An ocean passage is won before the start: season, boat, crew. Then it is routine, kept up daily until you clear in.
1 · Route and season
The right ocean in the right months
When is the best time to sail from the Canaries to the Caribbean?
Late November to January. Plan each ocean outside its storm season, with the prevailing wind behind you, and go south to the steady trades before turning west.
Plan each ocean outside its storm season, with the prevailing wind behind you; insurance may fix the dates. Go south to the steady trades before you turn west: the shortest line is seldom the fastest. 2 850 M in the trades at 6.3 kn take 19 days, 2 650 M of light airs at 4.8 kn take 23.
Passage
When
Canaries → Caribbean
late November–January
Caribbean → Europe
early May
Panama → Polynesia
February–April; NZ by November
Indian Ocean westbound
January–February, NE monsoon
Biscay southbound
by early September
Bermuda to the Azores
Cape Town to Brazil
2 · Boat and stores
What three weeks at sea ask of her
How much drinking water should we carry for an ocean crossing?
Allow 3 litres a person a day for drinking and cooking, more in the tropics, plus a 50 % reserve, split between tanks and cans. Never count on the watermaker.
Rig: a cracked fitting in old wire condemns it all; re-rig, carry spare wire.
Steering: a windvane uses no power; try the emergency tiller in harbour.
Chafe: move the wear point daily. Engine spares: fuel filters, impellers, belts.
Budget energy in amp-hours, amps × hours per load, against what solar and a towed generator give; the engine makes up the deficit. Range under power: usable litres ÷ litres an hour × speed, with a reserve for the landfall.
Water for 5 crew, 18 days
3 L × 5 × 18 = 270 L
+50 % reserve = 405 L aboard
Tanks 350 L: 55 L more in cans
Never count on the watermaker
Allow 3 L of water a person a day for drinking and cooking, more in the tropics, plus half as much again, split between tanks and cans. Provision for the expected days plus 50 %; cabbage, onions, potatoes and unwashed eggs keep for weeks, stowed dry and airy and checked daily.
3 · Crew and watches
Rested people make good decisions
How do I set up a two-watch system so nobody always gets the worst hours?
Use an odd number of watches a day, as in the Swedish system of five, so the watch hours rotate. Standing orders then tell the watch when to call the skipper.
A shakedown of two or three days with night watches shows seasickness, skill and who follows the rules, while you can still change crew. A medical condition is planned for, not barred. Rotate the watch hours: with two watches that needs an odd number of watches a day, as in the Swedish system, five a day.
Standing orders
Call me: any ship with CPA under 2 M
Call me: wind over 20 kn, glass −3 hPa in 3 h
Clip on at night; nobody forward alone
No spinnaker after dark
If in doubt, call me
Standing orders spare the watch from judging alone; a handover passes on course, sails, traffic and weather trend. The skipper answers for boat and crew: a schedule never outranks a forecast, a deputy lets you sleep, and you go to people in distress when you can safely. Yachtmaster Ocean covers yachts up to 24 m.
4 · Navigation and communications
The daily routine far from land
What should a float plan for an ocean passage include?
A trigger: the float plan you leave ashore says who calls which MRCC after what silence. Report daily in UT; if your link dies, relay through another boat before the trigger falls.
Means
Reach
Use
VHF, AIS
20–30 M
keep AIS on
HF/SSB
ocean-wide, free
daily net, weatherfax, forecasts
Sat phone
worldwide, paid
small GRIBs, medical advice
Inmarsat-C
ocean-wide
SafetyNET forecasts, warnings
Daily report, 1800 UT
Position 15°40′N 042°10′W
Course 265°, speed 6 kn, wind ENE 18 kn
All well aboard
Next report tomorrow 1800 UT
Shore: no report for 48 h → call the MRCC
Leave a float plan ashore with a trigger: who calls which MRCC after what silence. Report in UT (zone +4: 1800 UT is 1400 aboard); if your link dies, relay through another boat before the trigger falls.
Log the position hourly; work the noon position and day's run (25 hours when the clocks go back). Back-ups: a handheld GPS stowed against lightning, sextant, an almanac for every month of the passage, tables for your latitudes, plotting sheets, a large-scale chart of the landfall. Check the compass daily by the Sun's amplitude or azimuth.
5 · Safety and medical
Your own boat is the rescue service
Should we take to the liferaft if the boat is taking on water?
Not while she floats: stay with the boat, fight the leak, tell the MRCC early and take to the liferaft only when she sinks.
Help may be days away: clip on before you leave the hatch, with a second person awake, and give each lifejacket an AIS MOB beacon, seen on your own plotter. Overboard: MOB button, danbuoy, a pointer, sails down, back under power; a halyard and a winch lift the casualty.
Equipment
For an ocean
Liferaft
ISO 9650-1, >24 h pack, serviced
EPIRB
registered to the boat, battery in date
Grab bag
add PLB, sat phone, water, hand watermaker
Medical kit
prescription drugs and a guide, with a doctor
MAYDAYAbandon ship
1 MAYDAY, EPIRB on
2 Painter made fast
3 Raft over the side
4 Step in dry, grab bag with you
5 Cut the painter
Stay with the boat while she floats: fight the leak, tell the MRCC early, take to the raft only when she sinks. For illness the MRCC connects you to a doctor: have position, vital signs, history and kit list ready. Seasickness tablets work only taken before sailing; a seasick crew comes off watch, clipped on, sipping fluids.
6 · Heavy weather
Sea room is safety
Should I heave to, stream a drogue or use a sea anchor in a gale?
With sea room, heave to when the crew is exhausted; running too fast, stream a drogue astern; with a reef to leeward, lie to a parachute sea anchor from the bow, which nearly stops the drift.
Hove to
Drogue astern
Sea anchor
Before a gale: storm sails tried in harbour, everything lashed below, food cooked ahead, crew rested. With sea room, heave to when the crew is exhausted; running too fast, stream a drogue astern; with a reef to leeward, lie to a parachute sea anchor from the bow, which nearly stops the drift. A lee shore at night is the danger: stay out and close it by day.
7 · Landfall and clearing in
Arrive by day, with the Q flag up
What do I do when I arrive in a foreign country after an ocean passage?
Go straight to a port of entry under the Q flag; only the skipper lands, with passports, crew list, ship's papers and the last port's outward clearance. Once cleared, the courtesy flag goes up.
Make the landfall in daylight: slow down or heave to rather than close an unlit reef at night. A light rises at 2.08 × (√height + √eye height) miles. Old charts can be a mile out and remote lights fail: keep a wide berth. Unsure of your position, aim off up-current of the harbour: then you know which way to turn.
Atolls at nightwide berth, radar; gap by day
Aiming offB, up-current
Go straight to a port of entry under the Q flag; only the skipper lands, with passports, crew list, ship's papers and the outward clearance from the last port. Send any advance notice in local time, declare all food, and sign off crew who leave. Once cleared, the Q flag comes down and the courtesy flag goes up at the starboard spreader.
Practice questions
Questions from this topic, as the app asks them. Open one to see the answer.
Planning the crossing
Las Palmas → St Lucia, about 2 700 M
N Atlantic hurricane season: 1 Jun – 30 Nov
NE trades: steady from late Nov–Dec
You are planning your first trade-wind crossing from the Canaries to the Caribbean. When do you leave?
Late November to January
August, the calmest month
June, with the longest days
September, the warmest sea
Show the answer
A. Late November to January
Leave as the hurricane season closes (30 Nov) and the NE trades set in; the ARC sails in late November, when the risk on its route is very low.
All 100 questions of this topic are in the app: practice by topic with the reason after every answer, your mistakes brought back, and a timed mock exam. Free, no sign-up, in the browser or in Telegram.
