To Fall Off in sailing means to steer away from the wind; Point Higher is to point the bow closer to the wind. By definition then wouldn’t Fall Off to Point Higher be an oxymoron statement?
We have a hundred fifty more miles to go and we are pointing the boat towards the west side of Fanning Island for that is the location of the entrance into the atoll. And after crossing the ITCZ the wind has switched from North East to South East and is about 45 degrees off our bow, also referred to as beating to windward or sailing into the wind.
How does a boat sail into the wind? We’re sure there are a lot of better explanations but the same principle as an airplane wing can be applied to sailing. Wind fills the sail and creates a lift that pulls the boat forward.
A sailboat can only sail so close to the wind because sailing too close can cause the sail to flap vigorously and there is not enough lift to propel the boat forward. Sailing too close to the wind is also referred to being in irons. If you put your wrist together, palms facing each other, as if someone was putting handcuffs on you, extend your fingers outward so your two hands form a “V”, that “V” area is the area to which cannot be sailed or is in irons.
With all of that said, since we have left the ITCZ we have been pointing 35 to 45 degrees off the wind, which is as close to the wind as we can sail. Sometimes, like last night, we had the sails and course set perfectly to sail as close to the wind as possible, but then the wind would decide to shift direction a few degrees, which happens frequently, and all of a sudden the boat is either too close to the wind and the sails begin to flap and/or our speed drops a couple knots. The cure is to steer the boat a bit off of the wind, build some speed by doing this, and then steer the boat back to the original course of 35 to 45 degrees off the wind, which it can now hold because of the increased speed; otherwise known as falling off to point higher. If we can maintain our course and speed then we’ll be anchored in Fanning before dark tomorrow. As all sailors know to never pull into an unknown anchorage in the dark, if we cannot get anchored before sun down then we’ll heave-to for the night and enter the anchorage Wednesday morning.
Sailor Q & A:
Why did you not sail further East to avoid beating to Winward?
- We could have sailed more east, but obviously, it ended up not being far enough east because of the unexpected south winds we encountered the day after leaving the ITCZ, We expected southeast winds. In addition, when we were in the ITCZ we encountered one large storm that was eight miles wide for which we sailed westward to avoid it. Not all the time does this work to out run from a storm, but we barely skirted the outside and pushed on.
Why did you not tack back and forth when the wind switched from the South?
- We had a choice before nightfall to tack East to help give us some more Easting, but we chose to stay pinched hoping the wind would die at night and we could motor closer to our course; however, that did not happen, the wind averaged 17 with a range 13 to 21 knots but we were lucky the wind direction changed sufficiently to allow us to point as hard as we could to maintain course and speed.
- Why did the wind change directions after crossing the ITCZ?
- This question might be left to the professionals. We recommend reading William Kotsch’s Weather for the Mariner or Steve Dashew’s Weather book.
Funny: Being on a sailboat heeled for days Sara feels we are in need of V8, (pun on the 1980 to 1990 V8 drink commercial).
Sea Life:
- A baby squid no bigger than Sara’s baby finger jumped onboard the boat. * Plenty of flying fish but surprising none have flown onboard yet.
Updates from the previous post, at noon our position is:
- 06 degrees 12 minutes N, 158 degrees 46 W
- Heading: 192 True
- 117 miles course made good since our last Noon Report
- 906 of 1049 miles are traveled thus far
- Waves: 2-3 feet
- Clear skies minimal Simpson clouds
- On some boats, when resetting an MFD and Radar by turning the power off and on at the breaker, have someone at the helm because even if the auto-pilot is wired to a different breaker input, the auto-pilot control display may lose power when the breaker for the MFD is turned off.
Sara and Wade
