After two and a half circumnavigations - one east about using the Suez and
Panama, One west about south of Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, I'd always choose to go around
South Africa, not sure about the Horn. As others have written, Southern
Africa offers wonderful chances to explore (We spent 18 wonderful months doing so.) We have no
engine but found by watching the
weather we had very good sailing between Richards Bay and
Cape Town. Even had an easy trip into Knysna
lagoon after heaving to for five hours to time the tide perfectly. Sure glad we went in there - great place.
North Pacific trip from
Japan to
Canada - loved
Japan and wished we had longer to stay there (plus some extra
money as prices were astronomical). Trip was long - wrote a whole book along the way plus learned 26 new
songs on the guitar.
We have always gotten the Pilot Atlas for each major ocean area(we prefer the American ones over the british) and studied each month to understand more about the
weather patterns and notice how they change. We read the Admiralty book, Ocean passages for the world - both the sailing ship
route suggestions and the low powered ships routes. Armed with this information we can more readily evaluate information other sources provide.
Fair winds,
Lin