Talk:Leeward Islands

Confusing designations

The last para of this section has been removed a few times. Sorry for the blind reverts - I didn't notice that someone changed "SSS Islands" to "U.S. Virgin Islands". The original version didn't state anything about the designations on the USVIs, and I don't know anything about that, nor why it was changed. As far as I know, the paragraph should be correct the way it currently is. Sorry for the inconvenience. Shinobu 16:39, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Map?

Is there anyone who can put together a map to illustrate this article? That would be very helpful. Thanks, Invertzoo (talk) 15:19, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

There is a map showing the trade route at Prince_Rupert_of_the_Rhine —Preceding unsigned comment added by 159.121.204.129 (talk) 16:05, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Pronunciation

The heading says that Leeward Islands is pronounced lee-ward, but the pronunciation for the word "leeward" I'm most familiar with is looerd. Is the name Leeward Islands commonly pronounced lee-ward or looerd by the inhabitants? - Montréalais (talk) 19:31, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

Hey--it's only sailors who call them the looerd islands. Similarly, it's the winderd islands. And who would you trust? Sailors? or TV anchor persons? Bluefox79830 (talk) 15:47, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

I'm not a sailor, but I use the "looerd" pronounciation in normal speech (as was I taught). So imagine my surprise in HI (islands of their own with that name, plus Leeward Community College, etc etc) where they pronounce the word lee-ward. And I think they've had a sailor or two pass by their shores!

At this point it's regional, I think. Them that says "looerd" and them that says "lee-ward".

I agree a note should be made in the article.

I never say "winnerd", btw! 66.105.218.56 (talk) 18:55, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Explanation of Name

Before my amendment, the entry stated:

These islands are referred to as "leeward" because the prevailing winds in the area blow from the east. (see trade wind). Thus these islands are downwind from, or leeward of, the southeasternmost Windward Islands, the group of islands that first meet the trade winds.

.

On the face of it, this purported explanation appears to be inconsistent with the Wikipedia entry for Trade Winds and incorrect. It also fails to give a satisfactory explanation of the name Windward Islands and the corresponding name Leeward Islands. Look at the accompanying map. One sees an archipelago in the shape of a crescent, stretching from north to south. The northern half of the crescent is no more easterly than the southern half. So if the trade winds in this zone did blow from the east, they would hit the northerly and the southerly half of the crescent equally, and at the same time, would they not?

The fact of the matter is surely that whilst the Trade Winds blow in general from the east, in the northern hemisphere they blow from the east-north-east (ENE); and in the southern hemisphere they blow from the east-south-east (ESE). Only on the equator do they blow from the east.

In that case, the northern half of the crescent, the Windward Islands, would receive the Trade Winds before the Southern half, the Leeward Islands.

I am therefore changing the entry accordingly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.187.25.55 (talk) 16:22, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

I know this is old, but...

On the face of it, this purported explanation appears to be inconsistent with the Wikipedia entry for Trade Winds and incorrect. It also fails to give a satisfactory explanation of the name Windward Islands and the corresponding name Leeward Islands.

...I completely agree with this. It's confusing. I thought it was just me so I kept reading the description and it never made sense. Could someone clear this up? --Criticalthinker (talk) 11:05, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

"Windward" = upwind

"Leeward" = downwind

The two sets of islands got their names because the sailing ship trade routes went between the two sets of islands, hence one set of islands were usually upwind when viewed from a ship sailing with the prevailing wind, the other islands, downwind. When the islands were discovered and named the ships were all going the same way so one set of islands were upwind, the other set of islands, downwind. So they named them the "Windward Islands" and the "Leeward Islands" respectively.

Or put more simply, the two sets of islands were named from the viewpoint of a man standing on the deck of a ship sailing between the two sets of islands.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.149.173.52 (talk) 15:52, 16 December 2017 (UTC)

All of that makes sense, of course, but that's not the facts in the article. It specifically talks about prevailing winds coming from the east and thus seems to imply that this is all about how a ship coming from the east (though, it's not elaborated whether we are talking about Europe or Africa, even) would view these islands. So, if these facts are incorrect, someone needs to change them in the article. Look at the quoted material at the beginning of this subsection and then also read the article itself. --Criticalthinker (talk) 22:47, 16 December 2017 (UTC)

This recent change...

In the West Indies, the prevailing winds, known as the trade winds, blow out of the northeast. Therefore, an island to the northwest, such as Puerto Rico, would typically be leeward of an island to the southeast, such as Antigua, and conversely, Antigua would typically be windward of Puerto Rico, but leeward of Guadeloupe and Martinique.

...doesn't make sense. I honestly don't know why this is so hard to describe. If you're sailing northwest from the Leewards to the Windwards, or southeast from the Windwards to the Leewards, a ship can't really be described as sailing windward or leeward. The wind is coming from the "side" in this scenario; the ship is neither sailing into or with the wind. I am genuinely confused why the origin of the name couldn't be made clearer. --Criticalthinker (talk) 09:10, 25 July 2018 (UTC)

None of this makes any sense, at all. See here:

If the trade winds are blowing out of the ENE, then a ship sailing East to West from Africa to the Caribbean Islands would need to turn upwind, or windward to reach the Leeward Islands, according to the description of the names as given. The ship would need to turn downwind, or leeward, in order to reach the Windward Islands. Even if the direction of travel were reversed, travelling from West to East, a ship would still need to turn upwind, or windward, to reach the Leeward Islands, and it would need to turn downwind, or leeward, to reach the Windward Islands, if the descriptions given on both these pages are to be believed. Gcvrsa (talk) 03:57, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

Nothing has been change, and in fact, things are made more confusing with the added information about different languages calling each set of islands exactly the opposite. This entire article still needs to be written. Criticalthinker (talk) 10:10, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Origin of the name

The last part of the first paragraph of the "Origin of the name" section reads

... the prevailing winds ... blow out of the northeast. Therefore, an island to the northwest ... would typically be leeward of an island to the southeast ...

Something has gone wrong here. If I knew what it was, I'd fix it. Maproom (talk) 08:06, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

Yeah, none of this makes any sense. More maps showing the trade wind directions:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amanda_Evans2/publication/35458399/figure/fig3/AS:350779018891267@1460643643849/Ships-sailing-into-and-from-the-Caribbean-region-utilized-a-reliable-system-of-water.png

https://files.constantcontact.com/1de8a142101/4e26b313-1e8c-4d79-b787-3397d1d55a47.png?a=1128857872100

As you can see, by the time the winds reach the two chains, it's blowing nearly straight westward. I guess if you totally redfine windward to mean the islands that get the winds first, then the name of the Windward group makes sense. Still doesn't make the Leeward name make any more sense, though. --Criticalthinker (talk) 10:24, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Fijian dictionary

After looking at the source, I think it's most likely that "Ra" in the 1872 Fijian dictionary refers to some leeward islands in the Fiji chain in the South Pacific, not to these leeward islands in the Lesser Antilles adjacent to the North Atlantic. David (talk) 14:02, 20 October 2023 (UTC)