 TO 3 NM.

TONIGHT
SW WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 2 TO 3 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS
AND TSTMS IN THE EVENING. AREAS OF FOG. VSBY VARIABLE TO LESS THAN
ONE QUARTER NM.

SAT
S WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS AROUND 2 FT. AREAS OF FOG IN THE
MORNING. VSBY VARIABLE TO LESS THAN ONE QUARTER NM IN THE MORNING.

SAT NIGHT
SW WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS AROUND 2 FT.

 

[TomY]

Yeah winds have been fairly light this year. Tim R. & I are leaving in a few hours for a 100+ mile sail to Mount Desert Island and this is the current forecast.. Looks like the Japanese genny will be our friend for at least some of it, probably mornings, if we want to put the miles under the keel..

TODAY
S WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 2 TO 3 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND
TSTMS THIS AFTERNOON WITH VSBY 1 TO 3 NM.

TONIGHT
SW WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 2 TO 3 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS
AND TSTMS IN THE EVENING. AREAS OF FOG. VSBY VARIABLE TO LESS THAN
ONE QUARTER NM.

SAT
S WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS AROUND 2 FT. AREAS OF FOG IN THE
MORNING. VSBY VARIABLE TO LESS THAN ONE QUARTER NM IN THE MORNING.

SAT NIGHT
SW WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS AROUND 2 FT.

That's about perfect for a spinnaker reach on our boat Maine. Especially if it's south, might give a good angle for the chute. Southwest, about the only thing that might work would be a spinnaker and a pole. Our boat is pretty happy DDW with the spinnaker pole squared and the main prevented. Once it gets above 10, I get leery short handed with it.

Do you have a whisker pole? Might be worth a try. Your boat would move nicely in the that range I would think, not far off what the motor would do without the noise.

Of course you guys are going with family. I know the drill. You sail to make everybody happy, or nobody is happy.

 

[WayneH]

This spring I was learning all about my new-to-me boat and my crew was not interested in sailing in the Gulf of Mexico to learn how she handles. Something about winds 15-20 knots and seas 6-8 feet put them off.