NAVIGATION BRIEFING

Over recent years an increasing number of yachts have made the passage directly from Cape Town to Europe without going via the Caribbean. There are a number of advantages to doing this, as well as saving around 3,000 miles of sailing, but the passage from the doldrums is predominantly upwind against the trade winds.

Some of the gain in distance will be lost in the extra miles sailed from being hard on the wind. However, this also needs to be offset against the fact that few passages from the Caribbean to Europe are sailed on a direct course as routeing takes us around the Azores High, with most boats stopping at the Azores.

Weather in the South Atlantic mirrors that in the North, with sub-tropical high pressure driving the trade winds of both hemispheres. On the pole side of the highs are disturbed westerlies, where depressions cross the Atlantic from west to east bringing