from Cape Verde to Brazil, who has done it?

[terradagua]

Hello everyone,

I would like to have some advice, words of experience from you guys, salty people out there.
We are looking into the possibility to sail from cape verde to Brazil and I would like to know when is the best time to do this crossing. some advices from people that has done it before would be so cool! Is there a time that we should absolutely NOT go? We have the world cruising route book and we looked into it, it says that there is no NO GO period.
but at the same time, in july, sept, oct nov, there are these systems that develop in the Atlantic close to the coast of Africa. so really want to check out on the CF to see what you think.
And also, maybe it matters to know that we are not a superyatch going @20 knots, we are little and go @5 knots.:-)

Waves of thanks in advance.
Claudia
And also, a pic for you because it is a beautiful day :-)

[ice]

Originally Posted by terradagua

cape verde to Brazil and I would like to know when is the best time to do this crossing.

We have done that passage - actually Cape Verde to Uruguay but going right by Brazil.

There is no terrible time to do it, but some times are better than others.

There are two challenges on this passage - the doldrums and the headwinds when you cross the equator. Optimally you are looking for the doldrums to be as narrow as possible and for the winds south if the equator to be as easterly (rather than southerly) as possible. Those two things unfortunately don't happen at the same time. The doldrums are at their narrowest just before the hurricane season (May/july) while just on the south side are at their least southerly in the winter (Northern hemisphere).

What to do depends a bit on where you are heading to Brazil. If you are heading for northern Brazil you cross the doldrums quite far west where the doldrums are narrowest and you probably want to do that in mid-winter (N hemi) to get the best wind angle.

If you are heading south of the bulge you probably need to cross the doldrums further east (in order to get a sailing angle to below the bulge), where they will naturally be wider all year around and you might want to do it spring/fall to try to get them a bit narrower. I would carry some decent fuel supply if you can.

There is sometimes quite a bit of lightning just south of the cape Verde's and the black rain cloud squalls can pack a punch at 2am, so be ready to reef down quickly at night.

But its generally a pretty decent and fast passage.