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1. Embed this notice
   goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 00:47:57 JST goatsarah

   Reddit can be a useful knowledge base, but there are certain subject areas where the consensus voice will confidently, clearly, emphatically state something that is simply wrong.

   My current irritation is r/sailing, which has a large number of people who have clearly never sailed beyond the yacht club bar, or maybe a small lake, and have precisely zero clue about the interplay between wind and current (because they never experience the latter), spouting off bullshit with authority.

   And there’s no point arguing with them, but my god, the extent to which they are smug about being wrong is irritating as fuck.

   • Embed this notice
     Dr David Mills (dtl@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 01:47:24 JST Dr David Mills

     in reply to

     @goatsarah not reddit, but another sailing forum recently had several posters telling me you can't take apart a furler that way, it totally won't come apart that way in a thread where I was posting how I had taken it apart, with photos.
     Deleted the thread and will post as an article to my own website instead.
     What you get for trying to help.

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   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 01:51:09 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹
     @saramg We learned to sail in the Crouch estuary, as you know. The spring ebb runs at 5 knots there..
   • Embed this notice
     SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹 (saramg@fosstodon.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 01:51:10 JST SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹

     in reply to

     @goatsarah Most of my sailing is on Lake Michigan which, while a great lake, is still just a lake.

     First time I dropped into the Florida current I had a real eye opener. Absolutely took off with me.

   • Embed this notice
     Kyozou-Yes on 50 (kyozou@sfba.social)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 04:59:05 JST Kyozou-Yes on 50

     in reply to

     @goatsarah What bullshit are they spouting?

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 04:59:05 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Kyozou-Yes on 50

     @kyozou They’re upset that wind instruments calculate true wind by subtracting the boat’s speed from the apparent wind.

     Apparently they want ground wind instead, because they’re fucking idiots.

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 05:02:58 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹

     @saramg You time your arrival for the current conditions to be amenable. Getting this stuff right is a big part of RYA sailing courses.

     In duress, you can burn diesel (the ebb through Portsmouth harbour’s entrance can be a bugger, but that’s only a few hundred metres), or you can drop a hook and wait for the tide to turn or slacken.

   • Embed this notice
     SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹 (saramg@fosstodon.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 05:02:59 JST SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹

     in reply to

     @goatsarah At 5kts, I'd doubt my engine's ability to get me home on its own. Did you ever have to sail+ motor up then drift down to your anchor bouy?

   • Embed this notice
     dag (davidallengreen@mastodon.green)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 05:05:21 JST dag

     in reply to

     @goatsarah

     “zero clue about the interplay between wind and current” pretty much describes most legal online comment too

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   • Embed this notice
     Piers Cawley (pdcawley@mendeddrum.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 05:08:15 JST Piers Cawley

     in reply to

     @goatsarah Been a while since I sailed, but once I started sailing on the sea, lakes seemed so *boring*. There's nothing quite like racing a buoy and losing to make you appreciate how fast the tide can run.

     goatsarah likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 05:18:17 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Piers Cawley

     @pdcawley My favourite one was approaching Dover harbour once. Dover is where the tide race for Great Britain meets. As a result the tide tables can be … aspirational.

     On this one day, it was wrong. The water was meant to be 1st behind us. It was 2-3kts in front instead. Traffic control was trying to slot us in between a couple of Dover Calais ferries (bloody big fuckers), and was getting frustrated watching us on AIS approaching at barely 3 knots.

     “Scarlet scarlet, Dover Dover, is that your best speed? Over”

     “Dover, Scarlet, unfortunately it is. Sorry. Over”

     Meanwhile the poor engine was screaming.

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 05:21:50 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹
     @saramg I’m sure nothing like that would ever happen 😉
   • Embed this notice
     SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹 (saramg@fosstodon.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 05:21:51 JST SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹

     in reply to

     @goatsarah Oh sure, when all goes to plan I'm sure it's fine, it's more the "in duress" part of your reply I was looking for and... yeah, sounds like about what I'd end up doing.

     Could you imagine mistiming the tides though? One minute you're up to your keel in mud, the next you're trudging through it, waist deep, clawing towards the shore... how could that even happen? ;)

   • Embed this notice
     Kyozou-Yes on 50 (kyozou@sfba.social)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 05:25:59 JST Kyozou-Yes on 50

     in reply to

     @goatsarah Is this helpful? Or is this what they're arguing about?
     https://raymarine.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3794/~/apparent-wind%2C-true-wind-and-ground-wind%2C-and-data-required-to-calculate-them

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 05:25:59 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Kyozou-Yes on 50

     @kyozou I gave them that link. Their conclusion was that Raymarine, the people who make the instruments on their boats, “don’t know what they’re talking about”.

     Honestly, there needs to be a simple slap delivery protocol.

   • Embed this notice
     Zoë O'Connell (zoe@zoeoconnell.co.uk)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 05:28:07 JST Zoë O'Connell

     in reply to

     • SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹

     @saramg @goatsarah A guy on my first aid course the following week recognised me from that :-/

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   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 05:31:06 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹
     • Zoë O'Connell
     @zoe @saramg “You look different not covered in shit”
   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 05:34:44 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Kyozou-Yes on 50

     @kyozou Oh, and it gets better: “they’re only saying this because GPS isn’t accurate enough to give a good enough speed to calculate what the wind is really doing”

     NOBODY CARES ABOUT GROUND WIND. IT ISN’T CALCULATED BECAUSE IT ISN’T USEFUL.

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 08:12:48 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Piers Cawley

     @pdcawley oh, cool! What were you sailing? Some sort of bilge keeler? Bridlington is quite shallow, isn’t it?

     My boat currently lives in Portsmouth harbour. The Solent isn’t so bad. Watch the tides, especially around the Needles channel. Wind gets weird around Southampton water in a south westerly. Stay out of the shipping channels in the eastern Solent, and beware the ferries, because half of them are piloted by the marine equivalent of white van man.

   • Embed this notice
     Piers Cawley (pdcawley@mendeddrum.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 08:12:50 JST Piers Cawley

     in reply to

     @goatsarah sheeeit! Scary stuff.

     I've never had to deal with really fun tides. We were mostly sailing off Bridlington, so it was pretty much running one way or t'other with no serious complications. Could still get up a fair lick, and wind vs tide off Flamborough Head could get nasty, but nothing like the Channel or all the complications around somewhere like the Isle of Wight.

   • Embed this notice
     Piers Cawley (pdcawley@mendeddrum.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 17:29:33 JST Piers Cawley

     in reply to

     @goatsarah J24s, Squibs and Yorkshire One Designs (25 foot wooden keelboats, kind of XODish – gorgeous things).

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   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 17:33:24 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Piers Cawley
     @pdcawley Lot of squibs when we used to be based at Burnham on Crouch. It was kinda their thing.
   • Embed this notice
     Piers Cawley (pdcawley@mendeddrum.org)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 18:13:48 JST Piers Cawley

     in reply to

     @goatsarah I loved my Squib. I wasn't ever very competitive in it, but had a great time. Much twitchier than the YODs, which were great family boats. Best sailed by two and a half adults, so lots of husband and wife teams with either their own kid or a club cadet on board. The steering was a bit slow motion, but a great way to learn about yacht racing.

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   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Monday, 31-Jul-2023 18:53:14 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹
     • Alexandra Lanes
     • Sylvia Knight
     • Zoë O'Connell
     @saramg @ajlanes @thelocalecho @zoe It wasn’t a near death experience. We had hours before the water came back and even if it did, we all had boats with us.
   • Embed this notice
     SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹 (saramg@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 31-Jul-2023 18:53:15 JST SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹

     in reply to

     • Alexandra Lanes
     • Sylvia Knight
     • Zoë O'Connell

     @zoe @goatsarah @thelocalecho Ahem. Type. Two. Fun.

     It's one of my favorite near-death experiences with you lot.

     @ajlanes Yes, there are other near-death stories.

     And they laughed when I joked about being left for dead in the desert...

   • Embed this notice
     Zoë O'Connell (zoe@zoeoconnell.co.uk)'s status on Monday, 31-Jul-2023 18:53:16 JST Zoë O'Connell

     in reply to

     • SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹
     • Alexandra Lanes
     • Sylvia Knight

     @saramg @ajlanes @goatsarah @thelocalecho Oh, the incident with Sara was *worse*. Far worse. Think "Oh my gods, are we going to end up on the Nine O'Clock news as tragic deaths at rural town".

     We learnt our lesson.

   • Embed this notice
     Alexandra Lanes (ajlanes@mastodon.online)'s status on Monday, 31-Jul-2023 18:53:18 JST Alexandra Lanes

     in reply to

     • SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹
     • Sylvia Knight

     @saramg @goatsarah When I was out paddling on the east coast with @thelocalecho we got a bit like that at the end once. Wading through mud didn’t appeal so I hauled myself along in the boat paddlestroke by sludgy paddlestroke up to the rocks. I don’t know whether it was any less effort but I was determined I wasn’t going to wade any more than I absolutely had to!

   • Embed this notice
     SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹 (saramg@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 31-Jul-2023 18:53:18 JST SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹

     in reply to

     • Alexandra Lanes
     • Sylvia Knight
     • Zoë O'Connell

     @ajlanes @goatsarah She can tell you. @thelocalecho was there, though ISTR she chose a better route than @zoe or I did.

   • Embed this notice
     SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹 (saramg@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 31-Jul-2023 18:53:19 JST SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹

     in reply to

     • Alexandra Lanes

     @ajlanes @goatsarah A short one. Out kayaking, mistimed the tides, wound up having to trudge through thick waist deep mud for 50 meters or so at the end. Coated in mud, but able to jump in a creek to rinse off. Just your average type 2 fun.

   • Embed this notice
     Alexandra Lanes (ajlanes@mastodon.online)'s status on Monday, 31-Jul-2023 18:53:20 JST Alexandra Lanes

     in reply to

     • SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹

     @saramg @goatsarah This sounds like a story…

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Monday, 31-Jul-2023 19:35:41 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹
     • Alexandra Lanes
     • Sylvia Knight
     • Zoë O'Connell
     @zoe @ajlanes @thelocalecho @saramg You walked. I ran to tell the bus driver to wait for us because we weren’t dead.
   • Embed this notice
     Zoë O'Connell (zoe@zoeoconnell.co.uk)'s status on Monday, 31-Jul-2023 19:35:42 JST Zoë O'Connell

     in reply to

     • SaraMG 🇺🇸->🇵🇹
     • Alexandra Lanes
     • Sylvia Knight

     @saramg @goatsarah @thelocalecho @ajlanes Abseiling 120' down a waterfall into a river in flash flood, then walking out past the "route closed" signs was a memorable one.