Crossing to S America

[LadyInBed]

If you were crossing from Cape Verde, how far south would you cross to, to see some of S America before then working your way north to the Caribbean islands, or would you do it the other way round and work south from the Caribbean?
French Guyana or not that far?

 

[tcm]

Our pal Stingo went to Fortaleza from the carp verdes , sounded very fine. Nice short crossing way under 2000 i think. Myself I wouldn't bother going to S America too much cos it's all fairly culture-free compared with places like Europe, unless you really need to see a whole bunch of short and smiley but ugly people wearing football t-shirts.

 

[AndrewB]

Aim for Salvador, Brazil. It's a fascinating city (with good repair facilities) and from there you have a fast passage north to the Caribbean, or, if you change your mind, you can continue south. If you land anywhere north of Recife it is then difficult to go south because there is an increasingly strong current as well as adverse winds - and you'll miss the best part of Brazil.

To reach Salvador you need to cross the equator not further west than 28°W, otherwise you'll be hard on the wind in the south-east trades.

I went via Fernando de Noronha to break up the passage: there's an account at http://www.yachtsentinel.co.uk/Noronha/noronha.htm. I've heard of yachts anchoring off the St Peter & Paul rocks midway on this passage, but you would need very settled conditions to do that.

 

[LadyInBed]

Thanks, both further S than I invisiged going.
I will have to broaden my horizons

 

[oldvarnish]

All the above tie in with my experience.

 

[GHA]

Going south from the Caribbean would be a nightmare against wind and current, best day I had was 70Nm favourable current coming up from Brazil.

 

[colhel]

Thanks, both further S than I invisiged going.
I will have to broaden my horizons

What's this? The 2015 Scuttlebutt?

 

[Ariadne]

Head for Salvador and then work north with the current and trades.

Do stop at The Gambia on the way - well worth it, and despite what's written you can get all the food you need there for an Atlantic crossing!

 

[temptress]

From the Cape Verde I would recommend heading over to French Guyana then Suriname and Guyana before heading up to Trini, Tobago or Grenada. Take a look here for some info http://www.marinaslm.com/rally/ Although they go thed other way info for the Guyana and Suriname is here with some friendly natives along the way,

 

[Sybarite]

Thanks, both further S than I invisiged going.
I will have to broaden my horizons

Don't you miss the hurricane belt going that way which would, it it's true, widen the date possibilities. But it might also mean you miss the trade winds.