The wind on Lake Titicaca typically makes a 360 degree clockwise shift throughout a 24 hour period of time. Even so, depending on where you are on the lake, the wind generally blows in a specific direction about 70% of the time which is great when that is the direction you want to go, and less than great when that 70% is against you. These wind shifts are usually predictable, with a period of calm between the major shifts, even on a windy day.

Occasionally the wind shifts hours sooner than normal. When that happened, it generally blew hours longer in that direction. For example, at the beginning of our voyage we were trying to sail West from Suriqui to the Straits of Tiquina. In that part of the lake the wind generally blew out of the West for about 70% of the day. It usually blew from the East around 2:00 am, lasting only 3 hours. On one particular night the wind shifted from to the East around 10:30 pm. It still lasted until about 5:00 am. This proved to be true in various parts of our journey on different parts of the lake.

As I mentioned there is usually a calm between the wind shifts. If the wind had been in our favor, once it died we could drop our sails and still ride the current created by that wind for almost an hour until the next wind changed the current. This became a regular and effective strategy for us.

Superstition abounded for the lake, so much so that it was sometimes difficult to work with some of the local crews. Although the lake is extremely deep in many places, the local expert sailors and fishermen believed her to be even much deeper and believed that you could not reach her floor with your anchors. We had to prove them wrong on more than one occasion when they feared we would be driven against the rocky cliffs.