andyatos
Well-Known Member
I've done quite a lot of distance/out and return sailing in Lasers and Sunfishes but the one my protege sailing buddy Greg and I did yesterday was particularly fun and satisfying. Here's some details to set up the video. Refer to the Google Earth screen shot and Point Reyes photo below.
Tomales Bay is oriented northwest to southeast. The normal flow is a northwest wind blowing up the bay. But when we have fog piled up on the southwest side of Point Reyes, this cold, dense air pours over the ridge then down on to the water on the southwest shore of Tomales Bay.
This can produce localized southwest winds on the far side of the bay, while the rest of the bay will have northwest winds. This phenomenon was pointed out to me by Dennis "The Menace", a Laser sailor I've been sailing with.
So, on Sunday morning while I was rigging to sail and watching the fog pour down the flanks of Point Reyes, I thought to myself, "Well... why couldn't you just ride that southwest flow all the way down the Bay?" Turns out you could.
The first step is to sail on starboard tack in northwest winds to the far southwest shore. Then, when you get severely headed as you encounter the southwest winds, you don't tack over on to port. You keep on going. Then, once you are well inside this band of southwest flow, you tack on to port and head northwest down the bay.
Using this strategy, we were able to do one, sustained, 4+ miles long port tack using this localized southwest flow... sailing in broad reach to close reach conditions the whole way. Then, less than a mile from our Hog Island turn point, we encountered some different winds for a short while before sailing back into the southwest flow... some of which got quite strong with gusts over 20 mph.
For the return trip, we sailed to the far northeast side of the bay, back into the northwest winds, and did a mellow downwind run for 5 miles back to where we launched. The result was a 10 mile out and return in beautiful, surreal, partial fog conditions. Very interesting sailing indeed.
Here's the video.
Cheers,
- Andy
Tomales Bay is oriented northwest to southeast. The normal flow is a northwest wind blowing up the bay. But when we have fog piled up on the southwest side of Point Reyes, this cold, dense air pours over the ridge then down on to the water on the southwest shore of Tomales Bay.
This can produce localized southwest winds on the far side of the bay, while the rest of the bay will have northwest winds. This phenomenon was pointed out to me by Dennis "The Menace", a Laser sailor I've been sailing with.
So, on Sunday morning while I was rigging to sail and watching the fog pour down the flanks of Point Reyes, I thought to myself, "Well... why couldn't you just ride that southwest flow all the way down the Bay?" Turns out you could.
The first step is to sail on starboard tack in northwest winds to the far southwest shore. Then, when you get severely headed as you encounter the southwest winds, you don't tack over on to port. You keep on going. Then, once you are well inside this band of southwest flow, you tack on to port and head northwest down the bay.
Using this strategy, we were able to do one, sustained, 4+ miles long port tack using this localized southwest flow... sailing in broad reach to close reach conditions the whole way. Then, less than a mile from our Hog Island turn point, we encountered some different winds for a short while before sailing back into the southwest flow... some of which got quite strong with gusts over 20 mph.
For the return trip, we sailed to the far northeast side of the bay, back into the northwest winds, and did a mellow downwind run for 5 miles back to where we launched. The result was a 10 mile out and return in beautiful, surreal, partial fog conditions. Very interesting sailing indeed.
Here's the video.
Cheers,
- Andy
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