Yachting World - July 2018

30

y early summer the peak Caribbean season

is coming to a close, ushered out by a

fusillade of big regattas. Then, with

summer returning to the northern

latitudes, crews begin the return leg of their

migration back home.

While most people focus on the downwind route to the

sun, the voyage back to Europe or the US east coast is

equally important – in some ways more so. The road home

can be more testing, but it is also varied, and planning for

it should ideally shape your preparations from the time

you plan to leave home for a season in the sun.

What should you weigh up in your crew and boat

preparations and which route and strategy is best?

You could, of course, always take the easy way out –

remember that old saw that nothing goes to windward

quite like a 747! You could get your boat sailed home by a

delivery crew, or shipped back to the Mediterranean or

northern Europe.

These options, once the preserve of big motorboat

owners and superyachts, are gaining popularity with

mainstream cruisers, especially the time-pressed – in

fact, a couple of owners I interviewed at the Caribbean

600 this year had their yachts shipped out from Europe

and had booked them back by ship later in the season.

Nevertheless, each year, around 1,000 yachts arrive in

Horta en route to Europe (the total was 1,232 in 2015, to be

exact). Yachts mainly stop here in May and June and

around half have come direct from a Caribbean island,

while a majority of others arrive via the staging post of

Bermuda. According to a survey by Jimmy Cornell: ‘every

year approximately 1,200 boats cross the Atlantic from

the Cape Verdes, Canaries and Madeira along the north-

east tradewinds route.’

The route back is a well-travelled one, but it is a very

different proposition to the way out. The days will be

lengthening as a crew sails north-east, yet the

temperatures are falling and the weather can be very

varied and occasionally testing.

Dan Bower, who wrote our bluewater sailing series

(www.yachtingworld.com) and made his umpteenth

west-east transatlantic passage in May, returning from the

Caribbean on his Skye 51 Skyelark, says: “We consider the

passage to be heavy weather and prepare accordingly.”

But it is also one of the most interesting voyages, and

the almost mandatory stop in the Azores means you’ll

visit some of the most unspoilt, hospitable and

interesting islands anywhere in the world.

Dan Bower has
made numerous
west-east Atlantic
passages

B

CRUISING