Tactical Briefing: Las Palmas to Cape Verde

Our Target is Cape Verde, about 850 Nautical miles to south Southwest.

Note two things: the scale at the bottom of the pic showing wind speed, and how it heats up around the leeward side of the island. So we will begin with 25kts, but could hit 35kts as we round.

This is called an “Acceleration Zone”, and is worse when you are closer to the island. So to hedge, we will swing wide to the east, then point due S (not SSW) until we clear Las Palmas.

Sail Plan

With that much wind we will have a very conservative sail plan, reefing down the foresail and also the staysail at first until we are well past the acceleration zone (as we pass into the first evening).

Winds will stay astern the entire time, almost directly behind us. For this, we will pole out the foresail and fix it in place with two preventer lines to help prevent an accidental jibe. The how-to vid is here.

This is the first time we have used the whisker pole for a passage, but the downwind conditions are perfect for it.

Conditions

Check out this crazy clockwise vortex of current just south of Las Palmas. Because it is rotating clockwise, we’ll need to stay on the eastern portion of it, which will give us a nice boost heading down wind.

If we were to go against that current, it would be slow going and larger seas (when the wind and seas are going in opposite directions, it can create “cabinet waves”, which are no fun at all!).

The seas will have long lazy swells, which is perfect (period greater that 10 seconds). And with the backwind we'll be getting, we expect to have a quick passage.

If we average 6 kts, we'll arrive in Mendelo, Cape Verde on Saturday around noon.

But if we can average 7 kts, we'll get there by Friday afternoon!!

You can track our progress here:

https://www.worldcruising.com/arc/eventfleetviewer.aspx

Choose ARC + and then search for Amari.