Hello all,
I'm busy planning to sail from
cape town to
england. It is my first time planning an
ocean crossing, my previous experience is coastal trips on the
east coast of
africa and traversing the
med from west to east, so it's time to strike into the big pond! I have a rough plan: set sail jan/feb from
cape town to st. Helena (20 days) > Ascension (10 days) > cross the equator at 27' (11 days) and take 3 long tacks to reach
cape verde before end of april. If I can't hack it to windward, change course for
carribean and cross to
azores further north. Assuming i reach
cape verde, set sail for
azores beginning of may and arrive 20 days later. In june make the crossing to plymouth. I estimated 106 days at sea but maybe with good currents and favourable winds might make a better time. The yacht is a Flicka20 with
hull speed of 6knots. I am assuming I can average 3 and a half knots. The
motor is a 5hp
outboard just for harbours etc, but I'm wondering if it would be any help across the itcz? I can stow 60 days of
food and
water, maybe more at a push but obviously I will need to provision at one of the islands. Does this sound feasible? Before I go
buying all the wrong
books and
charts I would be grateful of any advise. Particularly an alternative
route if I can't make cape verde...and where best to provision...and crossing the itcz...any helpful information welcome. Interested to hear anyones experiences along this
route. Thanks, looking forward to your input.
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