Motorsailing

Sailing and motoring are often viewed as two different and mutually exclusive aspects of boating. The truth is, sometimes, they can work together beautifully! 

The idea behind sailing is that the wind will rush through your sails at an appropriate angle, allowing your sails to generate lift and pull your yacht through the water. The idea behind motoring is that the rotational energy from the motor will be transmitted to a propeller used to push your yacht through the water. 

On days with plenty of wind, sailing can exist as the sole method of powering your vessel. On days with no wind, there is no way for the sails to power you and the trusty motor will provide mechanical propulsion to keep you moving. But what about days where the wind is a little light?  

If there doesn't seem to be enough wind to power your yacht, you could always supplement your speed with a bit of throttle from the motor. The idea is simple, as your motor pushes your yacht through the water, it will also push you through the air and create apparent wind over your vessel. This apparent wind can then be used to power your sails and provide a nice balance of power, between sails and motor, working synergistically to motorsail you along at a comfortable speed. 

While motorsailing might sound like the solution to low wind days, there are a few important factors that need to be present for it to work well: 

There needs to be some wind present. 

The true wind can't be coming from directly ahead or directly behind you. 

If there is no wind at all, meaning you are completely becalmed, then motorsailing will be futile. As you move in any direction, the apparent wind will always be coming from directly ahead and the sails will luff just like if you were caught in irons. Having the sails up might make you feel like you are motorsailing, but the energy wasted on making the sails flap and slat is going to be robbed from your potential forward speed. 

The true wind needs to be coming from any direction other than directly ahead or directly behind you. If the wind is from directly ahead, motor sailing will only increase the amount of apparent wind coming directly at the vessel and you will actually suffer in speed because of air drag. If the wind is directly behind you, as you move forward, the apparent wind will become even less. 

Having the wind off to an angle, just like if you were sailing, is the trick. The apparent wind will always move forward as you motor sail, making it appear that you are on a close reach, no matter where the wind is coming from. As you begin to move forward, simply trim your sails to the apparent wind and you will see your speed go up a little bit as the sails begin to help provide a bit of forward power as well. 

We were once becalmed in a naval firing range testing area (while not in use, obviously) and had no chance of getting out of there. It was getting late and we wanted to anchor somewhere for the night, but anchoring was prohibited there as well! We motored along at 2 knots for a while until a slight zephyr came over us. We raised the mainsail and staysail and found that our speed increased to 3.5 knots! I then cut the power from our electric motor and our speed dropped down to 0.3 knots.  

As you can see, the sails alone provided almost no speed in the light breeze, but with the apparent wind from the motor, we were able to scoot along at an appreciable speed for having no worthy wind around us. 

One last scenario where motorsailing can pay huge dividends is when pinching. If you are sailing along and there isn't really enough breeze to make the keel as effective as it could be, a touch of throttle will mend all these ailments.  

As you sail, the wind is actually pushing your yacht to leeward but the keel offers some resistance to this motion. As you move forward through the water, the water passing over the keel provides lift, just like the sails do, and pulls your yacht to windward. This cancels out the leeward slip and allows your yacht to move to windward. 

This system only works if you have enough speed of water passing over your keel. As you move slower, the keel is less effective as a hydrofoil and you begin to slip to leeward. If you are trying to pinch, then you will begin to loose speed and will slip to leeward. Obviously, if you are pinching, it is because there is something to leeward that you are trying to avoid and slipping further to leeward would be deleterious to your navigational plan. Eventually, you will be forced to tack and sail away from this obstacle, only to tack back and clear the obstruction. All of this takes time, and if you are trying to get someplace as quickly as possible, this could be viewed as time wasted.

The alternative in this situation would be to motorsail just a bit as you pinch. The propeller will give you the speed you need to maintain the functionality of the keel as a hydrofoil while the sails pinch with the close apparent wind. Once you round your mark, you can then turn off the motor and fall to leeward as you resume sailing on a normal and relaxed pace. 

We have used this trick multiple times, when tacking would cost us around an hour of additional sailing time. This has saved us hours in our arrival and meant the difference between reaching our anchorage with sunlight versus having to anchor in unprotected waters for a night because we didn't make it in time. 

To Cover or Not To Cover Your Sails

When you anchor for a storm, you might be focused on such things as bottom conditions and the amount of scope to let out. While anchoring techniques are very important for safely riding out a storm, another part of storm preparedness is how you ready the rest of your yacht.

The anchor will be forced to hold your yacht against the water pressure from waves and tides, as well as the wind pressure from the air on your yacht.

Bulky items on deck, as well as dodgers and rigging will all add wind resistance to the equation and put more strain on the anchor as it struggles to hold you to the bottom. Reducing the strain on the anchor is wise, as it gives all your gear an easier time during the blow. Roller furling headsails are bulky and offer a great deal of windage, especially up high! Hank on headsails offer the distinct advantage that when the sail is lowered to the deck, the stay is bare and offers minimal resistance to the wind. But what about the sail that is now on the deck?

Should you bag your sails or simply lash them to the deck before a storm approaches?

Bagged sails offer the advantage that they are inside a smooth covering. This will reduce turbulence as the air passes over the sail and will in turn create less drag. If the sail is simply lashed to the deck, the luff of the sail will be flacked at the stay and will offer a lot of resistance to the wind.

Looking at the situation from this standpoint only, it would make sense that bagging the sails would be ideal before a storm, as it would make everything on your yacht more streamline and thus less drag.

The problem with bagging your sails is that if you begin to drag anchor and need to sail away to safety, your sails are all bagged up! You now need to take additional time to uncover the sails and get everything setup so that you can sail away to safety! In moments where you are dragging anchor onto a lee shore, every second counts and having the sails bagged up might result in you being careened on the lee shore!

If you simply lashed your sails down, all you would need to do in this scenario would be to untie the and begin working your way to safety!

Based on these assumptions, and the fact that we don't have a diesel motor to power us to safety, we choose to lash the sails down to the deck when anchoring for a storm. The sails are kept with halyards and sheets attached, but lashed to the toenail with sail ties. Should we need to start sailing for any reason, all we need to do is untie the sails and raise them up to begin clawing our way off the lee shore.

Storms are never comfortable events to endure, but careful preparation can make your memories of the storms much less eventful.

Awaiting for Weather to Improve

We are anchored in the harbor of Tangier Island, where we have good protection from the seas to the West and North of us. This works well for us, as a cold front is forecasted to be coming in and blowing from the North-West! Tangier Island is flat and low, so it will not offer any protection from the wind, which means that the seas in the harbor can get rather choppy.

We explored the town and rowed back to the boat the day we got here, arriving back to the boat in a surreal world of absolute stillness. It was hard to imagine that such a world would turn into a chaotic whirlpool in just a few hours!

Around 3am, the winds began to build, and I let out a bit more chain to give our anchor extra help in holding us still in the water. I also tied on the snubber to reduce the noise transmitted through the chain as well as to reduce the shock loads when we ride up a wave crest. After everything was well set, I went back to sleep, knowing that the conditions were only going to deteriorate as the night progressed.

When the morning arrived, the winds were blowing a steady 20 to 25 knots with gusts to 30 knots. The seas in the harbor are 3 feet, and we are really lurching around! We had plans to go to shore today with our bicycles and ride around the island, but all that had to be put on hold.

The seas are rough and the wind is intense! We knew that attempting to row the quarter of a mile to shore in these conditions would be ludicrous, especially with two bicycles thrown in the dinghy!

Instead, we slept, read, and ate as we waited for the winds to calm down. Listening to the forecast provided sour news. The high winds were slated to last the entire day and into the next morning. With this news, we knew that we had no choice but to hunker down and wait it out.

It is actually hard to find things to do when you know you are stuck in one place. You feel like everything you try to do is simply being done to waste time and make tomorrow come faster! The good side to this situation is we know we aren't going anywhere, so we can spend time making all sorts of delicious foods to eat to pass the time!

The rocking of the boat can make such activities harder to do, as your whole world is being tossed around you as you wait out your time. The important thing to remember is that it is temporary and as soon as the winds die down, we will be able to resume our usual exploring and adventures!

Tangier Island

When we arrived at Tangier, we first went to the sand bar that extends off the southern tip of the island. The beach was covered with little sand pipers dancing with the surf as they searched for food to eat at the waters edge. We walked out to the point in search of a large flock of pelicans that is known to roost there, but as we were approaching, they all took flight and sat in the water just beyond the point.

Disappointed, we decided to head into the town and check out the locals!

Instead of walking from the sand bar, we decided to row through the marsh and head into the town. This was a mistake! The island is sinking into the marsh as the sea levels are rising. At present time, the streets supposedly go under at nigh tide and several parts of the island have been abandoned as the island has gone underwater!

We were, naturally, rowing in from the sinking side, and we were confused by all the abandoned looking buildings! Navigating a maze of marsh canals was tricky as there is no cell phone signal on the island, she we were unable to pull up an aerial photo of the place to plot a route. Instead, we had to choose which canal to row through and hope that it led to town and not to a dead end!

Me made landfall a few times, thinking we could simply walk through some grass and into the town until we hopped out of the dinghy and realized how much marsh existed between us and the town! So, back into the dinghy we went to prod deeper into the marsh maze. We eventually came across a bridge and saw golf carts traversing it! We made it to a road that would lead us into town!

We tied the dinghy to a sign post by the bridge and climbed up into the street! Some of the locals we came across were friendly and would wave or say hello, others would simply ignore you and speed on by.

We followed the road for a while as we made our way through neighborhoods and into the heart of town. The town was quite interesting, there were gift shops, ice cream shops, and a general store, along with a slew of cats and locals that had come out into the streets. The island has a ferry that comes and goes once a day, so during those hours the town is full of tourists. We had arrived much after the last boat had left, so we got to see the locals that had come out after the tourists had left.

As the sun began to get low on the horizon and the insects began to bite, we decided to head back to the dinghy and row our way out of the maze before nightfall. Leaving the island, the sunset was gorgeous! The air was completely becalmed and the water was like glass.

The colorful sky continued onto the water with only a faint silhouette from the low island. As we left the marsh, the sky went dark and the world around us became hazy! It was a good think I left the anchor light on when we left because the tiny star of our masthead light shined above the haze that surrounded us. It felt like we were transported to another world, where the stars and moon shined brightly on the waters surface, only disturbed by the lapping of the oars as we quietly approached our floating home.

Arriving in Tangier Island by Sail

After waiting for the two hurricanes (Hurricane Jose and Hurricane Maria) to pass by while anchored out in Reedville, VA, the time had finally come to sail to Tangier Island! Our planned route was only 16 miles long, but the weather was still of a concern to us. Hurricane Maria was still in relative proximity to us on this early morning, and we would be swept along with powerful winds from the North, followed by a wind shift with winds coming from the West. This wind shift was to occur as the hurricane moved further North of us, and the circulating winds would change direction from our perspective.

As the hurricane is East of us, we would feel winds from the North. As she moved more North of us, the winds we would feel would come from the West.

This wind pattern would be perfect for us, as we first needed to travel South to exit Reedville, and then East to get to Tangier Island.

As we left, the winds were rather powerful and we were glad to have reefed sails set. According to the forecast, the winds were going to shift and also get lighter as the day progressed, owing to the fact that the hurricane would be farther away from us as the day moved on.

Knowing this, I was less reefed than I would have liked to have been, granting me more speed (but a less comfortable ride) as we went along. I knew that the winds would get lighter and lighter as the day moved on, and the afternoon would be becalmed. Worse yet, early the next morning a powerful cold front was to move in, making it very uncomfortable to anchor midway if we did not make it in one day.

It is rather ridiculous to think that we would fear not making it to our anchorage that is only 16 miles away, especially when we are starting off with 20 knot winds in the right direction! Our speed at the beginning of the journey ranged between 5 and 6 knots, and we were slated to arrive in under 3 hours. The problem was that the winds were to be getting lighter each hour as the day moved on, and that would make our travel speed slower, and our elapsed time longer. When you depend on the wind, it is always a vicious cycle!

While swooshing along through heavy seas and leftover chop from the passed hurricane, the winds did begin to lessen. Instead of waiting forever like I usually do to let out the reef, I promptly let it out early to maximize our speed in the powerful, but diminishing winds.

We raised anchor at 7am in Reedville, and yet dropped anchor at 5pm in Tangier Island. A 16 mile trip took us a full 10 hours to make, owing to the constantly lessening winds. The worst part of the arrival was the tide. As we rounded the southern tip of Tangier to enter the Tangier Sound, we were confronted by a tidal current of nearly 1kn! We had light winds and were now giving up a knot of speed to the tide.

This led Maddie to ask "are we even moving? It feels like we have been looking at the town of Tangier for hours!" We were moving, but our speed over ground was pitiful! We practically held our position in the Sound until the tide went slack around 4pm and finally made our way in.

Entering the harbor was fun! I sailed farther to windward than where we needed to be so that we could come in on a run. At this point, Maddie had fallen asleep from boredom, so I knew I was sailing solo. I lowered the mainsail and sailed in under only the staysail. As we neared the anchorage, I went forward on the deck, dropped the staysail and then released the anchor with 100 feet of chain (in 8 feet of water).

The momentum of the boat kept us moving along at around 2 knots even though we had no sail up at this point until the anchor dug in! The bow stopped and the stern swung around quickly as we came to lay to the anchor.

I chose to anchor in this fashion because of the approaching cold front. I anchored in the direction that I anticipated we would be pointing tomorrow and wanted to be certain that the anchor would be well set. Once the anchor had been buried into the bottom, I then let out even more chain (totaling 180 feet of chain in 8 feet of water) that way we would have no risk of dragging as the cold front moved in over night.

With the anchor set, Maddie, Morty, and I, went to shore in our rowboat Tooth to check out the locals and the town.