Why Cruisers seem to motor a LOT form my attempts to cruise this summer :)

[tommays]

In my sailing life it has always been daysailing or racing which pretty much means no wind no boating , and depending on were you are on Long Island can that change a LOT

With the change from the J24 to the Cal 29 as we slowly shift in to cruise mode we have made four overnight trips this season to places within a reasonable distance of Northport



Trip one to Port Jefferson

Keep in mind we have done many Stratford Shoal Races of 34 miles and on a bad day its and 8 hour deal and on a really bad day you TLE at 10 hours

We sail off the mooring and into the sound and things look OK but the wind is still out of the east from Fridays storm

I now have two picks 3 knots VMG heading way to much north to CT or ZERO knots VMG south ,now its 5 PM and 23 miles into a 21 mile trip with 9 miles left to the harbor foul current and no wind on goes the motor

Sunday for the trip home there is NO WIND all day

Trip one score 23 miles of sailing 29 miles of motoring

Trip two Oyster Bay

We sail off the mooring and into the sound and things look great and stay great and we sail to the mooring field and run the motor 5 minutes to grab the mooring

Sunday again NO WIND ,we kill as much time as we can and even walk through town 3 miles to eat and we kind of sort got to sail about 1/2 way home

Trip Three Northport to Northport

Things look marginal so we bring plenty of supplies as we figure if the wind disappoints there is not much point taking a motorboat trip

Things stay bad we never leave the mooring and the only the wind was some kind of 3 AM freaky windy deal that goes flat by 9 AM

Trip three zero sail zero motor

Trip Four

We had planned four day weekend and figured the wind had to blow at some point NOT

We had a plan B as we also do a lot of hiking and it came in handy as there was no wind Thursday or Friday

Trip four did involve motoring in a car BUT we knocked off another goal which was climbing Mount Marcy




It was to bad the dam failed leaving no more Lake Marcy



I would NOT do this trip in wet weather as it was very muddy and there were way to many slippery rocks



And some nice person took a great summit shot for us

I can conclude if you want to go anyplace on LIS in August you have to be pretty lucky to not need the motor AND arrive in daylight as i think we were only able to sail about 35 miles out of about 100 when trying to go anyplace

[Barquito]

I had no idea there where so many absolutely calm days until I started sailing. Pretty typical here in the Midwest. Looked like a pretty hike.

[WDS123]

The Sea breeze on the Sound seems to come later in the day every year.


Something about development on the Island.


A boat with low wetted surface and good sail area to displacement helps to ghost along in light airs

[sww914]

We're planning a sail today, looks pretty still out there. 6' swell too, maybe we'll go to the museum instead of heading out into a potential puker.

[tommays]

Give me a steady 3+ knots and the Cal 29 can move along fine and covered the 34 miles in less than 8 hours beween 2 PM and 10 PM in 2011

If you give me < 3 and it goes in circles and cant decide on a dirrection not so much

[Maine Sail]

We just returned from 12 days of cruising Down East and did not hit the mainland for almost 9 days.

We did 296 miles and only 41 of them were under sail with no motor. Probably 120nm were motor sail and the rest motor only. Our cut off for the motor on this trip was 2.5 knots SOG and normally our tolerance level is 3 knots SOG...

12 days of NO WIND argh.............. Beautiful weather though....

[jppp]

Back when I was nuts (19) a friend I worked with suggested we sail my Hobie 18 across the sound to Smithtown. He had an uncle who lived by the beach. This uncle had 3 red headed daughters between 17 and 20 (Yes, Irish). So a little anxious, I decided May was a good time to try for it. We towed the boat down to Milton Point by American Yacht Club, rigged the boat and shoved off. It was blowing 20 knots with 4' rollers in our teeth as we headed out of the harbor. My crew made verbal their requests to try this another time. I agreed.
Second attempt was in early June. I had the smarts to launch from Norwalk this time. Funny thing was we trailed the boat down to the water, found a Yacht Club with no one at the gate, pulled into the parking lot, rigged and launched without ever asking for permission. We mostly drifted for 6 hours....in the wrong direction. I kept telling my crew that the wind always picks up after 3pm on the sound. We were off Shippan point by 3:30. The wind started to fill and by 4 we were screaming along on a close reach with both my crew in harnesses towards Nissequogue. I'd say we covered the 20 or so miles in about an hour with the tide helping at this point. We flew toward the beach with a hull in the air and 3 sirens with flowing red hair waving.................

[jrd22]

We average about 30% sailing vs. motoring (includes motor sailing) on our trips here in the PNW during summer. Between our currents and need to cover a certain distance between anchorages the engine gets used a lot. I always have the main up and sail whenever I can, but rarely do we get to sail all the way to wherever it is we are heading. It's all good though, but getting to sail is better:-)) We had good sailing coming back from the west side of Vancouver Is. earlier this summer, covered about 100 nm in two days with hardly any motoring (which was good because the transmission was going out).

[MedSailor]

Originally Posted by tommays

Give me a steady 3+ knots and the Cal 29 can move along fine and covered the 34 miles in less than 8 hours beween 2 PM and 10 PM in 2011

If you give me < 3 and it goes in circles and cant decide on a dirrection not so much

This is it right here for us. Unless the PNW currents are making us go backwards or weather/sunset necessitate the need to make SOG (which they often do) we love sailing in light airs. Only problem is that they need to be consistent for it to be fun for us. 4 sail changes per hour is not my idea of fun but is often the case in the PNW summers.

Maine_Sail, any more bottom time with your new Manuts anchor?? Mine is still begging to be christened but currently we're still trying to get our feet back under us since the arrival 2 weeks ago of our newest sailor. We're hoping to get out on the boat in a week or 2 but the logistics of the tiny one are more time-consuming than we had anticipated....

MedSailor

[Tempest]

It's not just august ... I've done the Trip from Port Jefferson to The Connecticut River, roughly 40 miles three times, three different years, usually in July.... I'll leave my mooring @ 7 am...and the sound is like glass..until afternoon. So in an 8 hour day, I might get 2 hours of sailing in at the end of the day. It is what it is. It's not the end of the world... We make coffee, have breakfast, do some fishing...stop the boat, take a swim to cool off when it gets hot, and then by afternoon when the wind picks up, get some sailing in.... get into port in time for showers and dinner.

I'd rather be on the water..in my boat, under motor or sail...than in an office...

Yesterday, I had a Great Sail from the Atlantic Highlands..I was able to raise my sails right outside the harbor and sailed home non-stop for 6 hours...rarely seeing less than 5 kt over ground. I take what the weather gods give me..and try to make the best of it. Yesterday was a Gift!