Thanks for the rep, John. I'm looking forward to the next scenario. It should be fun.

I think I got most of the rules for this scenario. Some things that confused me:

1. When a ship touched one of the "numbered markers" and determined wind strength (from no wind to gale) and direction (for the segment the ship touching the marker happened to be in), did that wind (strength and direction) apply to the other ship if it happened to be in that segment? From the rules that seemed to apply uniquely to each ship touching a marker my interpretation was that the wind was fickle and the indicated wind applied only to the ship that had touched the marker.

2. The "segment" the ship "was in wasn't clear since, especially near the centre of the chart the ship's base might span several segments at one. I used segment in which most of the base happened to lie which should include the centre of the ship base.

3. A ship being "fully" in a new segment seemed clear enough. The entire ship base needed to be in a new segment.

4. If touching a marker, the rules on the one had seemed to indicate that you HAD to determine strength and direction (scenario rule 5 for wind), and on the other hand that it was optional (scenario rule 10 says, "you may draw again" - i.e., may = optional). That didn't come up in my game so I choose the optional interpretation.

The major confusion was whether or not the wind determined by one ship touching a marker (and subsequent moves into new segments) did not apply to the other ship. In the game the French ship moved into the same segment as the British ship. The direction did not change (the scenario rules did say re-drawing for strength when moving into a new segment so it stayed the same). However, I had the British ship still becalmed.

I don't know if that was right but it was time to just play the scenario and move on.

And, yes, you're right - but for the wind change the French ship would have escaped.