Yachting World — February 2018

PRACTICAL

THIS MONTH TRANSATLANTIC ROUTES s  HOW TO STOP A CAT CAPSIZING s  JUDGING DISTANCE s HANDLING BEAM SEAS

SPECIAL REPORT

JANE RUSSELL ON EXTENDING AN ATLANTIC CROSSING

If you are joining, or rejoining, the carousel

in northern Europe you can expand your

options at Biscay. Biscay has a reputation for

particularly unpleasant sea conditions, largely

due to the rapid change in depth from the

North Atlantic up onto the continental shelf. If

you plan to sail from the UK or Ireland direct

to northern Spain or the Azores you may want

to avoid an early spring departure. The risks of

being caught out on a five or six-day passage,

or longer, are quite high, particularly in this area

where the track of depressions is sometimes

difficult to predict. Instead, you can plan to

take in some of southern Brittany, or follow the

French coast round to the Gironde.

Shorter weather windows allow you to make

early season progress along the French coast,

then cut the corner to the rias of Spain. The

same is true for the Atlantic coast of Spain

and Portugal. From May to early June the

northeasterly Portuguese Trades will not have

established and it is feasible to day-hop from

Finisterre all the way to Gibraltar.

Even if you come into this coast from the

Azores much later in the summer it is well

worth spending a bit of time here. A couple of

the passages will be long, but

this coast is rich in the history of

Columbus and the Portuguese

navigators and visits ashore are

a rewarding part of any voyage.

If reaching southern Portugal by the end

of the summer, you still have the option of

exploring some of the Mediterranean during

August and September. There is much to

see, from the imposing Rock of Gibraltar,

to the Moorish glories of Andalucia and the

Roman port of Cartagena. Beware the intense

depressions with winds from any direction

oyages across the North Atlantic are

usually planned as linear routes from

A to B. The cruising focus tends to

be on the end points: for many that will mean

Las Palmas to St Lucia and a season in the

Caribbean, or the USA. But then what? Think

of the North Atlantic as a carousel that offers a

huge variety of cruising for the curious.

Timing is everything as from early June to

the end of November the hurricane season

impacts a vast area, from a narrow band of

storm gestation off the coast of west Africa

to a broad fan of potential destruction that

covers most of the Caribbean Sea and curves

northwards as far as Newfoundland. Equally,

the winter depressions that track across the

northern Atlantic into Europe are to be avoided.

These seasonal monsters restrict the route

and timings of a conventional Atlantic circuit.

But even within one cruising season there are

rewarding ways of prolonging the journey and

endless possibilities for those with more time.

The ARC+ rally setting off

from Mindelo. The Cape

Verdes are a great place to

prepare for the crossing

V

‘THE Hurricane season impacts

a vast area, SO TIMING IS VITAL’

96 February 2018