West to East Atlantic crossing advice

[snowleopard]

We loved Bermuda. To bypass it when you have time enough for a stop is such a waste. Repairs etc. are expensive but food not too bad. In 2002 it was no more expensive than UK. Anchoring in St Georges harbour is free which makes up for a lot. Don't forget to stock up with Goslings so you can have A Dark and Stormy now and then.

 

[tcm]

yep, done this route quite few times but the great advice here is from a lot more crossings than I've ever made. Provisioning easier/better from St Martin than Antigua, I would say. Taking lots of fuel, jerrycans etc gives extra options for routing. Agree with Captain S, in terms of making it across, Bermuda is out of the way - an option not a waypoint, I think. The "ideal" time according to Cornell is May-June, and that's seems probably right, to be ready to go in May.

 

[npf1]

I left Virginia in mid July, via Bermuda and Azores, and got back to UK mid August having had to motor half way across due to b/all wind as too late in the season. Also had to get a special provision on the insurance as passaging in to the start of hurricane season. I also echo the above about spending some time in the Azores - perhaps get your partner to meet you there.

 

[phanakapan]

We had a SPOT tracker (anybody following us could just look it up on the internet to see where we were) and a sat-phone, and Lenseman David of this parish was a star in providing us with very concise and accurate weather routing by text.
Each message had a limit on the number of characters that could be sent, so brevity was essential. We received a gem one day on the passage north to Horta - a terse text that simply said "Stop! Turn right! Bad wx ahead"
So we literally did as instructed, hung a 90 degree right turn and carried on with the kite (while complaining about how the wind had dropped......).
It was only later after we arrived in Horta, and saw boats arriving with damages, that we found out that if we had carried on heading north we would have sailed into the teeth of a hurricane - boats only 80 miles north of us at the time were being pasted by 60 knots.

Lenseman's WX texts are brill- he 'did' us across the Atlantic and Pacific, as a back up in case we couldn't get our gribs. Shame he seems to be experiencing some rather foul weather of his own in the past few weeks!

Bajansailor- will certainly have a beer with you if we make Barbados our circumnav completion point

 

[macd]

Lenseman David of this parish was a star in providing us with very concise and accurate weather routing by text.
Each message had a limit on the number of characters that could be sent, so brevity was essential. We received a gem one day on the passage north to Horta - a terse text that simply said "Stop! Turn right! Bad wx ahead"
So we literally did as instructed, hung a 90 degree right turn and carried on with the kite (while complaining about how the wind had dropped......).
It was only later after we arrived in Horta, and saw boats arriving with damages, that we found out that if we had carried on heading north we would have sailed into the teeth of a hurricane - boats only 80 miles north of us at the time were being pasted by 60 knots.

+1 With a bit of thought and discipline, it's possible to get a surprising amount of weather info into 160 or so characters. With some satphone companies (maybe all), it's free to send texts via the internet (but not free to receive).
It sounds like you crossed at much the same time as I did, Bajansailor, and are as thankful to have avoided the pasting received by yachts further north.

 

[Roberto]

It sounds like you crossed at much the same time as I did, Bajansailor, and are as thankful to have avoided the pasting received by yachts further north.

Hi Mac,

indeed Martin-Bajansailor arrived in Horta at the same time (ish) as ourselves, though have a look at the beast he came with

while we were sharing the poor men's quay rafted 4-deep, he had all the "quay of honours" for himself.
He kindly invited me to visit the boat and it took 15 minutes to walk from the stern to the bow

(hello Martin )

 

[Bajansailor]

Hello Roberto!

Idea is big and fast for sure - she is currently zooming around Barbados at a rate of knots in our Round the Island Race today - http://yb.tl/mgr2014
but your Brancaleone is far more comfortable!
I posted some photos of our trip in 2012 on page 5 of a thread I had started before we left Barbados :
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?316933-An-Idea-across-the-Atlantic/page5

We were very grateful to Lenseman for keeping us out of that hurricane on the way up to the Azores, but being gluttons for punishment we still went looking for trouble on the next leg, and found it in the form of a storm a couple of days out of Horta that took us pretty much the whole way to Plymouth.

In Roberto's photo above, we still had 2 intact liferafts on the aft deck, and a boom in one piece.........

 

[tri39]

I posted some photos of our trip in 2012 on page 5 of a thread I had started before we left Barbados :
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?316933-An-Idea-across-the-Atlantic/page5

.....

Thanks for that interesting link to pic and video. I managed to miss it last time, must have been sailing!

The trades across to Barbados have been very boisterous recently I'm reliably informed!