I am pretty confident that wind is programmed into the game to a significant percentage to be against you. I spent a good amount of time just sailing around the ocean keeping a track of the wind pattern and would watch it constantly try and "correct" itself to blow completely against me as I changed directions to avoid it. I do wonder if you can use this to your advantage but I think it would be cumbersome. A paddling skill that helps you go faster would be pretty funny. I feel a big portion of the reason for the "conscious" wind is to help give the Moder's ability for existing, cause other than that, its pretty useless and a disappointment.