Windward and leeward in the context of "Oʻahu"

The caravel (Portuguese: caravela, IPA: [kɐɾɐˈvɛlɐ]) was a small sailing ship developed by Portugal. It could be rigged either entirely with lateen sails or with a combination of lateen and square sails. It was known for its agility and speed and its capacity for sailing windward (beating). Caravels were used by the Portuguese and, later, by the Spanish for the voyages of exploration during the 15th and 16th centuries, in the Age of Exploration.

The caravel is a poorly understood type of vessel. Though there are now some archaeologically investigated wrecks that are most likely caravels, information on this type is limited. We have a better understanding of the ships of the Greeks and Romans of classical antiquity than we do of the caravel.

Bonaire is a Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles, and is a special municipality (officially "public body") of the Netherlands. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west (leeward) coast of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC islands, 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of Venezuela. The islands have an arid climate that attracts visitors seeking warm, sunny weather all year round, and they lie outside the Main Development Region for tropical cyclones. Bonaire is a popular snorkeling and scuba diving destination because of its multiple shore diving sites, shipwrecks and easy access to the island's fringing reefs.

As of 1 January 2025, the island's population total 26,552 permanent residents, an increase of 10,011 since 2012. The island's total land area is 288 square kilometres (111 sq mi); it is 38.6 kilometres (24.0 mi) long from north to south, and ranges from 5–8 km (3–5 mi) wide from east to west. A short 800 metres (0.50 mi) west of Bonaire across the sea is the uninhabited islet of Klein Bonaire with a total land area of 6 km (2.3 sq mi). Klein Bonaire has low-growing vegetation including cactus, with sparse palm trees near the water and is bordered by white sandy beaches and a fringing reef. The reefs, beaches and on-island reserves located on both Bonaire and Klein Bonaire are under the protection of the Bonaire National Marine Park, and managed by STINAPA Bonaire.

The lug sail, or lugsail, is a fore-and-aft, four-cornered sail that is suspended from a spar, called a yard. When raised, the sail area overlaps the mast. For "standing lug" rigs, the sail may remain on the same side of the mast on both the port and starboard tacks. For "dipping lug" rigs, the sail is lowered partially or totally to be brought around to the leeward side of the mast in order to optimize the efficiency of the sail on both tacks.

The lug sail is evolved from the square sail to improve how close the vessel can sail into the wind. Square sails, on the other hand, are symmetrically mounted in front of the mast and are manually angled to catch the wind on opposite tacks. Since it is difficult to orient square sails fore and aft or to tension their leading edges (luffs), they are not as efficient upwind, compared with lug sails. The lug rig differs from the gaff rig, also fore-and-aft, whose sail is instead attached at the luff to the mast and is suspended from a spar (gaff), which is attached to, and raised at an angle from, the mast.

Roseau (Dominican Creole: Wozo) is the capital and largest city of Dominica, with a population of 14,725 as of 2011. It is a small and compact urban settlement, in the Saint George parish and surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, the Roseau River and Morne Bruce. Built on the site of the ancient Island Carib village of Sairi, it is the oldest and most important urban settlement on the island of Dominica.

It is on the west (leeward) coast of Dominica and has a combination of modern and colonial French architecture.

The weather gage (sometimes spelled weather gauge or known as nautical gauge) is the advantageous position of a fighting sailing vessel relative to another. The concept is from the Age of Sail and is now antique. A ship at sea is said to possess the weather gage if it is in any position upwind of the other vessel -- having the wind at their back, speeding progress, when sailing towards the other ship. Proximity with the land, tidal and stream effects and wind variability due to geography (hills, cliffs, etc.) may also come into play.

• An upwind vessel is able to manoeuvre at will toward any downwind point, since the relative wind then moves aft.
• The fastest point of sail for a frigate typically have the wind blowing in the direction of travel, allowing that ship greater choice in the distance of separation. They could more easily disengage if damaged, and could more easily optimize for the range of their gunnery.
• However, in sailing warfare, the leeward ship gained a point of advantage in gunnery under heavier wind. When beating to windward, the vessel experiences heeling under the sideward pressure of the wind. This restricts gunnery, as cannon on the windward side are elevated, while the leeward gun ports aim into the sea or in heavy weather may be awash.
• Ships seeking to evade capture or attack have the advantage being downwind if they are faster vessels or are close to friendly land -- but in heavier weather a strong disadvantage if there is danger of grounding on a lee shore
• A vessel downwind of another, in attempting to attack upwind, is constrained to trim sail as the relative wind moves forward and cannot point too far into the wind for fear of being headed. The helm is typically more responsive on a downwind course. Sailing upwind involves frequent changes of sail: more tiring for the crew, more chance for mishap, and more taxing for the helm.
• A ship with the weather gage, turning downwind to attack, may alter course at will to bring starboard and port guns to appropriate elevations.

The term has had a literary rebirth in the popular seafaring novels of C.S. Forester, Patrick O'Brian and Alexander Kent. One of the last times that weather gage was perhaps a factor in a surface naval engagement was in the Battle of the Denmark Strait in 1941, where the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen held the weather gage over the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood. Being upwind, the German ships had the advantage that their rangefinders were drier than the British rangefinders facing the spray. The weather restricted the visual range to much less than the gun range.

A Foehn, or Föhn (German pronunciation: [føːn], UK: /fɜːn/, US: /feɪn/ fayn, US also /fʌn, fɜːrn/ fu(r)n), is a type of dry, relatively warm downslope wind in the lee of a mountain range. It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of its moisture on windward slopes (see orographic lift). As a consequence of the different adiabatic lapse rates of moist and dry air, the air on the leeward slopes becomes warmer than equivalent elevations on the windward slopes.

Foehn winds can raise temperatures by as much as 14 °C (25 °F) in just a matter of hours. Switzerland, southern Germany, and Austria have a warmer climate due to the Foehn, as moist winds off the Mediterranean Sea blow over the Alps.