Atlantic passage planning

Vanishing Point

Sailing across the Atlantic is one thing but getting to the jumping off point of the Canary Islands has troubled sailors since Columbus’ time. Don Street explores the options

Crossing the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean can in many respects be viewed as the easy part of the trip – the downhill run if you will. Getting to this jumping off point in the first place is often far more challenging.

This article explores both getting to the jumping off point and also routes across the Atlantic and has been drawn my personal experience of seven trade wind passages on four different boats. The first passage in 1956, last passage in 2005 plus more than sixty years of reading about and discussing with sailors trade wind passages to the Caribbean.

As a first golden rule, all boats should try and get across the Bay of

Biscay by mid September when the fall strong gales are likely to start.

The Irish Sea route

Boats from Scandinavia should leave from the Skagerrak, sail approximately 250 miles to Scotland to Inverness, then 90 miles across Scotland, combining loch sailing and Caledonian Canal. Through the Scottish Lochs Ness, Oich then Caledonian canal, exiting at Corrah near Ft William. This is an interesting trip, 38 miles of sailing through the Scottish Lochs with magnificent scenery on both sides, 22 miles of Canal, 22 locks. Canal width 34’, lock length 150’ depth 15’.

Once through the canal you need to head south through the North Channel, with interesting Scottish

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The Caledonian Canal is a beautiful route to the Atlantic from Scandinavia

lochs on the port side begging to be explored and to starboard the Irish coast. As you head south it is 300 miles south and west down coast of Ireland to a SW Ireland, the jump off spot to cross the Bay of Biscay.

There are interesting stops along the way. Dun Laoghaire is Dublin’s yachting center with five Yacht Clubs, a number of marinas and excellent fast frequent rail service to Dublin

From here it’s south to Tuskar, a right turn along the south coast of Ireland with many excellent harbors and clubs to visit. Crosshaven, the yachting center of Cork City is the home of the Royal Cork Yacht Club, the oldest yacht club in the world. On to Kinsale, with its yacht club, large active fleet of cruisers and racers. Ashore dozens of top notch restaurants to the extent that Kinsale is regarded as the gourmet capital of Ireland. Crookhaven is a good spot to sit and wait for a weather window to cross the Bay of Biscay. If sail repairs are needed, there is a sailmaker a 20 minute taxi ride from Crookhaven.

The above route is much more pleasant and has much less traffic that the route down the North Sea, via the Dover Straits although things pick up past the Solent, with Falmouth the jump off point for crossing the Bay of Biscay.

North Sea/English Channel

From the mouth of the Elbe, Holland and Belgium it is just a case of fighting your way down to the Strait of Dover as best you can. Once through, hug the English coast inside the traffic lanes but be careful. The lobster pots are poorly marked and are hard to spot. They have caused much trouble as boats are picking up the pick up line to the trap on their prop with disastrous results. Fight your way west to Falmouth and wait for a favorable weather report.

From Falmouth or Crookhaven or any of the ports in SW Ireland, you need to head SW to get off the 100 fathom continental shelf as soon as possible. Once off the shelf south to wp 3O miles west of Finisterre. It is necessary to stay away from Finisterre as off Finisterre there are

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Cork in the Republic of Ireland

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Vigo is a beautiful Biscay stop off FIVE traffic separation lanes. At times it looks like Piccadilly Circus at rush hour!

By way of Biscay

From WP 30 miles east of Finisterre, time permitting, visit the Rias between Finisterre and Vigo. Every sailor that I have talked to that has visited a Ria is most enthusiastic. Stop in Vigo as the Lagos bros, astillero@astilleroslagros.com will be able to take care of any of your needs The yard founded in 1913 is run by the third generation of the Lagos family. From there it’s 600 miles on to Porto Santo and Madeira. For detailed information on both islands go to www. street-iolaire.com for article on these two islands that appeared in an earlier edition of Sailing Today

Canary Islands

Then to Canaries. The two eastern most islands are low, flat, dry and loved by wind and kite surfers, but anchorages are few and far between. Both islands have numerous concrete jungles. Fuerteventura is really not set up for yachts. Lanzarote, with its three marinas is a good island to visit if you need to do repairs, otherwise i’d say forget Lanzarote.

Gran Canaria will be loaded with ARC boats until they depart late November. The other marinas will probably be full. Back in about 1980 I asked the famous skipper of Stormvogel, the late Malcom Horsley which Canary islands were the best? He said, the western Canaries, Tenerife and Hierro.

My experience has proved it is still true today. Both islands are high, so there is plenty of rainfall, the fresh produce market in both island is superb. The city of Palma deserves a couple of days exploration. The African market alone deserves almost two days shopping and exploring

The roads on Hierro are excellent but narrow. Hire a taxi as, if you self drive, the passengers will enjoy the spectacular scenery but the driver will have to concentrate so much on the road and driving that the driver sees nothing.

Tenerife and Herro are the easiest and best islands to stock up for a transatlantic or trip on to the Cape Verdes before doing your crossing. If you are leaving from the Canaries these are two good islands from which to start. But November is not a good time to start a transatlantic from the Canaries. The trades start moving north late September, early October but do not solidly reach the Canaries until late December early January.

Across the Atlantic

In November the false trades, the African trades that blow from the north and north east pretty much 12 months of the year, start moving further and further offshore. Boats leave the Canaries with a good solid trade only to have it ease off and become variable about 200-300 miles west of the Canaries and do not find the real trades again until they get down to 20 or 21 N and will not get back into good solid trades until 2/3 of the way across.

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Las Palmas is the stepping off point for the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers but Don favours Tenerife or Hierro

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The dramatic coastline of Hierro

RIGHT Tenerife

The northern route

The next question is what track to take from the Canaries. Sailors contemplating a summer crossing via the northern or Great Circle route will probably run into light and variable winds. Being this far north, the bottom of a low that is coming west if well far south will produce head winds. It’s also worth noting that the bottom edge of a late season hurricane will do the same or kill the trades.

In 1984 my yacht, Iolaire, was caught on the north side of Sint Maarten by a late season NE tracking hurricane and saved by using six of her seven anchors. I obtained the NOAA book, Tropical Hurricanes of the North Atlantic. It had the track charts of every hurricane from 1851. Never has a

hurricane crossed the track of boats following the Great Circle route to the Caribbean, but in 2018 the bottom edge of a hurricane brushed Tenerife causing considerable damage.

The northern route is the route followed by many winning boats in the ARC. In all cases they have been light, fast boats with big crew willing to do plenty of sail changes.

Middle route

If departing from the Canaries the middle route is better. You will be starting with the African trades, sail SSW down to about 23N lat before turning SW Hopefully at 18N lat you have reached good solid trades, but in November this is dubious. To really be sure you are in the trades continue SSW until down to 16N lat before turning west. This will almost certainly guarantee you good solid trades the entire trip, but this route is roughly 2,700 miles. On this route, you are passing close to the Cape Verdes so why not break the transatlantic trip? It’s 760 miles to the Cape Verdes, then 2,100 miles on to Caribbean.

Cape Verde route

I recommend not leaving direct from the Canaries and here’s why: In my experience it’s better to head south 760 miles to the Cape Verdes booted along by the ever present African trades. If you are running at 170 miles per day, that’s 3½ days. Cape Verde to the Caribbean is 2,100 miles, all the while booted along by the ever present strong trades, 170 miles per day, 12½ days much nicer than leaving from Canaries with erratic trades probably averaging 150mpd and taking 17 days or more if using the middle route. Head from the Canaries south to landfall in the Cape Verdes at Isle Sal the western most of the islands. The islands are covered in great detail in my newly revised pilot guide to the Cape Verdes, www.seaworthy.com

Having made your departure from here you can spend three weeks cruising west, downwind, no windward work, departing Brava end of first week in December, 2,100 miles to Caribbean at hull speed, 10 to 14 days depending on size of boat and arrive in time for Christmas in Caribbean.

Alternatively you could make landfall at Mindelo and take the one hour ferry to San Anto and enjoy being a tourist for one or two days then south to Santiago, landfall at Tarrafal on the northwest corner of Santiago. You will think you have arrived in the Caribbean as you will be greeted by a beautiful white sand beach backed by palm trees. On the cliff above the harbor is an excellent restaurant. I very seldom recommend restaurants, but this one served me excellent meals in ‘85, ‘89, ‘05 and ‘09. Heading south on the west coast of Santiago I would by pass Ribeira da Barca and continue south to Ricano. If the ground swell is predicted, check www.majicsurf.com, move one mile north to the cove behind Punta Tuna. Local fishermen told us this cove was always safe in ground swell conditions and, needless to say, has plenty of tuna! Conditions permitting, if you have a good dinghy or RIB, head south. One mile south of Ricano, you will find a small fjord, cliffs 50 or more feet high on all three sides and a white sand beach at the head of the fjord, with crystal clear water in the fjord.

Cuidad Vela, the original capital of the Cape Verdes, with its huge fort overlooking the anchorage and town is worth a visit, then head on to Paria, which is much better for stocking than Mindelo, then on to Brava and depart as above. The port captain in Brava will not give you clearance for heading direct to the Caribbean. He insists you must head back to Paria to obtain clearance. However, I did this route in ‘85, ‘89, and ‘05. The customs and immigration said no problem and entered us.

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The port of Mindelo in the Cape Verdes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Don Street is, is a legend of the sailing scene and one of the most successful marine authors and journalists around. He has had many books published and his Iolaire charts are an invaluable guide for sailors wishing to explore the Caribbean

Chart selection

Any sailor contemplating a transatlantic crossing in any direction should have on board Imray Iolaire chart 100. This is a gonomic (to the Americans) or conical (to the British) projection which means a straight line is a great circle course. Myself and the late Alan Wilkenson, Imray’s head cartogarapher put this chart together over 25 years ago. On the face of the chart were shown the various routes used by yachts doing transatlantic passages both eastwards and westwards. The location of ice bergs that had drifted hundreds of miles south of where ones were to be expected were also shown. If you ran into a patch of fog on a clear day there was probably an iceberg in the vicinity.

On the back of the chart were wind, gale and excessive wave height charts for 12 months of the year plus piloting directions for the various routes.

Imray.com