There are a number of considerations to take into account when passage planning from the Canaries to the Caribbean, which may not be strictly weather driven and make it rather more complex than looking at routing (planning) charts.
What should be a principal consideration is the hurricane season which runs from June to the end of November. Leaving the Canaries during the hurricane season adds a high level of risk, however once we have reached November statistics indicate that any hurricane development is likely to be on the western side of the Atlantic or in the Caribbean Sea itself (between the mainland of Central America and the Windward/Leeward Islands). This has meant that yachts begin to leave the Canaries from early November. However the earlier we leave, the better it is to go south first, probably as far south as the Cape Verde Islands before turning west. This way we stay out of the most likely development area for longer, and if something were to develop we have an escape route by turning south towards the equator. Read more.
