Leeward/Windard

[copaco]

Your going along a coast and the wind is from offshore.I think the French had a different interpretation? Ship wise or island wise, in the Carabean,Your on a leeshore but this is the wind side of the island.Any explanation?

[StuM]

It's a lee shore because it is to leeward of you. You have to sail to windward to get away from it. If conditions are bad and you have difficulty sailing to windward, it's a bad place to be. (Especially back in the days of square riggers)


Note: a wind that is "from offshore" is not the same as an "offshore wind"

[copaco]

You mean an ''offshore wind'' pushes you offshore?

[Wotname]

It isn't that difficult

Stand on the beach and face the water. If you you feel the wind on you nose, it is an "onshore" wind. If you feel the wind on the back of your head, it is an "offshore" wind.

Note the word "shore"!

Now stand on the deck. If the wind is blowing you towards the shore, the shore becomes a lee shore yet for the person standing of the shore, the same wind is an "onshore wind" and they are standing on the windward side of the island.

[Montanan]

Windward and leeward are in reference from the perspective of the boat as it relates to the direction of the wind. If there is a shore towards the direction the wind is coming from then that shore is denoted as a windward shore, or a weather shore, [one that is easy to sail downwind away from, or drift with the wind and proceed away from the shore]. If there is a shore towards the direction the wind is going towards then that shore is denoted as a leeward shore, or lee shore. A lee shore is one that is to the lee side of a vessel — meaning the wind is blowing towards it. A weather shore has the wind blowing from inland over it out to sea. For example, a person standing on a shore when the wind is blowing out to sea (or any large body of water) is standing on a weather shore

A leeward / lee shore can be hazardous because the wind will drive you towards it, unless you can make headway towards the wind and progress away from the shore; always a bit disconcerting to be anchored with leeshore upon which one could drag anchor and drift up against.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by copaco

You mean an ''offshore wind'' pushes you offshore?

Yes. It is blowing off the shore.

[barnakiel]

The French have it like the English / Spanish and Portuguese.


https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous_le_vent_(marine)


sous-le-vent / sotavento / leeward


Mind irregular 'leeward' for pronounciation though (looward/leward, not leeward).


discussed : https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ion-46758.html


barnakiel

[copaco]

Interesting.Thanks.

[LittleWing77]

And as me ol' teacher - the original Salty Dawg - used to say, Woe betide the sailor who ignores a lee shore!!!

Always keep in mind the consequences of being blown onshore.

LittleWing77

[tkeithlu]

I LOVE IT!

Who's on first?

[bobnlesley]

This is about to stop being confusing, so it's time to move onto the ways in which onshore/offshore winds back & veer as they transition between the the land and the water.

[s/v Moondancer]

LittleWing has it right...I know two owners who lost their boat on a lee shore...

If you can see a lee shore on a clear day you are too close!

Conservative, yes, but the night I lost my steering, in 35 knots, at midnight, off a dangerous lee shore called Punta Mala I had time to heave-to, sleep, make breakfast and then rig the emergency steering without coming in sight of the land!