I bought Barada with ocean sailing in mind and to undertake an Atlantic circuit from the UK to the Caribbean and back again. It was big undertaking and lot planning and forethought had to go into the project.
For budding ocean Atlantic voyagers there is a certain tried and tested way of crossing they Atlantic Ocean. I mentioned on an earlier blog when the earth spins on its axis west to east it creates a Coriolis effect wind and the currents circulate in a clockwise way in the northern hemisphere.
Sailors in times past and today take advantage of this by leaving the UK and heading south picking up the Northerly easterly trade winds and sail down to he canaries via Madeira or across the bay of Biscay NW Spain and hop down the coast to southern Portugal and then on the Canary Islands. Resting there and getting ready for either direct crossing or heading further south Cabo verde islands.
When you leave the canaries you need to head south west until you pick up the easterly trade winds which blow across the Atlantic. You go south until the butter melts. You can tell you’re in a trade wind belt because you have distinctive cloud formation that looks like small puffs of white cloud that you’d get coming out of a steam train engine chimney.
Most sailors leave from grand canaria and cross to the Caribbean. Depending upon the size of the boat it can take between 20 and 30 days. From la Gomera it’s 2900nm to Antigua. So it’s quite an undertaking especially if you do the voyage on your own. Lots sailors do the crossing with ARC Atlantic rally for cruisers. There can be literally 100 boats crossing at once but they soon lose sight of one another with a day or so!
20th July 2006 we set sail from Portsmouth harbour bound for Dartmouth there wasn’t much wind that day so we more or less motored 82 nautical miles all the way, arriving off Dartmouth in a thick sea fog. I used the radar and plotter to locate the green marker buoy marking the entrance to the river Dart. Suddenly we came out of the fog to a glorious sunny day and the beautiful entrance to Dartmouth river harbour. After spending 4 days in Dartmouth we left 25th July for Falmouth arriving 16 hours later after playing cat and mouse with the RFA Argus who was making to Falmouth being her home base. We anchored in Falmouth harbour for few days then went up the river Fal to anchor above the captive King Harry Ferry and opposite Smugglers Cottage. lots of wildlife such as white egrets and herons. Lovely quite location for achoring. we met up with some other Nicholson 32 owners El Misty,Moonstar and Seeker. the next port of call before crossing the Bay of Biscay was the Scilly Islea off the SW tip of cornwall.
Royal Fleet Auxiliary Ship ARGUS
