Wind Searching

Nautical history is ripe with stories of sailing vessels that were “becalmed” at sea. Images from books, movies and TV shows show the familiar scenes of depressed crew sitting dead still at sea waiting for wind. Sailing vessels of all types fell victim to being at sea with no wind movement at all for countless days. Then, scenes of crew elation when small ripples finally appear on the water and the wind builds to the shouts from the captain to hoist the sails and capture the wind! Despite following “trade wind” routes and weather patterns, historical merchant ships, explorers and even Pirate ships were subject to this calamity on occasion.

QD fell victim to the same conditions. Departing Maderia, she experienced 3 full days of slick calm seas and no wind to drive her sails. However, unlike the historical days, QD had a few more advantages to aid her in the ability to “search for wind” instead of having to wait for the wind. Instead of her crew sitting becalmed and waiting, she used her pair of powerhouse diesel engines to push her forward through 3 continuous days of extra-calm seas. While not at the preferred speed or fuel burn rate, she traveled over 300+ nautical miles since departing the port at Maderia. Secondly, the crew leverages modern weather routing tools to empower them with the knowledge of precisely where the wind patterns were developing and could guide her to the winds. Queen’s Dream was like a racehorse pinned in the starting gate – eagerly ready to “run with the wind”. After 3 days at the gate, the diesel engines fell quiet, and the sails billowed with the found wind. The forecasted wind patterns are now predicted to propel her over 1,000 more miles towards her destination in the next 7 days. The crew is elated …