Its not too far north for everyone but I doubt it will make things that interesting - I may be wrong though. I did the ARC last year and out route was pretty northerly compared to the rest of the fleet and we encountered some strongish winds for a while. However World Cruising emailed us with a forecast of winds up to 70kts! When you are hit by a squall you will get 40kts and if you are prepared you can handle it. Same with Otto. All this is IMHO of course...
<hr width=100% size=1>Its 11.59am - lets open the beers...
40 kt squalls are handleable its when the wind is up ther for long enough to start creating wave trains when it gets "interesting", only done it once beam reaching for six hours in 40-45 kts crossing Biscay........once was enough!!!!......keith
