Posted: 31 January 2010 at 10:14am | IP Logged

if you are in the sea on some cold days you could argue that you are better off in the water than on it as the wind chill is quite biting(sea temperature five degrees, air temperature minus windchill). it is surprising that at ten degrees a  SW wind blowing off the dry land can feel really pleasant, but a week later after heavy snow fall the same wind at ten degrees will feel totally different as the wind is being chilled travelling over melting snow(still icy in places).

 check xc weather and you will see two temperature figures at some stations,  one is the ambient air temperatue and the lower one that factors in the windchill, dampness in the air, that is the one we are sailing in as we are exposed to the wind. it may feel warm on the sheltered beach but get out into the exposed wind and it is a different story.

at ten degrees the wind chill is usually about the same or not much less, drop to five degrees and the windchill can take it down to freezing so any temperatures around freezing will have a substantial minus windchill, and the stronger the wind the higher the windchill.

you can tell we arent sailing much, got far to much time to think about stuff like this.

here endeth the geek mode.........