Posted by Jock on February 09, 2006 at 09:13:23 from 87.105.81.146 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: maps vs. text in SA and SD posted by Lyn on February 09, 2006 at 03:42:36:
I don't remember the descriptions of these voyages so cannot comment directly. However, sailing on a Coniston sized lake in Poland which has lots of trees on either side, a voyage against the wind takes more than three times as long as a voyage before the wind. In fact a boat sails fastest with the wind blowing from the side of the boat (a beam wind).
Because of the configuration of the surrounding mountains you very rarely get a wind blowing across the lake in Coniston or Windermere, it tends to blow either up or down the lake. The islands near Rio will tend to funnel the wind more strongly between them. The tress will cause all sort of confusing wind shadow and reflection effects. I hope this helps.