Mistake on previous post

Ron here. I made a mistake on the the previous post when I tried to explain what Tom meant when he said "It failed just long enough to freak me out, as we were on a lee shore."

I put the following explaination, which was wrong!

Being on the lee shore means that land was blocking the wind. In this case, there was no wind to use to sail, and no motor because of of the pump problem. No wind or motor means The Sandpiper is adrift.

I received the following email from Tom Hieronymus of the S/V Mojito correcting me.

Hi Ron,
This is Tom's old neighbor at the marina in Oakland. I met up with Tom and Amy in Mexico when I was skippering the large catamaran, Dolce Vita.

Nice job on the blog. It's great fun following their ventures. Thought you might like a little feedback to keep it accurate. While your reasoning is good, being in the lee of something is being out of the wind, the wind being blocked by the thing. However having a lee shore means that the shore is leward (downwind) of you, a dangerous place to be if something goes wrong. Likewise, when the helm's alee, the tiller is pushed downwind to turn the bow of the boat through the eye of the wind in a tack. So there's windward and leward. To be in the lee of something is to be downwind of it. To have something to the lee of you means that you are upwind of it.

Take care and keep up the good work.

Tom Hieronymus
S/V Mojito

So thank you very much Tom Hieronymus! I appreciate the help. I've corrected the explaination. I sure feel like an idiot. You can tell it has been too long since I've been sailing.