Question: We plan to sail from St. John’s, Newfoundland mid-June straight to Sisimiut, Greenland direct, if possible. From there spend July and August sailing slowly to Cape Farewell from where we plan to leave bound for the Azores. Any comments?
Answer: The passage to Greenland is perfectly doable in mid-June as long as you don’t go to sea until you can be sure not to tangle with the ice of the Middle Pack half way across the Labrador Sea.
It’s being so late to leave Greenland and heading for the Azores that really worries me. Beth and Evans of S/V Hawk made going to the Arctic ‘on the way’ to South America work by starting very early from Europe and being out of Iceland by, if my memory serves, late July. They also went straight to the Canaries, thereby getting out of harm’s way. Starting from the west you don’t have these options.
You will be crossing storm alley at just about right angles with nowhere to hide right at the worst part of the hurricane season. What happens is that hurricanes go extra tropical as they pass Nova Scotia and then track south of Cape Farewell. These can be some of the largest and most fearsome storms in the world (‘The Perfect Storm’ was one). They are huge; potentially producing storm force winds from Newfoundland to Ireland and Bermuda to Greenland.
In 1995 a series of these went through starting late August and lasting well into October. Willy Ker, author of the cruising guide to Greenland and no shrinking violet, got trapped in Greenland and finally left his boat there and flew home. We were in Labrador (having crossed from Greenland via Baffin) tied to trees and rocks with one storm after another screaming overhead, looking at some of the scariest weather faxes I have ever seen. But at least we could coast hop all the way back to Maine.
If you must do this, make sure you have the charts for Iceland, Faeroe and Scotland (and the Faeroe tide information) so that you can bug out by transiting Prins Christians Sund and crossing in hops to Europe and then on to the Canaries.
However, even with this plan, you should be away from Greenland by August 20th and out of Iceland by the end of August at the latest and only that late if you will island hop east. We left Reykjavik too late on Sept 1st in 1997 bound direct for Scotland. We were lucky, getting in 12 hours before a Force 10 that lasted 4 days. And that after a miserable heavy weather trip with the wind on the nose.
Sorry to throw so much cold water around, but better me than a Force 10 storm!
Hi John,
I am part of a team designing an autonomous sailboat to complete a north atlantic route from St. Johns to Iceland. What types of obstacles would you say are most prevalent near the shore and in open ocean? We are very interested in hearing about the dangers one would encounter on such a voyage, from a sailors point of view.
Thanks,
Todd
Hi Todd,
Sorry that’s a huge question that would require a huge answer. More than I can do in the comments.
Hmm, I have been advised not to cross the Atlantic at high latitudes. I want to sail from St John to Ireland in June/July in a 26 foot boat.
Hi Paul,
These days, I would recommend getting away by early June and not waiting until July. In a boat that small the passage is going to take a while and you don’t want to be still on the way when the water warms and hurricanes start making it further north before dissipating later in the summer.
Also, you might want to consider leaving from Nova Scotia and staying south of the ice line. Yes, it’s a good deal longer but that early in the season there is going to be a lot of ice still on the Grand Banks making the first few days out from St John’s a bit nerve wracking and very cold and uncomfortable. If you leave from NS, you can dive south a bit and get into warmer water before turning east.
And I agree that taking a 26 foot boat via the northern route is probably not a good idea.
How ever you do this, getting good strategic weather information will be important to a good passage since with climate change each year varies a lot: https://www.morganscloud.com/category/weather/book-weather-analysis/