prevailing winds July Antigua to St Maarten?

[kitrob]

Thankyou to those who responded to my safety query.

For 1 July to 20 July what tends to be the prevailing wind direction and accordingly which side of Antigua, St Barts and St Maarten is favoured for leeward protection?.

[MarkJ]

Easterly winds. Maybe a tad south of east.
You go on the west of St Barts and St Martin.
East of Nevis, St Kits, Monserat, Statia and Saba

Unles you are dropping into the islands... All island ports are on the west coast.

There is the chance of a hurricane in July. You really, really, really need to be going direct, non stop from Antigua to St Martin. Any other islands have no protection in hurricanes.
Then if you wish to do St Barts you dont decide to go in until u have rechecked the weather. That hurricane last year appeared in a day. No one could avoid it and death aint a great feeling.

Others will tell you to drift around as you like, but really u can only go from firm base to firm base. Then any other islands you must be able to return within the same day. Fir example, st barts to st martin is 20 miles downwind so you can do that easily, but trying to get from Monserrat to Antigua 20 miles directly upwind in a storm againt current may be impossible ...

[pete33458]

You can get historical wind/surface charts for any month here

Maritime Safety Information

pete

[tbodine88]

I'll agree with MarkJ who has more experience than I. But I also recall very light winds in July around Antigua.

Those of us without motors had to be towed in after drifting around for two hours during a race with the Jolly harbour yacht club, so we could make it in time for beer.