Hi folks – If you were a small Falmouth Cutter 22, heading around the world, on what date would you most like to leave Panama, in order to best avoid the South Pacific typhoon season? This is the only piece of essential cruising information I can’t find on your marvelous web site. Thank you very much. Dr. Gene
Hi Gene: Not an easy question to answer as it depends on el Niño, and how fast you move with your boat. Generally speaking, El Niño years tend to be more active in the eastern tropical South Pacific – which means the Tuomotus and Societies for sure and sometimes the edges of the Marquesas.
The "season" is the opposite of the N. Hemisphere – so you start to get nervous by mid-October and keep a close eye on things. The slower the boat, the closer the eye.
On the other hand, leaving from Panama, through the Galapagos, and onto the northern Marquesas Islands is usually considered cyclone free.
So, when you leave Panama depends on how fast you push at sea, and how much time you want to spend enroute. In a non El Niño year I would be happy organizing my schedule so as to leave from the Marquesas by late March or early April. If El Nino is brewing, I’d push this back a month or six weeks.
But you have to watch the weather patterns carefully for anomalies- much easier to track these days with all the satellites and communications.
All of this is covered in great detail in our Mariner’s Weather Handbook. Regards – Steve
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
