Rhans -
On that day we were headed south-south-east with the wind on the nose, headed directly through that gap (of course).
Such was our luck during our trip.
We fought foul winds both ways!
It made us better sailors though.

After a few days we finally figured out how to sail Wind Dancer well up-wind. I'm sure you know all the tricks.
[color:"blue"]
Here's what I wrote in my trip log about sailing Wind Dancer to windward on our 11-mile leg from Mayreau to PSV.[/color]

"Our eastward progress was miserable, and during the close hauled run across the channel I played with the main traveler and Woody the helm until we found the right combination to maximize speed and windward progress. It immediately became clear that I’d have to crank the traveler to the windward side of the boat on every tack. Running with the main traveler in the center and letting the main tend itself was costing us 20 degrees tack-to-tack! Not wanting to get too close to Union Island and have the wind change back east I called a tack back into the channel, and then another tack SSW once we had the angle to make it between Clifton and Palm Island. On every tack the sequence was the same: Call “prepare to come about!” (aye, aye, aye from the crew), then helms alee!, Woody would turn us through the eye of the wind, and Barb and Lisa would wait for the jib to back for two seconds and then let-fly the windward sheet in a smooth controlled manner. Barb or Lisa would then haul the big jib in on the leeward side as fast as they could, and just about the time they ran out of steam on the winch I’d have the main traveler over to windward and then jump to the jib winch and crank it down tight the rest of the way. Woody quickly learned how hard to throw the helm over. Turning too hard stops Wind Dancer almost dead, and turning too easy takes too long and you also lose boat speed. We were becoming a well oiled machine. All the tacking with the big sails was really getting us a good upper body workout!"


[color:"blue"]And sailing south through the gap between Punaise and Mopion...[/color]

"Here’s the quick analysis… It’s 400 yards across the gap from shoal to shoal. There are coral heads marked on the chart on the Mopian side but of course I would not trust the GPS to micro-navigate around them. Chart plotters provide excellent context but not absolutes. I figure if we leave 100 yards of margin on either side for chart and navigation uncertainties, that leaves only 200 yards of safe water, or 600 feet. One knot is 100 feet per minute, so at five knots we could travel completely across the ‘safe water’ area in 70-ish seconds. Coming through close hauled at an angle of 45-degrees we’d have a little more time… perhaps 100 seconds (approximately the square-root of 2 times 70). That is not much time. Heck, it was taking us about 20 seconds to tack! Knocking off 20 seconds to tack on both ends leaves 60 seconds of sailing time in the gap. Just barely enough. So after figuring the numbers, the gap looked small but doable. The channel would support a full tack in the middle if necessary.

So on a starboard tack headed south east we pushed as close as I dared to Mopian, and when about 100 yards from the danger line (visually estimated and by the GPS) we tacked south west, hoping to clear the channel. However, it soon became clear we’d never make it past the south side of the Punaise reef. So now directly between the islands we pushed as close to Punaise as I dared. Waiting to call the tack I judged the distance to Punaise and the reef that I knew was 100 yards closer. In the back of my mind I was thinking that this was not the time to blow a tack and get pushed down on the reef with a headsail backed because of a winch jam. We had to do this one right. We had not bungled a tack all day so I was not overly worried. Three hundred yards out from Punais I called ‘prepare to come about!’ The one hundred yard from Island to reef and 100 yards of buffer from the reef left 100 yards to go, which at four knots is about 45 seconds. I’m standing between the main sheet winches looking ahead to Punais and then back at Woody at the helm and Lisa and Barb at the jib sheets. They all confirm “ready about.” Ten seconds from my turn spot in the water Woody looks at me a little nervously and says “Don’t you think we should tack!?” I grin and think “So much for the math!” His intuition was good, and I called “helms a lee!” The fleeting concerns about bungling a tack were unfounded and we made a quick and efficient tack back to the south east and shot through the gap into “Crazy Corrigan’s Crooked Passage,” which is name of the north-east end of the broad calm sound between PSV to the east, PM to the south, and Carricou to the west. This was exhilarating sailing, but it was over all too soon."