Question: Next May we are taking our new (old) boat on a shakedown to Bermuda and back (our home port is Deltaville, VA, on the southern Chesapeake Bay). After that, we’ve been imagining a summer voyage in the Atlantic, maybe Azores-Ireland-Iceland-Canada-Chesapeake. My question is, is there a good route strategy for this trip?

Answer: You could do the circle via Iceland in June to September but you will be pushing the season hard on both ends. It will be a tough trip and you should plan for at least a couple of gales at sea. I would not attempt it without considerable ocean voyaging experience and a boat that has been fully tested in severe conditions offshore. The big challenge with the above route is getting around Cape Farewell without getting hammered by a late summer storm or worse still, a hurricane that has gone extra-tropical.

There is another option that leaps to mind. How about a passage to Bermuda in late May or early June. Stay in Bermuda for a couple of weeks. Then passage from Bermuda to Nova Scotia in mid-June. Cruise Nova Scotia and/or Newfoundland in July and August. Return home via Maine in September. If you do all of the above along with a circumnavigation of Newfoundland, you will have 5000 to 6000 miles on the log with some ocean work by the time you get home. However, you can be flexible and, say, cut out Newfoundland if you find you want to move more slowly.

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!

Question: I am planning a passage from Cartwright, Labrador to Disko Bay in Greenland leaving about July 1st. You wrote that I should watch out for the ‘Middle Pack’, please explain.

Answer: The “Middle Pack” is the tongue of ice that reaches down from Baffin Bay into Davis Strait and sometimes as far as the Labrador Sea. In early July it could easily lie on your rhumb line course from Cartwright to Disko. Also, as I’m sure you know, the ice may not even let you get to Cartwright that early. It is even possible, if it is a very bad year like 1991, that you won’t be able to transit the Strait of Belle Isle that early, assuming that you are planning to go up the west coast of Newfoundland.

We normally leave it until a bit later (say mid-July) to head for Greenland for just these reasons. Having said that, if you get a good ice year you will have more time in Greenland by leaving early.

One thought would be to leave from say Battle Harbour or a little further north and head for Nuuk or even further south on the Greenland coast. This has several advantages: it takes you further away from the Middle Pack, lets you cross ‘Ice Berg Alley’ off the Labrador coast at the narrowest place, and means that your approach to Greenland will likely be ice free until the last 50 miles or so. You could then coast north to Disko without much worry about ice in most years.

By the time you are ready to leave Greenland, the Middle Pack should be further north, so you could sail from Disko to Labrador, making landfall at say Saglek. We did something close to this in ’95 returning from Uummannaq Fjord via Baffin, Hudson Strait and Labrador, and it worked great, although the gale frequency goes up dramatically Sept 1st.

Question: Is heading from the Strait of Belle Isle towards a point about 200 miles south of Cape Farewell, then heading towards Reykjavik, a practical strategy given your experience with wind, weather and ice?

Answer: I have never sailed to Iceland without stopping in Greenland, so have no experience with this strategy. I think you are wise to give Cape Farewell a wide berth. The tough part might be after you round Cape Farewell and head north, when you may get on the wrong side of a low and have some pretty miserable weather on the nose.

I would want weather fax on board to watch the lows coming through and try to get on the right side of them. Also, give the southeast coast of Greenland a wide berth since it could very easily become a lee shore in a northeaster if a low stalls in Denmark Strait.

On the bright side, July is about the best weather all year and if the fun really went out of the trip you could always crack off for Ireland or Scotland.

Question: I wondered if I could seek your advice on a trip that has been suggested to me but that I have serious reservations about: Sailing from the UK to Boston, leaving around the end of May, taking the North Atlantic route. The skipper seems to be under the impression that we will have easterly winds en route but my pilot books don’t back this theory up. They say we’ll have it cold and on the nose most of the way. What about the ice? Satellite images show there’s more of it about every year.

Answer: You and the pilot charts are correct. If you head directly across from the UK to the USA you will have head winds most of the way as you will be on the track of low pressure systems crossing the North Atlantic. Most will pass north of you, first giving SW winds and then NW after the frontal passage. At least one or two gales would be par for the course. You will also be in the ice zone as you cross the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. Fog will be likely for the last third of the voyage. All in all, it’s going to be a tough cold passage that only strong boats and crews should attempt.

To get downwind sailing you need to get under the Bermuda/Azores high, getting into the NE trades, by sailing way south past the Canary Islands and the Cape Verde Islands before turning west at about 20N. Once almost at the Eastern Caribbean you can turn north past Bermuda and head for the US northeast coast. This is a MUCH longer, but much nicer, trip. BUT, you will have to be VERY careful of early season hurricanes on this route. Ten years ago, I would not have worried until around 15th July, but with the warmer water we are seeing now, nasty storms are starting in June and even May.

I must be honest here, I would have real reservations about going to sea with someone who is wrong about such basic issues affecting the contemplated voyage. It shows a scary lack of planning that may have manifested itself in other areas such as boat preparation.

Question: I have an opportunity to sail from France to the Canaries to Tortola, leaving the end of September through October. What can I expect from a weather perspective based on your experience?

My assumption is we will be in the area of hurricane formation (eastern Atlantic) for the first week then right in the middle of the area where storms build to hurricane force for the last 10 to 14 days. Would that be your assessment? Are there any other things I should know about a trans-Atlantic?

Answer: Our major concern with the plan you have outlined is that you will be sailing during the worst of the hurricane season. A suggestion would be to cross Biscay in early September and then hang out in Spain, Portugal, and the Canaries until mid-November at the earliest before setting out for the Caribbean. With the water in that part of the world as warm as it is these days I would not want to be anywhere near the Caribbean before December 1st at the earliest and would be happier with Christmas. That means not leaving the Canaries until the end of November.

If you do go earlier, you might manage the risk by ducking way south if you see something coming and then making landfall somewhere south of the hurricane belt, e.g. Trinidad. Having said that, Grenada was supposed to be safe and the South Atlantic had its first hurricane last year.

Other than that, enjoy! Our trans-Atlantic passage was wonderful: a following wind, day after day of sunshine—it don’t get no better than that!

See Noonsite for more information on this topic (we’ve only done one southern trans-Atlantic though we have done a number of northern ones).

Question: We are bringing our Beneteau 411 from the BVI via the Bahamas to the Chesapeake Bay,  leaving the end of October. The first leg of the trip, from the BVI to the Bahamas, is going to be the two of us (my husband and I). From the Bahamas to the Chesapeake Bay we will pick up two other crews. Since this is going to be our first time open sea sailing, I need your advice about what the weather will be like. My husband believes that the two of us can handle the sailing to the Bahamas with no third person but  I am not quite sure about this and quite worried. Please advise.

Answer: There is nothing intrinsically hard about the route; in fact, you can do the whole thing in fairly short hops and the winds will be predominantly from behind you. Once you get to Florida, you can go up the waterway, with no offshore exposure at all, as long as you don’t draw too much water and your mast is not over 64′ tall.

However, the timing is not the greatest. It will still be the hurricane season when you start off and you will be sailing toward winter. I would be particularly concerned if you plan to go outside Cape Hatteras, less so if you go inside.

Question: I am a 46 year old professional in fairly good health and in good shape. I am wanting to reverse the steps of my great-great-grandfather, sailing from Belfast, Maine to Bantry Bay, Ireland. I plan to leave June 3rd, 2011. What is my best/safest route? What time frame should I use? I have calculated sailing/motoring at an average of 7 knots (I am planning to buy a Macgregor 26M)?

Answer: There are basically two options:

1. The Great Circle Route with possible stops in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. This is by far the shortest, but is likely to be much more stormy and very foggy. It also exposes you to ice risk. Given your inexperience, I would not recommend it. It does however have the advantage that if you need to, you can always bug out before even leaving North America since you will be close to land for the first few days.
2. A much longer route is via Bermuda and the Azores. However, it will be warmer with no ice risk and a much reduced chance of gales and no fog after the first couple of days. Also, if you need to after the first day or so, you can always bail out by going into a port on Cape Cod.

Seven knots is optimistic, very. I would guess that in the Macgregor, 3 to 4 knots average over a trans-Atlantic would be more realistic. Morgan’s Cloud is 56’ long and a fast boat, that has won her class twice in the Bermuda race, skippered by an experienced offshore sailor with a lot of ocean racing under his belt, but even so, short handed we generally only manage an average of 7 knots for a passage, and that with the help of a big inboard engine and a long range under power.

Question: We would like to seek your advice on my next summer’s trip from Newfoundland to the Azores, then on to Europe. We left our boat in Newfoundland last year and plan to leave for Europe in June to avoid the hurricane season.

Answer: I have read over your plan and it looks to me like you have thought it all out well. Just a few things that may help:

1. I think your plan to leave in late June is good and will allow you to manage the hurricane risk well. Your risk of being overtaken by a hurricane, or extra-tropical storm spawned by a hurricane, would be much higher if you left it until late July or August. If your departure date is delayed for any reason, you should maintain flexibility and not push too hard to get to the Azores, particularly if a bad hurricane season is developing.
2. My strategy would be to wait for a cold front to go through and then leave St. John’s immediately after the wind swings into the northwest. This is usually a dry cold wind that will be clear of fog and give you good visibility to transit the area of ice bergs east of Newfoundland. It will also be a fair wind.
3. In late June there may be a high concentration of ice bergs on the Grand Banks and so I would plan to heave-to for the hours of darkness for the first 2 to 3 nights. The bright spot is that the nights are very short in June.

If you are delayed until later in the season, the way to manage the hurricane risk is to stay much further north, heading for Scotland. You must even be willing to postpone the whole trip until 2008 if a bad hurricane season develops that prevents you leaving St. John’s with a clear window for the 10 to 12 days you will need to get to Scotland.

The other advantage of the northern route is that if an unexpected hurricane forms in the south you can head due north to get clear of it and stay in the safe semi-circle, or even stop in Greenland or Iceland to let it go past. This route will, of course, expose you to a higher risk of gales and easterly winds, but better that than a hurricane.

To try and manage the risk of headwinds, carefully track the eastbound lows coming off the North American coast and alter course to stay south of the centers so that you stay in westerly winds, even if they reach gale force.

As little as 10 years ago, none of this would have been an issue until well into August, but with the warmer water temperatures in the Atlantic, the windows for safe crossings are getting dramatically smaller at both ends of the hurricane season. I think to be safe we must all learn to be more flexible and alter, or even cancel, our plans to suit the season.

Question: I’m at a point in my life when it’s time to live the dream that I’ve had since childhood and that’s to sail across the Atlantic single handed. I’m a complete beginner to sailing.

I’m currently doing a skipper’s course which will take me up to advanced cruising, coastal navigation and radio operation, although blue water cruising is not included since I’m based in Montreal.

I know it’s an achievable dream but I need to put some reality to it, your help and advice will be greatly appreciated. Where do we start; my guess is boat selection? My plan is, as I will be working in Boston next year, to get a boat to live on and get as many hours sailing as I possibly can. I’m not after a big boat, 24 to 27 feet will do, but obviously sea worthy.

Answer: Your project will be a substantial challenge but, nonetheless, we think it is doable.

While boat selection will be important, I think the first and most important order of business is to map out a program that will give you the experience and confidence to make your voyage both safe and enjoyable, not an ordeal. I think the key to this will be for you to get as much experience as possible in conditions like those you will face on your crossing. While the course you are doing in Montreal and living on a boat in Boston will provide a start, both areas have much more benign conditions than those you are likely to face in the North Atlantic, even in summer.

First off, we would suggest working toward a British Royal Yachting Association Yacht Master Offshore certificate. Although you can take the courses leading to this qualification in the USA, we would recommend doing them in UK waters where you will get exposure to the strong tides and more challenging weather that you will face toward the end of your trip. There are many good UK sailing schools that provide intensive residential courses leading to the Yacht Master.

After, or possibly concurrently with, the above, it would be a very good idea to do at least one substantial offshore trip on another boat before setting off on your single handed voyage. The bottom line is that there is just no way to know what it is really like offshore without going there. There are several ways to do this, including just hanging around the docks in places like Newport when boats are looking for crew for the annual fall migration to the Caribbean. However, the problem with this approach is that you might end up going to sea with an inexperienced crew or on a poorly prepared boat. A better, albeit more expensive, approach might be to do a crossing on a boat that takes paying crew. We can recommend Hamish and Kate Laird on Seal or John Neal and Amanda Swan Neal on Mahina Tiare.

The other advantage of all this is that it will expose you to several different boats; experience that will be invaluable when the time comes to pick and fit out your own boat.