Titania Day Four: Goose wings
Titania
The Dobbs family and friends
Wed 28 Nov 2018 17:37
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All right everyone, now that we've introduced ourselves
(on Monday) and spoken about the fish that we didn't catch (on Tuesday), let's
talk about what we are all here for, i.e. sailing. After all, that is the one
thing we do non-stop over this trip and we thought you might find it interesting
to know a bit more about our #1 activity !
 First, let's take a step back on our weather conditions.
Since our departure on Sunday we've enjoyed
beautiful sunny weather, with only a few clouds here and there -but no rain so
far-. T-shirts and shorts for everyone. This should roughly remain unchanged for
the rest of the trip. Anecdotally, for those of you reading this blog somewhere
in cold Europe, you should know that we've just entered into the Tropics this
morning and that the sea temperature is 24.5C !
 Since Day 1, we've also benefited from the so called
Trade Winds - as expected at this time of the year, even if climate change has
in some cases disrupted this beautiful natural process over the last few
years. Well not this year. For those of you who are not familiar with winds,
Trade Winds are gentle, stable Westward
winds created by the rotation of the Earth. They blow from around the
Canary Islands to the Caribbean, at relatively stable speeds of typically 15 to
25 knots. Fantastic for sailors like us who want to cross the Atlantic Ocean in
relatively easy and stable conditions - downwind most of the time. These winds
were used before us by big sailing ships (hence the name "Trade" winds") and are
now used by sailors like us to reach the Caribbean at the end of November each
year.
Which is what takes us to our photo of the day, Titania
sailing downwind under so called Goose Wings. This has been by far our main sail
set up since we've left the Canary Islands.
Goose Wings is the name given to the set up where
we have our genoa on a pole on one side and our mainsail (held in place by the
preventer) on the other side. Both sails are open to their maximum to catch
as much wind as possible, as per the photo. Beyond this being pretty
efficient in terms of speed to destination, this set up has the benefit of being
very comfortable and safe as it requires limited maneuvers to put it in place
and it is very easy to deal with.
Another way to catch as much wind as possible when going
downwind is by using our spinnaker. But this will be the detailed subject
of another of our blogs.
Pierre |
