Sailing: a side wind is enough, into the wind row instead
Wind not coming from behind? No reason to wait. With the wind from the side you make just as good progress.
What works
- Sail with the wind from the side: the sail then pulls your ship forward just as strongly as with the wind behind you.
- Set your course so the wind does not come from ahead: only once it blows at you within about 40 degrees does the sail stop helping.
- In a weak wind from ahead, row instead, and keep as straight as you can: that often gets you there faster than zigzagging across the sea.
What doesn’t
- Trying to sail into the wind with the sail set. With the wind from ahead, the sail does not push at all.
- Tacking back and forth for ages in a lull. The sail then gives only a fraction of its strength, and every leg is a detour.
- Constantly turning the rudder while rowing. The further it is over, the less force goes forward.
Why?
From behind, the wind pushes your ship straight ahead, but the sail does not catch it fully there. From the side it catches it completely, but pulls at an angle. In the end the push forward is the same.
If the wind comes within about 40 degrees of dead ahead, the sail gives no force any more. Then all that is left is to zigzag across the wind, or to row.
The sail knows no true calm: even in the weakest wind it keeps a quarter of its strength. If that wind comes from behind or the side, the Karve and the Longship still sail faster than you can row. If it comes from ahead, all that is left is a zigzag at a quarter of the strength, and then the oars, which always pull the same, are the faster way.
With a strong wind behind you and full sail, though, you are many times faster than with the oars. Rowing is for lulls and headwinds, not for every voyage.