Crossing the Atlantic to the Med

[B4A]

Originally Posted by yeloya

I did it back in 2012 with a FP Orana 43 ft catamaran. We started at 31 st of march (many people had argued that this was way earlier..) and did from Tortola to Horta in 14 days. Excellent weather , nothing more than 35 kts and nothing less than 15 kts true.
We skipped Bermuda.

The rule is simple;
-leave between beginning of April and June.
-go north until you catch the westerlies , than turn to east.
-go north if you lack the wind, go south if there is too much of it.


We did most of the route under spinneaker, sometimes double reefed main and half rolled genoa when the wind was stronger and close to the beam or double genoa wing on wing on strong DDW. (we had two genoa rigged on the forestay and could hoist them each from one side)


You may have big waves 5-6 meters and surfind down is scary at the beginning (I have seen 25 kts of speed for a second or two..) but becomes a fun when you get used to it. We were always on AP and never had any problem.


Approaching the Azores , you will see the wind dying slowly because of the high sitting over there. Be prepared to motor 100-200 nm to the Azores and carry a bit of extra fuel.
After Azores, you will mostly find north/north easterlies becoming more northerly as you approach to Portugal and possibly stronger winds. Therefore, it's best to point a bit higher than yr target, if you fall too much , you will have hard time to make north to yr target.

I would also suggest that you spare some time in Azore archipelage that we couldn't do because of time constraints. It 's awesome..


Good luck


Yeloya

Thanks Yeloya! nVery informative! When surfing down the 5 meters waves, were you carrying any canvas?

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by B4A

Thanks Belizesailor! What boat do you have?

Made that trip on a Lagoon 38.

[boatman61]

Done the trip a few times in both monos and cats..
The cats were Lagoons 440's and a 450DS..
The cats were Florida to Europe in months from February to July crossings.. never go via Bermuda as summers its staying longer than needed in 'Hurricane Alley' and winters its to lumpy..
I leave when the wind is from the SE and ride over the top of the Bahamas then as far NE as possible as the wind goes round looking for the N'lies to take me E.
Last year (July) was a bad one for wind as the E'lies came a long way over and stretched to as far as 45N.. apart from 3 days of SE 25 gusting> they were mainly under 10kts and predominantly E..
As the delivery was to a very tight time schedule the trip involved a lot of motoring.. all the way across.
Even the normal N winds past the Azores did not kick in till 100nm from the Portuguese coast.
Looking at La Vagas crossing am thinking winter E-W crossings may become the new trend for sailing across.

[B4A]

Originally Posted by psp2psp2

I've done this on a monohull and it went as follows...,

We left Tortola for Sint Maarten, which we had decided would be our final departure point for the voyage to the Azores. Sint Maarten is a) free mooring in Simpsons bay Lagoon b) well stocked with spare parts and technical assistance c) just that bit further east and closer to Horta!

We didn't want to go via Bermuda because we'd already been there a couple of times. I also read a very interesting article by Anne Hammick (author the the Atlantic Islands pilot book) in which she makes several very good arguments for sailing BVI > Azores direct, so as to minimise the of risk getting beaten up by weather between Hamilton and the Azores on the more northerly routes.

We paid for a professional forecast / weather routeing and picked our departure date based solely on the forecaster's advice,. It ended up being April 23. We had a lively passage; headed east while keeping well below the rhumbline in order to avoid a couple of low pressure systems that were marching across the North Atlantic. We ran the engine for 22 hours total. The only time it rained was the day we did laundry, and we arrived in Horta on May 9.

Altogether it was a very pleasant voyage.

After a break in Horta - one of my favourite ports of call - we sailed to the big Azorean island of Sao Jorge and left the boat there for a month in the marina at Punta Delgada. After rejoining the boat, we left Sao Jorge on July 20 and had a fantastic, 7 day beam reach to Lagos in southern Portugal.

AGE OF SAIL - Home

Thanks! Can you please share the link to Anne Hammick's article?

[Octopus]

I've done it once in our Lagoon 420 in May, from Marigot, Saint Martin to Scotland, via St George's, Bermuda and Horta, Ilha do Faial, Azores. We were a little unlucky with the weather, encountering four F8 gales, but it was the almost constant cloud cover, after five month of Caribbean sunshine, that was hardest to bear. Bermuda was lovely and I'm sure the Azores would have been too, but we were on a tight schedule as I had work to return to, so we didn't have time to explore. Saint Martin/Sint Maarten is a great place to prepare the boat for the journey. No West-East Atlantic crossing should omit Horta.

[B4A]

Originally Posted by Octopus

I've done it once in our Lagoon 420 in May, from Marigot, Saint Martin to Scotland, via St George's, Bermuda and Horta, Ilha do Faial, Azores. We were a little unlucky with the weather, encountering four F8 gales, but it was the almost constant cloud cover, after five month of Caribbean sunshine, that was hardest to bear. Bermuda was lovely and I'm sure the Azores would have been too, but we were on a tight schedule as I had work to return to, so we didn't have time to explore. Saint Martin/Sint Maarten is a great place to prepare the boat for the journey. No West-East Atlantic crossing should omit Horta.

Sorry to hear that. When you say "unlucky with the weather", did you have any reliable mean to get daily updated weather forecasts during the crossing?

Could the bad weather be avoided with that?

[Octopus]

Originally Posted by B4A

Sorry to hear that. When you say "unlucky with the weather", did you have any reliable mean to get daily updated weather forecasts during the crossing?

Could the bad weather be avoided with that?

Yes, I'm sure it is easier to avoid bad weather these days. We crossed in May 2008 and only had reliable weather forecasts for the first few days of each leg. However, the strong winds didn't cause us any bother at all. A F8 in open seas is nothing to a 40+ft modern cruising catamaran. In fact the final gale, a F8 on the beam up the Irish Sea was probably our best sailing ever.

Crossing in Mid-May, like you plan, you shouldn't encounter anything worse than we did. It's hardly even worth bothering trying to avoid the bad weather. It's more a case of trying to make the best of the winds you have, and a good forecast will help with that.

[Breaking Waves]

Originally Posted by B4A

We have crossed last year from Cape Town to Brazil and it was a fantastic downwind sail once we turned east in Namibia.

The S.Atlantic is sailors' delight. The best passage making in the whole world.

What conditions should we expect from BVI to Bermuda, Azores and then Portugal?

From the Carribean, I have done it both ways and for the passagemaking I personally would skip bermuda (and essentially head as direct to the azores as the weather allows) unless you get a bad forcast or need repairs. But I have seen the island and if you want to go there as a destination by all means do so.

The rest of it will be a mixed bag, some light, some strong - the exact mix vary's quite a bit week to week depending on the weather systems (espically the high). Having good weather data and knowing how to use it for routing can help quite a bit on this pasage, espically if you have some boat speed. There is more leverage to weather routing knowledge on this route than most, because you have some northing to make (there is often more leverage on N/S routes than E/W routes) and because there is often quite a bit of 'weather'.

...........

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by B4A

Sorry to hear that. When you say "unlucky with the weather", did you have any reliable mean to get daily updated weather forecasts during the crossing?

Could the bad weather be avoided with that?

In past years the SSCA https://www.ssca.org/content.aspx?pa...club_id=710182 run a SSB Radio Net for crossing West to East. Live weather and "currents" information from other boats on route is really useful and daily check ins and weather critique. You don't need to be a member to participate, although there are advantages to membership.

Radio nets are excellent on ocean passages because the information from other boats can be used to supplement the forecasts.

[B4A]

Has anyone done the passage to Bermuda from Bahamas instead?

According to Jimmy Cornell the start of the passage is pretty fast because of the favorable Gulf Stream, and the South West winds experienced at the start of this passage may become South East further offshore and occasionally can last all the way to Bermuda.

Strangely, Jimmy Cornell does not mentions anything about the High Pressure Ridge, and low pressure systems forming on the US mainland though in his World Cruising Routes.

[EllesBelles]

Conditions vary so much. We sailed from Antigua to Bermuda to the Azores and then to Gibralter in May-June 2015.

Between the Caribbean and Bermuda was a nice sail with lovely conditions.


Then, we had a HUGE, spreading high between Bermuda to the Azores for over a week that made the seas so glassy that Rand tow-surfed behind the boat on his surfboard (we have a pretty fantastic video of that- https://svgoldenglow.com/2015/06/sur...-may-2015.html) and I dragged behind the boat on a line to cool off with a big blue whale spouting within view. It was that calm.

As we approached the Azores, the weather changed drastically. Boats were actually lost in the seas around the Azores as we approached. At one point, as we approached Horta, we saw black skies behind us and sailed at our maximum speed to outrun them.

On the last part of the trip, the winds and sea state between the Azores and Gibralter produced conditions that allowed us to practically fly, and we made record time on that leg of the voyage.

So, as you can see, there really is no way to predict ahead of time what conditions you'll have, and given the length of the voyage, no way to forecast the conditions before you shove off.

Have a great passage! Fair winds to you.

Originally Posted by B4A

Hi all,

We'll be crossing the Atlantic west to east in mid May, from BVI to the Med, and I wanted to chat with anyone who has made the crossing on a catamaran.

We have crossed last year from Cape Town to Brazil and it was a fantastic downwind sail once we turned east in Namibia.

What conditions should we expect from BVI to Bermuda, Azores and then Portugal?

[DefinitelyMe]

Originally Posted by B4A

Has anyone done the passage to Bermuda from Bahamas instead?

According to Jimmy Cornell the start of the passage is pretty fast because of the favorable Gulf Stream, and the South West winds experienced at the start of this passage may become South East further offshore and occasionally can last all the way to Bermuda.

Strangely, Jimmy Cornell does not mentions anything about the High Pressure Ridge, and low pressure systems forming on the US mainland though in his World Cruising Routes.

I've done it from Southern Florida which is basically the same thing. Beginning of July. Beautiful sailing conditions and very fast with the boost from the stream. Lightning storms were crappy for the first three days. If I did it again I'd sail offshore sooner and sacrifice the Gulf Stream boost to not have to deal with the storms.