Longest wait for favourable wind

[michael taylor]

I have now been waiting 20 days just north of Bergen for a favourable wind to return to Shetland. What is the forum record for the longest time a member has been stuck in the same place waiting for the wind to change in their favour?

 

[NPMR]

We didn't stay with the boat but had to leave it in Brest in July one year. Went back for it three times but each time the "forecast" was very wrong and I eventually paid a crew to bring it back in November!

 

[PeterGibbs]

I have now been waiting 20 days just north of Bergen for a favourable wind to return to Shetland. What is the forum record for the longest time a member has been stuck in the same place waiting for the wind to change in their favour?

For years I have wanted to make the Norwegian coast - the literature looks so good. But the prevailing winds for the return...! In preparation, I have kept an eye on the wind systems for a return south, looking for a likely best window for "next season" - getting there seems relatively easy. This year the contraries look worse than ever, owing to the jet stream displacement, with depressions rolling in continuously. And tropical storms in the low lats are adding to the pain up here now.

So to date I've never made it past the N tip of Denmark, and I am more put off than ever. I sympathise with you.

No doubt you have considered the long route already to avoid the head on slog - a slanting course from Bergen to the Baltic, the southerly route south in the lee of Denmark, Kiel canal, Helgoland and NW back up the north sea in the lee of the coast. A good 7 days' trip of course.

There will probabaly be a window for a direct westerly return in September, you could ask the met office when they expect the jet stream to shift and take a view. From what I see, there's nothing much before mid Sept. Otherwise, as I have in the past, it's sit tight, or return to the boat later when a window appears.

All the very best,

PWG

 

[PeterGibbs]

We didn't stay with the boat but had to leave it in Brest in July one year. Went back for it three times but each time the "forecast" was very wrong and I eventually paid a crew to bring it back in November!

I don't want to sound sour, but UK forecasting this year has been unhelpful, to say the least. On a trip from Harwich to Brittany in June and July I had to resort to synoptic basics to have any chance of narrowing the odds for my plans. But I must say the French meteo service was closer to reality than dear old BBC - given they all work to the same data, isn't this the clue to a better service?

Wind speed and direction are paramout to sailors, with 2-3 day outlooks so we can plan safely. For us the difference between F3-4 and 6-7 is critical, with wave height following closely. That's what the French meteo gives.

So isn't it time to re-consider the UK shipping forecast? It seems so rooted in the past - commercial shipping takes its own service anyway, so the majority users are pleasure craft. But the service is not formulated for us. And the areas used are so large as to be almost meaningless when weather is the product of competing high and low pressure systems off the coast of Europe?

The weather set this summer has been beyond the limited wording permitted on the BBC broadcasts; you know the forecasters are struggling when wind speeds for an area over 24 hours range from F3 to 7/8 and the same values are given for enormous areas such as most of E and S England.

The answer is not to force us to pay for a local spot forecast - this is a public safety service and should be treated as such.

PWG

 

[oldharry]

Not a forumite, but Josh Slocum waited in Tierra del Fuego for over a month to get out into the Pacific.

 

[shmoo]

Not a forumite, but Josh Slocum waited in Tierra del Fuego for over a month to get out into the Pacific.

Bligh tacked for 10 days off Cape Horn just so as not to go backwards

 

[ChrisE]

I have now been waiting 20 days just north of Bergen for a favourable wind to return to Shetland. What is the forum record for the longest time a member has been stuck in the same place waiting for the wind to change in their favour?

I sympathise, we spent the best part of 7 months getting the boat back from Bodo. Started in August and with bad weather windows whenever we or delivery drivers were free we eventually ended with boat in Cuxhaven for the winter and home in March....

The trouble is that winter starts early up there and anything from mid-August onwards gets a bit dodgy.

If you end up having to leave her there, Sandnes harbour behind Stavanger could probably accomodate you.

Best of luck.