We’ll settle for trade wind sailing once we reached the Lesser Antilles. The trades are winds predominantly blowing 20-25 knots east to west around 10° - 30° in latitude from the equator. Will keep them close to our stern for smooth downwind sailing. We’ll also look out for local currents and streams for additional push in the right direction E.g. there are many currents in the Caribbean that have quite an influence on comfort on board.

We don’t like strong winds, especially hurricanes and the like. Having lived on the US east coast for a couple of years, we’ve seen what those deadly forces can do. Annual storm seasons are roughly July to November in the northern hemisphere and November to April in the southern half of our planet. We’ll sure stay the hell out of those areas during season and cruise elsewhere e.g. an extended period in New Zealand.

Unfortunately, piracy has become a major problem even for small sailing vessels in certain areas. We would love to cross the Suez Canal back to the Mediterranean for instance but that is currently far too dangerous. There are other local piracy phenomena as well. So, we will generally keep a good eye out for piracy developments and avoid those areas.