Why Do We Care About the Weather So Much?

For our non-boating friends who are reading our blog, you may be wondering why we seem to be so obsessed with the wind and the current. There are a couple of reasons; first, on this trip we have traveled in some major bodies of water, which are heavily affected by the winds and currents. The tides in some areas change as much as 25 feet between high and low, which means the currents run very strong. This is even truer when there is a narrow opening where all the water tries to push through at once making for some treacherous conditions. Some areas where we have experienced this include Dodd Narrows, Yuculta, Dent and Gilliard Rapids, and Seymour Narrows. In each of these cases we had to time our entry close to or at slack. Slack means that the current is changing directions and for a period of time, it isn’t going either direction. In some places slack lasts only about five minutes, in others it lasts longer.

It is important that we know what the current is doing so we don’t waste time and fuel working against the current. There are times when we can’t help it, but we have been trying hard to take advantage of favorable currents to carry us along and improve our speed. That leads us to the second reason it is so important, if we can travel with the currents rather than against the currents, we use less fuel.

While we are faster than most of the boats that make this type of trip, we are much smaller so when there are waves, mostly caused by wind, we get bounced around a lot. In addition to knowing what the currents are doing, we have to be aware of what the winds are going to do with the currents as well. For instance, we might be riding an ebbing tide when the wind begins to blow in the opposite direction and that causes the waves to stack up. On a calm day, riding the ebb would be a good thing, but on a windy day it could be awful. We have had both on this trip.

This is why we have focused so much on what the weather is doing each day. It has become a way of life for us. The first thing we do each day is turn on the weather reports to see what is forecast and also what is actually happening. We have become much more proficient in gauging the weather on our own, but it is usually a little bit of luck combined with our observations. Sometimes it has worked and sometimes it hasn’t. If we make it back safely, that’s what is important.