Weather Windows

Deltaville, VA

No LL

I've been asked what weather we look for to call it a weather window. OK, fair question.

To suit us, a weather window is best described as what it's not:

• Not headwinds, especially not headwinds more than 20 knots. Sailing directly into a headwind of 20 knots, the best we can do on Tarwathie is to average 2 knots made good. That's too slow. It's also very uncomfortable.
  
  
• Not windless. For our purposes following winds less than 10 knots or head winds less than 7 knots make our sails ineffective. Without the stabilizing effect of the wind on the sails, the boat rocks mercilessly in the waves. The rocking also makes the sails flog back and forth as the masthead waves around. That forces us to take the sails down entirely. Motoring in such conditions is very uncomfortable.
  
  Exception: if the waves are only two feet or less, then motoring is no problem. We've done that for 24 hour sails Cape May to New York for example. We may need to do exactly that next week.
  
  
• Not a gale or a storm.
  
  Actually, if the winds are offshore (such as West winds on the East coast) and one is less than 10 miles offshore, the waves don't get that big. In those conditions, we are perfectly comfortable sailing in a gale. We did that 18 months ago when we sailed from Fort Meyers Beach to Marathon in 30-35 knots of wind. It was fun.
  
  Come to think of it, we also crossed the Gulf of Mexico in a gale, and it was fine. So, it is not all gales we avoid. Let me then narrow the focus. I hope to never get stuck out at sea in one of those Noreaster gales/storms that are common on the US East Coast.

• After a big gale or a storm whips up the big waves, it takes 24-48 hours to settle back down. Thus the day after a storm is also a no-no.

Therefore, we define a window as a time period long enough to get us where we're going and that is not any of the above 3

no-nos. For Norfolk to New York, that means 48 hours.

If a storm or a gale is approaching I add another 24 hour safety margin. In other words we would depart Norfolk for New York if we had a 48 hour window plus no storms expected for 72 hours. I've read too many accounts of sailing disasters caused when bad weather arrived earlier than expected.

Of course we usually have backup plans for places where we can duck in and cut a passage short if needed. That's the main difference between coastal sailing and ocean crossing blue water sailing.

One more thing, between Florida and The Bahamas, most cruisers avoid the Gulf Stream whenever there is wind with an N in it. That might be a bit overdone if the wind is only 12-15 knots, but north winds of 20+ and the Gulf Stream don't mix.

By the way, passageweather.com is my favorite place on the web to scout for weather windows. It gives everything, wind, waves, Gulf Stream, all up to 1 week in advance.