You think that's frustrating? Try racing with the wind like that!

Seriously though, as you build a feel for the boat and the breeze it will become second nature to feel the breeze on the back of your neck, your ears, your cheek. The heel of the boat and the motion it makes as it moves forward (or doesn't move forward!) will give you volumes of information. You will be able to anticipate the shifts and wind strength based a lot on feel. Reaching the point of not having to focus attention on some of the details like "which way to move the tiller to go left", or determining if you ease or pull a line to make the sail move like you want, will allow you to "get your head out of the boat" and begin to observe more of the external things that are affecting you on the water. It sounds complicated now but when you reach that point, you'll be amazed at how simple it really is.

After you've achieved a firm grip on the basics, I suggest going out for several night sails where you loose the crutch of being able to see tell tales and ripples on the water. You can also do this with a blind fold during the day...although you should probably do that on a double handed boat. Loosing these inputs leaves you no choice but to rely on your senses - and you will usually find that they give you so much more information about what is happening to the boat than looking at a 3" strip of flapping fabric every 10 seconds. I believe Rick White does a similar excercise in his seminars.

After I had been sailing for about a year and a half, I sailed the Round the Island race near Pensacola. It was a very slow 110 mile race during the last half of which, the sun went down and it was a moonless night. We sailed in the intracoastal waterway until nearly 3 o'clock in the morning but during that time I felt a sudden revelation because I really felt the boat and the breeze for the first time. I went from a back of the pack sailor to a mid-fleet sailor almost immediately.