Friday, August 23, 2013

Close Reach

We are getting pretty good at interpreting weather predictions.  We use about a half dozen weather sources as well as current and tide predictors. Our trip from Nantucket, MA to Newport, RI was planned accordingly.  We left Nantucket around 11:30 so that we would not face the current from an incoming tide and suspected  that the first portion of our trip would be motor sailing at best, but hopefully as we rounded Cuttyhunk Island we would be able to sail a close reach.  For the non sailors in the group that means that we would be sailing almost directly into the wind.  This is exactly what happened, our interpretation of the various reports was correct. We had a great sail, arriving in Newport harbor at 6:30.  The chart below shows the second half of our trip, it is from the new app that we downloaded onto my tablet.  We were heeled over a lot more than it looks like the photos below.

3 comments:

  1. Cool. It's nice to see cruisers sailing to weather. :)

    Why does heeling never look as severe in photos? I can't tell if it's psychological (i.e., it feels like you're heeling more than you are) or if it's some camera trick.

    I've gotten some good shots lately with my GoPro on a fixed mount, so that the horizon tilts instead of the mast. Not sure if it gets it across any better or not:

    http://sailingfortuitous.com/sites/default/files/2013_08_04_railBuried1.jpg

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice pictures, waves never seem to look as big in photos either!

      Delete