When will she leave for the Netherlands?

Meanwhile the moment has come that Linde can come to the Netherlands. And I say with emphasis CAN. Everything depends on the weather and especially the wind.

We agreed with the sellers that sometime in May they will try to sail Linde to the Netherlands. A friend of theirs will go with them and he will be available from May 8. In theory, Linde will be able to leave the Azores on May 9.

However, that has not happened. Not happening yet. On May 9, the wind on the Azores didn’t seem too bad, a little soft but ok. However from May 11/12 the wind comes exactly from the corner where Linde has to go. And sailing against the wind has never succeeded in anyone.

Tacking

I have been asked why tacking is not an option. After all, that’s what you do in Friesland when you’re up against the wind. There are a number of problems with sailing at sea. Don’t get me wrong, you could do it.

If you are going to tack, you are going to sail at an angle diagonal to the wind and after a while, you are going to go exactly the other way half toe the wind. As far as the sky is concerned, in a given time you will only get a tiny bit closer to the goal. However, you are covering a lot of miles in that same period of time. You could say 1 hour one way, another hour the other. But if you have to do that 4 days… 4 days times 24 is 96 times tacking, including in the night. Besides being busy, covering a lot of distance and only getting a little closer to your goal, you have to be sailing all the time. An autopilot or a windvane cannot sail a night for you and “just” tack every hour. So basically, it doesn’t pay to sail against the wind for several days.

The other alternative is to wait. The disadvantage of waiting is, the weather does not let you predict with full 100% certainty. How long do you have to wait? Will you ever leave again? It seems that several sailors around the world have stuck around somewhere that way and ended up never leaving because they got used to the location.

Now I look at Windy.com every day and there is hope. It looks like May 14 will bring the wind from the right angle and the long term seems to be in favor. Again, the long term seems to be in favor…. The weather is not 100% predictable.

Captain

We can hope as hard as we want, there is only one person who decides if it can be done, and that is the captain of the ship. In our case, the seller. It is a good thing that only 1 person decides if it is safe enough and logical enough, otherwise we would be sitting with far too many people all day talking about the weather and perhaps discussing whether or not it is the right time…