Sailing
Bermuda rigged sailing boats are vulnerable to lee waves. In the worst case lee waves appear behind high islands. For example, in the Adriatic Sea (Dalmatia) or the Aegean Sea (Greece) relatively small islands can be very high and have a good steady wind such as the Meltemi/Etesian in the Aegean during the dry summer season. The direction of the wind on the lee side of the island may be downwards, and this is feared because it causes instability in controlling the boat and in the worst case pushes the sail under water, which can lead to disastrous capsizing. This is not possible with ordinary winds, because the push of an ordinary wind in a sail disappears when the sail becomes horizontal. Many use the expression downburst for this extreme sailing weather condition, but it is certainly more related to lee waves.
Read more about this topic: Lee Wave
Famous quotes containing the word sailing:
“O western orb sailing the heaven,
Now I know what you must have meant as a month since I walked,
As I walked in silence the transparent shadowy night,”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“The Colonel went out sailing,
He spoke with Turk and Jew
With Christian and with Infidel
For all tongues he knew.
“O what’s a wifeless man?” said he
And he came sailing home.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“I saw three ships come sailing by,
Come sailing by, come sailing by,
I saw three ships come sailing by,
On Christmas Day in the morning.”
—Unknown. As I Sat on a Sunny Bank. . .
Oxford Book of Light Verse, The. W. H. Auden, ed. (1938)