Safer to stick near the equator crossing the pacific?

[Gerrycooper56]

Originally Posted by dustman

While looking at weather patterns for the last year on windy, I couldn't help but notice that there are way fewer nasty large scale weather events the further north you go towards the equator. Even though it may take longer to get to the Marqueses would it be a safer way of getting there? Are there more squalls up there? The current seems favorable a little higher. Would it be a chiller trip?

We opted to stay higher up when leaving the Galápagos Islands and caught the Southern Equitorial current. It took us 21 days to reach Nuku Hiva in our Hunter 43. A boat leaving at the same time headed further south and was a day behind us. We weren’t good at running dead square so staying high also gave us a quartering wind. Gybed once in 3200nm.