Wallet wind shadow

johnalison

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We had a decent sail up to Brightlingsea on Friday, and a light wind to settle in the new sails, as suggested by One Sails. I don't know what our friends made of the Railway Tavern, but they seemed to be happy, while a couple did a bit of guitar and folky singing.

Yesterday, we were too lazy to get up in time for the tide, so did a bit of dredging just before LW on the harbour bar. Maybe I should have looked at the barometer, since there was half a metre less water than I expected. I was pleased to be able to reach across to Clacton in about 12kn wind and doing six knots but we had to sail slowly past the wind farm in 8-10kn with the speed down to 5kn and less than 4 over the ground, even though we were well towards the shore. It was impressive how abruptly the wind increased when we passed Frinton and we got our speed back. I suppose that it is really only in a southeasterly wind that this effect is noticeable, though I imagine those going through the Spitway notice it in a nor-easter.
 
I have, just once, noticed what appeared to be a wind shadow sailing down the Wallet in an easterly (fairly rare that!) but whether it was genuinely a shadow from the wind farm or whether it was coincidence I know not. We were well over towards the Gunfleet as we were heading for the Spitway, I'd assume any effect would be less noticeable closer to the shore
 
I don't think that was wind shadow, the forecast was for the wind to drop and then pick up again...

Mine was a fully scientific and statistically significant study. A hundred percent of the times (1) I have sailed past in a southeasterly have been associated with a drop in wind. Time will tell.
 
The only time i sailed up past Clacton there wasn't any wind either. I did try searching the Almanac for the phone number to ask them to turn those big fans on but for some reason I couldn't find it......
 
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