Carribean to Europe in February

[sighmoon]

I know conventional wisdom says May / June is the best time of year to sail from the Caribbean to Europe, but that's not when I have time. How would it be this time of year?

What would the best route be? My thought is Bermuda might be best avoided, and we'd be better off going direct to the Azores, or even straight to Portugal.

Does anybody know a good site for weather information?

 

[Skylark]

There are a number of Routing Charts to show routes and statistical weather expectations. Imray 100 is one example. This is a gnomic projection, helpful for great circle sailing, especially at higher latitudes. Amazon seems to offer good prices.

 

[KellysEye]

You would be sailing into the north Atlantic lows even if you headed directly to the Azores (which will be having winter gales). When the jetstream moves south the lows move south with it, the lows cross the Azores heading east and often run up the south Portuguese coast, which makes direct to Portugal a no go too.

The lows can last through April which is why May is the preferred month. June is the start of hurricane season and early season hurricanes tend to curve north of the Caribbean islands crossing the track to the Azores.

I wouldn't even contemplate it unless you have a fully crewed Volvo 60 or equivalent.

 

[lenseman]

As Kellyseye states North Atlantic lows predominate at this time of the year.

Take a look at the barometric surface pressure forecasts in the link below, lines which are close together mean a gale of wind currently, these forecasts this week (24 Jan 2010) look like 50 to 60 knot winds in mid Atlantic!

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/surface_pressure.html

Also the following link from NOAA:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Clink on the sea area for details!

 

[Bajansailor]

Dont even think about leaving from the Caribbean until the middle or end of April.
At this (ie now) time of year even large fast cargo ships get pasted by the weather occasionally while travelling to and fro between the Windies and Europe - despite their advantages of size, speed and good weather routing.

 

[sighmoon]

Thanks all. It was a brief flight of fancy, but a little bit of information later it seemed like a very daft idea.

 

[lenseman]

Thanks all. It was a brief flight of fancy, but a little bit of information later it seemed like a very daft idea.

I am very glad you made that decision . . . . . . I thought I was going to place you in a box in my mind marked 'silly boy'.

 

[adl]

I did a delivery on a Whitbread 60 between Antigua and the Azores in Jan 2000, we were planning on going to Scotland but due to the weather system parked the boat up in the Azores.

The weather was very windy and wavey, the Skipper Paul Jeffes ex Global Challenge said it was similar to the South Atlantic but just a bit warmer!

I really wouldn't go there if you didn't have to, I have also made the same trip in a Volvo 60 in May and we still had some bad weather on the way back (that was with a full racing crew).

 

[capnsensible]

The earliest in the year I have done this trip was in mid April. Very windy, rough seas. Got 55 knots sustained for a while 6 days away from the Azores. Uncomfortable delivery.

Last year, I delivered a Warrior 40 from Antigua to Lanzarotte via the Azores. We had a few problems with the boat and had to return to Antigua for repairs. We finally left on the 23rd June and had probably the best eastwards trip I have done.

June too soon, July stand by as the little rhyme goes. We left with a good weeks forecast- very accurate as it turned out- from passageweather.com. We also were in daily iridium contact with our shore weather girl (the missus!) and took shedloads of diesel.

Apart from bending the spinnaker pole in two during a squall, getting a massive bit of fishing net wrapped round the prop one night and the engine exaust blowing out, it was weatherwise uneventful.

I would certainly go that late again with those precautions.

Happy Transatlanticcing!