This question came up in my Science class as we were discussing prevailing winds. As I understand it, the early Amercian explorers travelled from Europe via the coast of Africa then caught the trade winds to the Carribean. They returned by travelling up the coast of North American and caught the westerlies back to Europe.
I think it is somehow possible to sail against the wind. Henry Hudson, for example travelled to northern Canada. My guess is that it would be labourious but I’m not a sailor. The Vikings aslo made the journey but they island hopped. How that makes it easier I don’t know. Since wind direction is variable, waiting for the right wind might be the key.
Do people sail from Ontario to the Carribean? Are motors the only way to make this journey?
I don’t know much about sailing, but enough about the waters in the area to ask - were you thinking about starting from Hudson bay in North Ontario, (somewhat more open waters, but remote wilderness to start from and somewhat harsher temperature,) or starting from the great lakes and sailing up the Saint Lawrence (more accessible in some ways, but there are a lot of locks you’d have to navigate and large shipping to avoid.)
Well, I know of one yacht which regularly makes the voyage from Lake Ontario (albeit the New York side, but that’s one short day’s sail from the Canadian side) down the Intracoastal Waterway to Florida, and on some years from there to the Mexican Riviera, which I believe does face on the Caribbean. Owing to the narrow channels, much of this is motored, but it would be theoretically possible to sail the route by staying off to sea and tacking one’s way down. (Choosing to negotiate Pamlico Sound over the waters off Cape Hatteras is a no-brainer in a smaller vessel.)
It’s a long trip either way. Either north through Hudson Bay, around Newfoundland, and then south through the Atlantic. Or northeast through the St Lawrence to Nova Scotia and the Atlantic.
Going southeast through New York might be a lot faster, even if on foot.
Sailing against the wind is called tacking. You can’t sail straight against the wind, but by putting your sail at the proper angle and steering your rudder, you can sail against the wind at an angle, and zigzag your way upwind. It’s simpler, of course, to sail with the wind, but I think you can actually get the greatest speed going at a right angle to the wind direction.
And island-hopping doesn’t really matter much in terms of tacking, but it gives you more chances to re-stock supplies (especially fresh water), and also gives you more opportunity to wait out bad weather (storms and calms alike).
Of course, the easiest way to get to the Caribbean from Ontario is to sail Lake Huron. and Lake Michigan to Chicago, then the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to the the Des Plaines River, then float down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf. (Tacking would be required on the lakes, due to the prevailing westerly winds, and some motoring or towing might be required through Chicago.)
During a sailing trip last November from Rhode Island to South Carolina we spent a night in Ocean City NJ and met a couple of guys from Toronto sailing a boat they’d built to the Bahamas. It wouldn’t have been much trouble for them to continue to the Caribbean.
They had a small outboard motor on board, but said it had been unreliable and they’d rarely used it. (They were rather obviously on a tight budget.)
Or up the Oswego Canal, down the NY State Barge Canal and the Hudson, and then down the Intracoastal, Motoring is needed for some parts of this.
(In theory, take the St. Lawrence Seaway out past Montreal, but this takes you so far northeast when your intent is to travel almost due south that it’s not a reasonable route.)
It is called tacking. When you sail against the wind you zigzag. If you are sailing with the wind then it is a more direct course, ie less time.
The path would be from the Great Lakes down the Gulf of St Lawrence to the Atlantic and then South. I am particularly interested in the influence of the opposing flow of water, the Gulf Stream. Can you sail against that?
Chances are good you’d be following the inter-coastal waterway along down the eastern seaboard to the gulf.
For a lightweight read about a similar trip from Toronto (though honestly I can’t remember if they actual sailed from Toronto or Maine) to the West Indes find An Embarrassment of Mangoes at the library to check out.
It runs about 5 1/2 mph (4.7 knots) and is maybe 60 miles wide, but also maybe 60 miles offshore. You would easily avoid it by staying within sight of land, or by GPS navigation. To make headway against that strong a current you’d need to be making some really good time.
Sailing directly into the wind is not possible in traditional sailboats but is possible conceptually as demonstrated by http://www.main.org/polycosmos/silicbar/sailscrw.htm and has been done in boats designed specifically for that purpose.
Generally a sailboat’s max speed will be with the wind on the quarter, about 135 degrees from the bows.
And “gentlemen don’t sail to windward”.
I think this will depend a lot on the configuration of masts and sails. I’ve been on a number of boats that were much happier on a beam reach.
Sometimes it helps to reduce a problem to more manageable pieces. I’ve already done Nova Scotia to Grenada. If someone can demonstrate the Ontario-to-Nova Scotia step, I’d say the problem is solved.
Although what the OP says about the trade winds is also largely true. My ship is just finishing a year-long voyage around the Atlantic; Nova Scotia to Europe, south to the coast of Africa, west to Brazil, and north through the Caribbean and back to Nova Scotia. She’s a square-rigger, which is not as well suited to tacking as a fore-and-aft rig like a sloop or schooner.
Our max speed was with the wind slightly on the quarter, but I don’t know the exact bearing. With the wind dead astern, the sails on the main mast would be full, but they’d block the wind from reaching the foremast. Wind on the quarter, and the yards braced around a bit, and all the sails would be full.
The technology of the time emphasized moving large cargoes slowly over long distances (just like today, today it’s just not sailing technology) so the philosophy was really different. Hulls were round to take cargo with large stability. Rigging was compatible with that. The target of the expeditions was to find literally “trade winds”, routes that take your spice liner to East Asia year in year out.
The exploring ship, caravel, was light and good tacker with latin sail by the standards of the time but the procedure would still be what was standard then:
- wait for the wind to change
- think about alternative routes
- wait some more
- tack some
- maybe wait some more
- oh hell, we really need to tack home.
Not applicable to today, when sailing vessels are primarily designed for head winds.
Howard Blackburn did it. All the way around the Eastern US of A, St Lawrence, Atlantic, Caribbean, Mississippi, Great lakes. No engine. No fingers.
Wiki article about him.
I was the first person to sail a sailboat, ‘without an engine’, from Tulsa Oklahoma to the Mississippi River on the Arkansas River Navigation Chanel. I did that in 1978. I did not even have a paddle. I used an 21’ San Juan. This is a picture of one.
Yeah, I was aware of that toy, but it’s not exactly what I would call “sailing”. And if I really wanted to pick nits, I could point out that any given point on the “sail” (the windmill on the top end) is in fact following a zigzag path.
It’s still a nifty device, since it manages to always move upwind, and with no moving parts other than the thing itself.
For those confused, the Intracoastal Waterway.
I need to read closer. 