A long shot but......

[richardh10]

Coming around South Africa, would you hug the west coast of Africa to get back to Europe or over to Brazil, Caribbean, Bermuda etc. I know about the winds and currents, but was just wondering if anybody had some practical experience.

 

[Stingo]

The delivery crews use the route that you describe, i.e. Cape Town, Brazil (Forteleza, stopping for the cheap women and beer), then NW towards the Azores High passing to the west of it, then to the Azores....

 

[Gadget257]

Passage weather Sailing Weather - Marine Weather Forecasts for Sailors and Adventurers - PassageWeather on the left sidebar has link to world pilot charts which I believe has the information you require on a large scale. For greater granularity Imray I believe have an Africa Pilot(s) and the Admiralty sailing direction for Africa are very good but aimed at the commercial sector and expensive.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

The ancient rule was "Beware, beware the Bight of the Benin, for few come out though many go in." The jingle was mainly because of the risk of disease, but it was worsened because a sailing ship could take a very long time to sail out of the bight, as it was against the wind.

The coast of Angola also has a bad reputation.; apart from anything else, you'd be fighting the Agulhas current staying close to Africa there.

 

[Tranona]

Surely that is on the opposite side of Africa from Angola (or was the last time i went there)
agulhas current map - Google Suche

 

[Tradewinds]

Popular route seems to be Cape Town>up to Namibia then St Helena then across to Brazil. It's the way I'd go if I was going (I'm not sadly).

 

[GHA]

Passage weather Sailing Weather - Marine Weather Forecasts for Sailors and Adventurers - PassageWeather on the left sidebar has link to world pilot charts which I believe has the information you require on a large scale. For greater granularity Imray I believe have an Africa Pilot(s) and the Admiralty sailing direction for Africa are very good but aimed at the commercial sector and expensive.

also DeepZoom Trip which uses 10 years of satellite data
Sailing directions (and pilot charts) available to download on the noaa site
Maritime Safety Information
not really very relevent to us little boat people but free & interesting to flick through.

deepzoom>

 

[14K478]

There is a reason that the sailing vessel routes are as they are. Tens of thousands of vessel years of experience.

 

[rogerthebodger]

This is the definitive route info

Cape Town to Brazil and Caribbean Passage - a Cruising Guide on the World Cruising and Sailing Wiki

2 routes

Route 1​

• From Cape Town (South Africa)
• St Helena
• Ascension Island
• 
  
• Natal (Brazil) and/or Fortaleza (Brazil)
• 
  
• Trinidad (Caribbean)

Route 2​

• • Cape Town
  • Saldanha Bay
  • Luderitz
  • Walvis Bay
  • St Helena - and onwards

The best time for the crossing is in the summer months.

I gave this information to the ARC RTW ailers who were in Richards Bay just before Christmas

If you pls to visit South Africa end Feb match I will be in Richards Bay during that time and my boat is moored there

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Surely that is on the opposite side of Africa from Angola (or was the last time i went there)
agulhas current map - Google Suche

That's interesting; I thought the Agulhas current went down the west coast of Africa; I was wrong, but there are certainly adverse and difficult currents off the coast of Angola and Namibia.

I confess that Africa is the only continent I haven't visited, and my knowledge of its geography is a bit sketchy!

 

[14K478]

That's interesting; I thought the Agulhas current went down the west coast of Africa; I was wrong, but there are certainly adverse and difficult currents off the coast of Angola and Namibia.

I confess that Africa is the only continent I haven't visited, and my knowledge of its geography is a bit sketchy!

I believe you were thinking of the Benguela Current:

Benguela Current - Wikipedia

 

[Wansworth]

I can look it up in my Ocean passages fro the world(1923) if you really need to know

 

[14K478]

I can look it up in my Ocean passages for the world(1923) if you really need to know

I also have a copy of the Second Edition. Long ago, I noticed that deep sea tug masters referred to it when planning ocean tows of things like floating docks, because this (the last of the "sailing ship" editions) had the best data for them. Later editions cut out a lot of the sailing ship stuff, as there was little call for it.

 

[rogerthebodger]

That's interesting; I thought the Agulhas current went down the west coast of Africa; I was wrong, but there are certainly adverse and difficult currents off the coast of Angola and Namibia.

I confess that Africa is the only continent I haven't visited, and my knowledge of its geography is a bit sketchy!

I sail up and down the agulhas current map - Google Suche which runs from mozambique down to cape agulhas hence its name and it can run at up to 5 kn south so great for sailing south but you have to keep inshore to make good progress sail northwards \. Its a nice warm waters

The Benguela Current - Wikipedia runs from the south near antarka up towards cape point and tend to split up the west coast of africa and splits when it meats the agulhas current

The Benguela current some times flows up the east coast pushing the agulhas current more offshore so cold water sardines swin up the east coast causing the sardine run with lots of sharks, dolphin and gannets diving to catch the sardines

 

[BobnLesley]

I once met a South African lad who'd come directly north up the west coast of Africa as crew on a 70 foot yacht he advised that 'it would've been quicker to sail (via Brazil) anything smaller wouldn't have made it, they'd used a couple of thousand gallons of diesel and the engines were fecked by the time they arrived in the UK.' Apparently the owner had insisted on coming himself but didn't want to go far offshore and had been livid and stayed below for days when the skipper had struck out across the Bight of Benin on the basis that it was just too dangerous (piracy) to follow the coast around

 

[jdc]

The Benguela current is real; when I lived in Luanda we went to Benguela quite often at the weekend: the beaches were pretty, but the water jolly cold! And that was at 12°S!

 

[rogerthebodger]

The Benguela current is why I don't go to Cape Town for summer holidays

 

[Halcyon Yachts]

Coming around South Africa, would you hug the west coast of Africa to get back to Europe or over to Brazil, Caribbean, Bermuda etc. I know about the winds and currents, but was just wondering if anybody had some practical experience.

Yes. On a yacht delivery, we'd go from Cape Town to Brazil, then the Caribbean, towards Bermuda, the Azores, and then across to mainland Europe...

Pete

 

[GHA]

The circumnavigator cruisers turning up in Brazil from SA seemed fairly much in agreement that it was one of the nicest passages they'd had on the way round.

 

[Roberto]

Also, with a sailing boat the Equatorial-ish Atlantic side of Africa has a very wide ITCZ (by latitude), there is no wind at all, the further west one goes the narrower it becomes; sailed four times through and during the S-to-N passages on the western Atlantic it was barely perceptible.
If Europe is the final destination, then there would be the option to cross the ITCZ with more easting, then trying to beat directly towards the Açores, instead of making the full round turn through Carib etc. It depends on your preferences