Navigating to Windward

Sailing is fun! Raise the sails and off you go, but in which direction?

You probably have a destination in mind and will want to go in that general direction. When this destination is downwind from your current position, it doesn't take as much planning to get the boat going in the proper direction. When the destination is upwind from your current position, the proper course may seem a bit of a mystery to onlooking power boats.

Sailboats can move in any direction for a long time, except dead upwind. To move a yacht towards an upwind destination, you must set a course for a few degrees to the left or to the right of dead upwind. This course is known as a tack, and the act of changing from left to right of the wind is tacking.

To move to windward, you will end up sailing to the left or to the right of the wind. This will present to you the characteristic image that power boaters think of when they think of sailboats: "I want to go dead ahead, so I'm going to sail to the left of it, and then to the right of it!" With time (lots of time) you will make your way towards your windward destination.

An important thing to remember when working to windward is that longer tacks are preferred over shorter tacks. Every time you tack, you will loose some distance as the boat slows and gets in its groove again. If you loose a few feet of forward distance, then minimizing the number of these episodes will be very advantageous! If there is not enough water to carry out a long tack, then you will have no choice but to complete various short tacks. If the body of water you are sailing in is wide enough, the longer the tack the better.

A very important point to remember when sailing towards a windward destination is that it is best to overshoot the target and fall back to it instead of choosing your tack so you will come directly to your target. If there is any disturbance in your journey, you will slip to leeward. If you are aiming directly for your target, you will now need to carry out two additional tacks to arrive at your destination. If you aim for a more windward target, you will have leeway to allow for leeward slip which will mean that any disturbance will allow you to still reach your target without any additional tacks. As you overshoot your target, you can then begin to fall off and come into your destination with much more comfort and predictability.

While the ideal is to tack up and arrive directly upon your destination, the reality is that the winds will change, current could pick up, or debris could cause you to alter course (crab pots in the Chesapeake are a common offender). If you are picking your course so that you are close hauled and can't sail anymore upwind, then you have no leeway if you encounter a disturbance. You will undershoot your target destination. The alternative is to select an upwind target, to which you sail close hauled while keeping the final destination a bit to leeward of the target. This will allow you wiggle room if you encounter a disturbance and slip to leeward. As you approach your destination, you can alter course for the destination and sail on more of a beam reach. This will afford you the flexibility to turn more to windward if the situation calls for it.

The variability in the wind can be seen in these charts where we were sailing to windward. You can see how we do not follow a perfect straight line because the wind would shift or change in intensity and direction, as well as the influence of the ebbing and flooding tides. This is why it is a good idea to (windward) overshoot your destination and afford yourself the leeway. If you cut it too close, you might have to add some extra tacks to make it to your destination which will make your journey take even longer.

Shortsplice vs Longsplice

When you need to permanently connect two ropes and have the time and skill to splice them together, you are faced with two options: Short Splice or Long Splice. What are they and what are the differences?

Short Splice

The most obvious difference in the splices is the length of the splice. A short splice is betwen 6 to 8 inches long, where a long splice is around 3 to 4 feet long.

The short splice is certainly easier to perform than a long splice, the ends of the three strand line are simply braided into each other and the ends of the line are joined. This works well for docklines or painters, but not so well for sheets or halyards. The act of short splicing will add some bulk to the line at the junction. This bulk can be greatly reduced by tapering the ends, but there will still be a larger bulky segment that may jam on winches. 

The long splice is the answer to the pitfalls of the short splice! It will join the two cut ends of the line with no added bulk or stiff segments. The long splice is completed by unlaying and relaying the strands of the line to permanently and firmly reconnect the two ends. A properly done long splice will not be easy to spot as there is no added bulk in the line. The only clue to its existence would be the tufts of where the strands are knotted.

Sounds like the long splice is the magic bullet for joining two lines! Why would anyone ever do a short splice?

Long splices are a pain to do! I fouled a sheet in my prop one time and had to cut the sheet free. After returning from the water, I had to reconnect the sheet so we could keep sailing. I only did a long splice out of necessity, otherwise I try to do short splices whenever possible.

To do a long splice, you need to relax, sit back, and prepare yourself mentally for the ordeal. Tie constrictor knots about 3 feet back from the end of each line to prevent the whole thing from unraveling. 

Then you will carefully unlay one of the strands while replacing it with a strand from the other line. The first strand will go from "Line A" into "Line B" the whole length. At the end, you will tie a square knot in the two strands and bury the tails into the lays.

The second strand will go from "Line A" into "Line B", but only 2/3rds the length and then bury those tails. 

Lastly, take the third strand from "line B" into "Line A", bury it the whole length and tie the ends burying those tails.

Now you have a completed long splice with the junctions well separated from each other to distribute the stresses of the splice terminations over a long expanse of the line, keeping all the strength of the original line! What could be so hard about it?

While you are unlaying and relaying the strands, they can not loose their twist. If they come unraveled, the splice will not look right and might not work all together. If it unravels, you have to cut the unraveled part off and start over moving further back into the line you are splicing. 

After you are done, put a load on the line to get the lays to settle in, this will greatly improve the look of the finished splice. 

I have only done this splice once, and it was on my sheet after I foulded the prop. The line was well salted and stiff, which helped to avoid unraveling (but it still tried to unravel). If the rope is new and soft, it will unlay and unravel in a hurry! To combat this, either brine the rope or coat it in more hairspray than a highschool girl getting ready for prom. This will stiffen up the line and help avoid any accidental unravels. 

If you have to splice the two ends together, your first choice is a short splice. If you have to run this line through any leads or hardware, then you have to use a long splice.

The much easier alternative is to replace the whole sheet, but if you are in a situation where a replacement is not available or you can't afford a replacement, a long splice will come to the rescue and restore utility of your damaged line.

Comfortable Shower

Boat showers are much less glamorous than those on land. They don't have fancy tiled walls, or pretty shower heads; they typically look like a cheap shower head on a hose stuck in a corner of the boat. 

On Wisdom, this is no exception. I changed the disgusting looking plastic stick of a shower head with a more acceptable looking one, but there is no shower curtain or divider. The shower is crammed between the mast and the composting toilet. Maddie was a good sport about this fact when she first moved in, accepting the truth that a large shower is a waste of space in a small boat.

The part of the shower she did not accept was the fluctuating water temperature. The water would fluctuate between scalding hot and freezing cold every few seconds. When she questioned me about this horrid situation, I demonstrated the "shower dance". 

The "shower dance" involves listening to the water pump and careful setting of the water temperature. I would set the temperature at a time when I heard the pump running. As soon as the pump would cycle off, I would get out of the water stream because it was going to get really hot. When I heard the pump turn on again, I would hop back into the stream and rinse the soap off. Maddie was not impressed by my dancing skills; she wanted to set the temperature and enjoy steady water temperature.

Why does the temperature fluctuate and how can this be fixed? The temperature fluctuation is due to resistance in the water system. The hot and cold water systems run through separate piping with different resistances. The cold water runs from the pump to the expansion tank to the shower. The hot water runs from the pump to the water heater to the shower. They run different lengths, and have a different number of turns and twists in the hoses. This means that they run at different rates. When the pump is on, the whole system is pressurized, when the pump turns off, it becomes a race for the pressures to run out. 

In my case, the cold water stops flowing almost instantly when the pump stops pushing but the hot water keeps flowing a while longer, causing the spike in water temperature. Once the pump cycles back on, the cold water flows again and cools the mixture. This constant back and forth can be easily fixed by keeping the pump on constantly.

The choices available to fix this problem include

Perfectly balancing the water systems
Installing a manually activated water pump
Installing a switch that bypasses the pressure switch
Adjusting the pressure switch on the pump
Installing a system to trick the pump into running constantly

Balancing the water systems is not practical, it would involve equalizing the resistances in the plumbing so that they will both respond the same way. 

Installing a manually activated water pump is a very good choice. You simply flip a switch and enjoy a perfect shower with consistent temperature control. This does involve the purchase of a new pump that does not have a pressure switch.

If you already have an automatic water pump, you can adjust the water pressure sensor on it to make it run continuously when the shower is on. There is usually a screw on the sensor switch that allows adjustment. Once the switch is calibrated to keep the pump on instead of cycling on and off, the shower temperature will be perfect!

If your automatic water pump is not adjustable (the way mine is), you can connect a bypass switch on the pump. This switch will bypass the pressure sensor and keep the pump on continuously. The switch can be mounted in the shower, allowing you to easily turn on the pump at the start and off when you are done with your shower.

If you don't want to add more points for corrosion to start on, there is a non electronic method to trick the pump into staying on. A bypass circuit will trick the pump into running continuously. The bypass circuit is a hose teed into the inlet and outlet of the waterpump. A gate valve in the hose will allow for a controlled opening of the circuit. When the bypass is opened, pressurized water from the outlet will be dumped back into the inlet side of the pump; this will make the pump think it needs to keep pumping and that will keep the water temperature consistent in the shower.

By opening the valve, the "out" flows back into the "in". This causes the pressure to drop in the system and the pump will stay on while trying to maintain water pressure. This makes the pump stay on to maintain and even temperature.

To trick the pump, simply open the valve a little at a time. Once the pump runs continuously, you are ready to shower. If you have insufficient pressure, try closing the valve a smidge. The circuit will let the pressurized water escape into the pump inlet which will cause the pump to detect a drop in pressure and stay on as it tries to pressurize the system. 

When you are done with your shower, simply close the valve and the pump will work as normal again. It is not as convenient as the switch, but it involved zero wiring and was very easy to install and operate. Maddie was able to get the hang of adjusting the valve and now enjoys her comfortable showers, no dancing involved!

Closer to Nature

Living on a sailboat, you find yourself much more aware of your natural surroundings. When I lived in my apartment, I only noticed that it was raining when the drops would hit the windows loudly. I was really unaware of what was going on in the world around me.

In the sailboat, I am very aware of any changes in the weather. When the winds blow from a different direction, the docklines will creak as they change the direction of their loads. The wavelets will slap the hull from a different side, making a slight lapping sound. The slightest of changes are made blatantly clear when you are living in a boat. 

These changes can be easily ignored if you so desire, but they are much more apparent then when you sit in a brick apartment.

My favorite part is seeing the wildlife that is so close to the boat. We have different birds and jellies that come by, displaying themselves in the wild.

When on the hook, these features in the natural world are even more impacting. There is nothing more amazing then waking up at anchor in a secluded creek with no other boats around!

Back story

I didn't grow up planning to live on a boat, nor did I ever dream of owning a sailboat. I grew up on a Caribbean Island called Puerto Rico where the water was a part of daily life. My whole family loves power boats, I'm the odd one out.

When I was very young, my family had a 13 foot Dell Quay Dory (looks very similar to a 13 foot Boston Whaler) and we would go out on it every weekend. We would tie up to a reef islands and explore the mangrove or snorkel in the corals.

Then when I was a young teenager, we upgraded to a 23 foot Four Winns. This was a huge upgrade since now we had a cabin and could sleep anchored out instead of returning to shore before sunset. This is when I decided that I wanted a boat when I was older so that I could sleep out as much as possible. 

When I was 13 years old, I learned to windsurf rather quickly. The concepts of how to harness the wind to move me came naturally and I was covering great distances in no time! While I was never formally taught the finer points of sailing at this time, basic concepts just made sense to me. I knew I could hit my fastest speed on a beam reach, running was slow, and you could never go directly into the wind. I would play with the dagger board and explore new reefs that I had never visited with my family before! This opened a whole new world to me and I loved the wonders that could be discovered at the next reef over. Some reefs had higher sea urchin populations, others had more starfish or conch shells. Every reef was a new adventure waiting to be discovered and observed. 

When I got a bit older, my parents got me a kayak and the windsurfing came to an end. I would paddle around the reefs and explore, just as I did with the windsurfer, but the shallower draft allowed me to get further into the reefs without fear of grounding. Once again, I was enthralled with the new places that I could go; albeit at a much slower pace.

Being very pale, my skin would burn in a matter of minutes under the strong tropical sun. I would wear a long sleeve rash guard to protect my arms, along with gloves and a hat; but my legs would always burn up! I decided to cover my legs with a bed sheet which led to my rebirth of sailing. 

 

In the mornings, I was in charge of taking our dog to land for her to do her business. Instead of going to the land of the reef we were on (top map), I would paddle out to the reefs on the horizon (bottom map).

 

In the early hours there was no wind and the swell was very minimal. By the time we made it to the reefs and she was finished running around, the sea breeze had picked up and we would return to the boat. 

I found that the sheet I carried for my legs could be tied to my paddle and raised in the shape of a square rigger! I would sail back to the boat from the horizon in the morning and enjoyed every moment of it. I experimented with different ways of tying the sheet to the paddle to sail on various points of sail. Being how the kayak had no keel, I was never able to do more than a beam reach. I pretty much paddled upwind and sailed back to the boat.

In the past, my sister would run the jet ski next to me while I sailed to estimate my speed. My top speed on the windsurfer was 45mph, and only 18mph on the kayak. While it was considerably slower than windsurfing, it was still much faster than paddling back!

As I grew up, I still looked forward to my weekends on the water! We would visit the same few reefs but what we would find there was always different. I had planned to live in Puerto Rico when I was older, somewhere out in the country where I could still go out on the water every weekend; but then the political situation on the island changed and we left.

We moved to Maryland when I was in college and stopped going out on the water. Once I went to dental school in Baltimore, MD, I began making choices about how I wanted to live once I graduated.

I knew I wanted a boat that I could sleep on so I could once again experience the waves rocking me to sleep. Many of my classmates were buying houses and I began to look at where I could live after I graduated. This ended very abruptly when I saw the price tags on these houses! If I bought one of these homes, I wouldn't even be able to afford a dinghy! 

I was experiencing a dilemma. I wanted to have a boat, but couldn't figure out how to afford one while paying for a house. The solution was simple: No house! At first I thought this was ludicrous. I didn't think that people lived on boats! I looked around the internet and came to find that living aboard was actually a thing! This opened up a whole world of opportunity.

I gave it some thought and decided that I didn't want a power boat because I couldn't relax while thinking about the fuel costs to operate a motor yacht. The choice was simple, I would live in a sailboat!

Then it struck me that I had no idea how to sail a sailboat! When you steer a windsurfer, you tip the mast fore and aft. To steer the kayak, I would put my foot in the water to create drag on the side I wanted to turn towards. Sailboats looked awfully complicated with all the ropes running everywhere! This is when I began my studies into the art of sailing.

Any free time I had between studying for dental school was spent reading about sailing and combing yachtworld for a potential cruising home. I read forums and stories, watched videos on YouTube and absorbed as much information as I could get my hands on. This went on for 4 years while never actually touching the water. 

Once I graduated, I took an "introductory" weekend class on sailing to finally put all the theory I had collected to use. Luckily it all came together for me and I was completely hooked! That weekend I sailed a 23 foot Sonar around the Baltimore Inner Harbor for 2 days. My third time sailing was when I brought my 45 foot Morgan back to Baltimore (luckily that also worked out well).

I bought Wisdom with the plans to take her across the oceans, she just needed some work first! She had a noisy diesel engine that I hated and was in need of a major refit. The sum of these situations is what has led me to become the sailor I am now. I'm always looking for a better way to do things and wondering why things are done the way they are. 

Since I did not grow up sailing, everything on a sailboat is new to me and I question the purpose and function of it all. This leads me to develop a deeper understanding for how and why things are done on a sailboat. Curiosity and the desire to learn have driven me to become the person I am today and will continue to shape me into who I will be in the future.