Have you ever heard our local weather forecast talk about small craft advisory, scattered showers, a chance of thunderstorms and that the bay water will be choppy? For us living in South Florida, we know how local and scattered the weather conditions usually are. It may rain in one block while it’s dry in the next. It’s very local. Inland towards the Everglades usually gets more rain and storms while further east, like Key Biscayne stays dry and sunny more often. Just because there is bad weather in one neighborhood it doesn’t mean that it will be bad where we sail on Biscayne Bay.
The wind direction is never constant. It may oscillate 5-15 degrees throughout the day, or have persistent shifts of any seize at any time. Be prepared for windspeed that far exceed what was expected when leaving the dock.
Most sailors usually have favorite wind and wave conditions until they realize the need to be prepared for anything and everything that nature has to offer. The weather is fascinating and it’s amazing in how it all works and how much info there is available for us to absorb.
It’s common knowledge that it is better to keep a positive attitude because it is easier to succeed when doing something that you really like. Sailing is no different. To do well, you have to be able do it all, at least when it comes to racing. I have learned not to look at the weather forecast too far in advance and get excited about what I might see. Instead, I monitor the forecast days in advance and note how the predictions for my specific date of interest likely will change.
Let’s not cancel unless we really have to!
Despite a pretty windy period over the last couple of weeks, we have managed to run our program as normal. Canceling program when conditions are not safe could sometimes be the right move, especially when there is thunder and lighting. But to cancel just because it’s windy is not good. To me, that’s an indication that either staff is not skilled enough, or the equipment is not good enough, or that there is not enough of a safety plan established. Canceling is an easy way out and if that is put in place as a go-to option, something is very wrong.
On Wednesday of last week, the wind was “honking” all day. I was thinking about cancelling the day first thing in the morning, but the information I had called for the wind to drop around the time kids would arrive and then pick back up around sunset. We had a breezy sail and everyone got soaked, but we made it back safe, just in time before the breeze picked back up to 30 kts.
The following day was Veterans Sailing and again, it was pretty windy. I asked myself, should I cancel, or not? Most program would have, but not us. Again, the forecast was for the wind to drop around Noon and it did. We went sailing and had a great time!
My favorite weather apps
My favorite wind app is Sailflow, which I find to be spot on accurate 5-days a week. It has great detail, especially when subscribing to the PRO version. My favorite weather app is NBC 6 Local First Alert weather, which has the most awesome radar.
Let’s go sailing soon,
Magnus | Team Paradise Executive Director
