West to East Trans Atlantic

[CraigBradley]

We're at the very early stages of planning to sail from St. Maarten to Gibraltar and to get the ball rolling wondered if there is any good advice others have? The boat is a 38' cat.
1. Would a sail directly north to Bermuda, then curve around to the Azores be a possible route or is there another better route?
2. When are the best times of year to sail to get decent breeze and miss the hurricane season?
Many thanks in anticipation.

 

[snowleopard]

with a cat you don't want to be hard on the wind so a route direct to bermuda makes a lot more sense than heading straight for the azores. bermuda is a nice place if expensive so it's worth a stop there. if you choose not to stop the ideal route passes pretty close to bermuda anyway. from bermuda some favour heading NE to the latitude of the azores then due east. i have gone east to stay south of weather then ne to the azores.

you should plan to reach bermuda by 1st june and be out of the caribbean from then until 1st dec. occasionally hurricanes recurve as far as bermuda so it's a good idea to move on by mid june. you can leave earlier but you miss part of the season in the caribbean and risk a bit of north atlantic winter weather.

 

[gcwhite]

Where will you refuel; I understand that CATS use a lot of diesel. If you have time change to Volvos the fuel consumption is better.

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