Bermuda > Azores: Weather Routing

The image above shows our track to date and gives an idea of what’s to come. For those unfamiliar with ocean passages, we don’t simply set a direct course for the Azores. Instead, we plan our route based on the weather—finding a path with favourable winds while avoiding excessive winds, storms, fronts, high waves, steep short-period waves, currents, and lightning storms.

Sounds complicated? It used to be. But now there are tools that make it much easier. I use PredictWind, and Seamus has a different tool. This is helpful, as we can cross-check our results. All of these tools rely on the same core weather models—five main sources—provided by government and private agencies. These models gather data from satellites, weather buoys, and other sources to build forecasts, sometimes up to 15 days in advance. Forecasts are updated every 12 hours. Tools like PredictWind present this data in an easily readable format. They also use AI to incorporate the boat’s “polars” (its speed at various points of sail) to calculate the optimal route based on the forecast.

From the above, you can see that we left Bermuda heading north to catch the easterly winds sitting above the high-pressure system. This strategy has worked perfectly so far—we’ve stayed in a band of 25–32 knot easterlies for the past two days. Looking at the chart, it may seem like this wind will carry us straight to the Azores, but the weather isn’t static. That perfectly positioned high is slowly drifting toward the Azores. Our next decision will be whether to go around the top of it, around the bottom, or motor straight through it. Stay tuned.

Current Forecast: "You take the high road and I'll take the low road and I'll be in the Azores afore yea"

Below is the current weather routing from Predict Wind. I have set it to try to find a route that keeps the winds below 30 knots and to avoid swells of greater than 4 meters. The orange triangles are "Warnings" in our case it is warning of: Wind Gusts, Rain, Lightening and Roll. Typical North Atlantic. Stay cool land lubbers, these warnings are alll more than 24 hours away, we will keep an eye on them and route accordingly to avoid the worst of it. One model wants to take us North and the rest say hold your course. Note, they all agree for the next 24 hours (200 miles) and in reality that is all we care about. We will do updates every 12 hours and make our decisions accordingly.