Best Atlantic Crossing Guide

[columbina]

Hi, please help me with choosing which book about crossing atlantic is the best. What´s about The Atlantic crossing guide?

[MarkJ]

The one you write yourself.

After doing a passage none of the stuff you read before will have been adequate.

This is a funny game... Columbus, Cook, Magellan etc all did this cruising caper hundreds of years ago, but when you and I go its just like its never been done before.

Read a million books, but in the end you will just play 'join the dots' on your chartplotter, and then sail out into the sunrise (or sunset).





Mark

[Tempest245]

I've never crossed the atlantic, but it may happen someday, If I were to, I'm not sure I would head out as if it had never been done before. Commercial ships practice weather routing. We've come a long way since Columbus.

They didn't head to wind, because they couldn't...but who would want to for several weeks..
I'm not sure that I would head west to east into the North Atlantic Current and the Gulf stream... Why lose a knot or two if you can perhaps gain those same knots by heading a further south before making east?

I would certainly consult the pilot charts for timing and currents, and talk to as many people that I could who have made crossings. I would consider a weather routing service either paid, or some free guidance such as Herb Hilgenberg.
I would certainly want a sound vessel, with excellent safety, navigation and communications capabilites with some redundancy.

There's a ton of things to think about in an ocean voyage of any distance. Life rafts, epirbs, emergency steering, on and on....I would do all the research that I could.
Being prepared and having a plan is never wrong in my opinion.

Tempest.

[Christian Van H]

How 'bout we start with "World Cruising Routes" by Jimmy Cornell.

[Kev]

World cruising routes by Jimmy Cornell is indeed a good one but not particularly focusing on crossing the Altlantic.

[Kev]

Besides the "Altlantic crossing guide", Anne Hammick has written several guides for the RCC foundation including "Atlantic Islands" which is quite useful if you plan to stop enroute e.g. Madeira, Canarias, Cabo Verde, Azores etc

[watson1990]

The very first thought that entered my mind when I read your title was "William F. Buckley"
He wrote about a half dozen books about sailing and he loved every minute of it. He was a great thinker and I enjoyed all his writings.
The first that I can highly recommend is titled " Atlantic High " he and some friends crossed from N.Y. on a 60 or 65 footer ...Guess he was being very conservative in his approach [ as he did in everything in life ]
The second book about crossing the Atlantic is called Airborne: A sentimental Journey.
Both of these books teach us much. These lessons are not spelled out to us in longhand ,,,i.e. do this then do this and never do that . But more as an observer,we learn little tricks and nuances .. William F. was a great writer and I miss him and I miss his writings

[Kev]

Just read " Sailing alone around the world " by Joshua Slocum and quite like his approach ! His Atlantic crossing is quite interesting too ... Despite the fact his adventure may not be that useful to 21st century sailors, his approach of the elements and the sea, as well as his great humility ... well worth reading if you haven't done so already.

[Bradley]

Adrift by Steven Callahan is a fascinating read. If you still want to cross after that, just get your boat adequately prepared and provisioned and do it. It is nothing but acres and acres of liquid real estate out there. Truly, a wonderful experience.