![\"UK-Baham-V-St-JOHN-AND-E-COAST\"](\"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/uk-baham-v-st-john-and-e-coast.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
We are starting to ruminate on the upcoming cruising season. In the winter, after hurricane season, we want to be in the Bahamas and spend some time in warm water, sunny weather, with lots of white sand into which we can dig our toes. The question is how do we get there from the United Kingdom?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are three basic choices and some additional riffs, the first and most direct of which is shown above. Note: distances which follow are not great circle, which across the North Atlantic are 10% shorter. We are holding these savings in reserve for route changes necessitated by weather.<\/p>\n
This is the route from Land’s End, UK, to St. Johns, Newfoundland, and then down the Eastern Seaboard of the US. It is a short 2100 or so miles (depending on routing for weather and departure point – the SW coast of Ireland is 200 miles closer) across the Atlantic, and 4700 miles total from Lymington,UK, to the Bahamas. It would get us into Newfoundland early in the season – late May – and allow for a leisurely cruise down the East Coast of the US. We’d be able to leave the boat and return to the office with ease.<\/p>\n
But there is one problem. Unless the weather patterns change – which they might as this is an El Nino year -this route offers up a collision course with the storm track along the northern edge of the Azores high. Doable of course, and five years ago we would have not hesitated. But Wind Horse<\/em> has turned us into softies, and eight to ten days of southwesterly switching to northwesterly gales and storms along with crossing seas does not sound like fun. Still, this is a short trip.<\/p>\n A more northerly direct route is to St, Anthony on the northeast tip of Newfoundland. The distance is about the same as heading to St. Johns, but the more northerly track in theory gives more clearance to the storm track further south early in the year.<\/p>\n Both of these expose us to ice carried from Greenland, but that is for a day’s travel as we close with land and depending on the iceberg density, a tolerable risk.<\/p>\n Another option is the traditional trade wind route. From the UK we could cruise Spain and Portugal, Madeira and then the Canaries. That takes us south of the Azores High, in the typically easterly circulation, with lows well to the north. This is about 5800 miles to the Bahamas via the West Indies. It should be an easy trip for Wind Horse<\/em> and us. But, we are cruising in some densely populated areas, not really our thing. And leaving the boat for a couple of months in the Canaries and flying round trip to the States is not to be lightly undertaken.<\/p>\n The third option is the northern route. Up the Irish Sea, hopefully still with southwesterly flow (we had to beat into it coming south last summer), then the Faero Islands, around the top of Iceland, and back through the Prince Christian Channels of Greenland. Then down the Straights of Belle Isle, Bras d’Or Lakes, Nova Scotia, and south. This route is about 5400 miles with a number of advantages. Hops are short, so it is easy to pick weather windows. If the upper level weather pattern is anything like the last three years, the northern route offers much calmer conditions, being above the typical storm track. We are definitely away from the crowds and would love to visit these fascinating places (and take a second look at Greenland). The one negative is the stress of dealing with ice in fog and or stronger winds, which is bound to occur.<\/p>\n A middle route could be UK to Spain and Portugal, then across to the Azores, and from these islands to the East Coast direct or via Bermuda depending on weather. It takes about 4700 miles to get to the the coast, and then another 11 or so miles to the Bahamas (going direct would have us in the Bahamas during hurricane season which we prefer to avoid). The short hops on this route, about eight days for the Azores to Bermuda, make it possible to avoid really unpleasant conditions.<\/p>\n As we said at the beginning of this blog, we are just starting to think about the route back. Weather patterns will have an influence on our decision, although if we decide we need to be Stateside sooner rather than later we’ll probably just tough it out on the Great Circle from Ireland to St. Johns or Nova Scotia. The rest of the decision will come with our need for more adrenalin in the high latitudes versus the desire for easy cruising with the crowds.<\/p>\n There is an interesting (and detailed) PDF report you can download from the Gurus at the University of Colorado on the Atlantic hurricane season here<\/a>. We are not yet up to speed on what their predictions mean to the North Atlantic patterns other than that they imply less activity of the type which would negatively impact our comfort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"UK-St-Anthony\"](\"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/uk-st-anthony.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"UK-Baham-V-Canaries-WI\"](\"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/uk-baham-v-canaries-wi.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"UK-Baham-V-Iceland\"](\"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/uk-baham-v-iceland.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"UK-Portugal-Azores-Bermuda\"](\"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/uk-portugal-azores-bermuda.jpg\")
<\/p>\n