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Sea Conditions December in Atlantic Crossing


ricki

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Hi everyone,

 

I am a big chicken and do better if I prepare myself. That said, how are the sea conditions crossing from Barcelona to Miami in December? How does Century do in rough weather?

 

thanks for your help!

 

Ricki

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Ricki,

 

We crossed tha Atlantic on Dec 2-10 last year on the Millennium. The crossing was from the Canary Islands to Ft. Lauderdale. With the exception of a couple of hours after leaving the Canary Islands and the morning of the last day at sea, the sea was very calm, almost glassy.

 

Of course, what happened last year is not a predictor of what you might experience but unless you run into a storm, you'll probably have a nice, smooth sailing.

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Ricki,

 

We crossed tha Atlantic on Dec 2-10 last year on the Millennium. The crossing was from the Canary Islands to Ft. Lauderdale. With the exception of a couple of hours after leaving the Canary Islands and the morning of the last day at sea, the sea was very calm, almost glassy.

 

Of course, what happened last year is not a predictor of what you might experience but unless you run into a storm, you'll probably have a nice, smooth sailing.

 

We had the same conditions in Dec. 2003. The water only go a bit choppy when we were in the Caribbean waters. We also had amazing temperatures. I am keeping my fingers crossed for this Dec.

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Where does North Atlantic begin?

Examples of itineraries: Dublin to Newfoundland... clearly North

Barcelona to Rio............ definitely not

What about Azores to Bermuda to Miami?, or Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale?:confused:

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Where does North Atlantic begin?

Examples of itineraries: Dublin to Newfoundland... clearly North

Barcelona to Rio............ definitely not

What about Azores to Bermuda to Miami?, or Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale?:confused:

I'm not sure but according to Oceanweather, Inc.'s web site

(http://www.oceanweather.com/data/), the South Atlantic begins at about the northern border of Brazil. They call the area between Florida and Europe/Northern Africa the southern region of the North Atlantic.

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That picture of the ship in rough seas was interesting. Why would the captain jeopardize the passengers and crew? Most captains would change course to avoid the storm. Anyway, I am going to show my daughter that clip and tell her that is what our transatlantic seas will look like. I'll tell you what shade of green she becomes. We are leaving in about 2 1/2 weeks from Ft. Lauderdale to Southampton.

 

randy and joyce

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Ricki,

 

I am a big chicken and do better if I prepare myself. That said, how are the sea conditions crossing from Barcelona to Miami in December?

 

It should be pretty smooth. If you look at her ports of call, you will see that she heads toward the tropics and then across.

 

How does Century do in rough weather?

 

She would do fine. She has stabilizers. But mostly she avoids rough weather because many of her passengers are wimps.

 

Norm.

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You can use this video as reference to how the North Atlantic could possible be in the winter.

 

http://www.glumbert.com/media/cyclonecruise

 

 

Paul

 

Actually, this happened on the Mediterranean, somewhere between Tunesia and Barcelona, february 2005. It was the Grand Voyager (Iberojet, a spanish cruise operator), which was in serious problems after a huge wave knocked out all electronics and engines.

Article here : http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20050215/ai_n9534444

 

Paul, you like to scare people, right ? :D

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I'm not sure but according to Oceanweather, Inc.'s web site

(http://www.oceanweather.com/data/), the South Atlantic begins at about the northern border of Brazil. They call the area between Florida and Europe/Northern Africa the southern region of the North Atlantic.

 

Thank you Dave.

What a great link!

Now I look for blue seas( on that map, dark blue is calm, then light blue, then light green, then green which is 30ft seas. After that, it's yellow and red, self explanatory)

The area that stretches from Barcelona to Rio is almost all blue. I just did S.America , Valparaiso to BA. Southern Chile and tip of Argentina all green!:eek: No wonder we had rough seas.

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No wonder the crew said they've never seen anything like it in 6 years with Infinity!

 

There's a thread, " Infinity BIG wave Feb 1st" where I , and others, described our observations.

Thanks for telling me about the large red area, makes me feel more comfortable that it's not that common. BTW, is that data retreivable online?

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Since you've followed this link in the past, perhaps you can comment on whether those RED areas happen in the zone between Cape Verde islands and Recife( Brazil) Our cruise is Lisbon to Rio, but those will be the ports that bookend the Atlantic segment.Thanks.

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Since you've followed this link in the past, perhaps you can comment on whether those RED areas happen in the zone between Cape Verde islands and Recife( Brazil) Our cruise is Lisbon to Rio, but those will be the ports that bookend the Atlantic segment.Thanks.

I don't remember seeing red areas in the area in which you will be cruising. Of course I wasn't looking for them. :) Cape Verde type hurricanes form, naturally enough, near the Cape Verde Islands. But this usually happens in August or September. Their track is usually north of your cruise path so I doubt you'll have any problems in late November. (See, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Verde-type_hurricane.)

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Hi everyone,

 

I am a big chicken and do better if I prepare myself. That said, how are the sea conditions crossing from Barcelona to Miami in December? How does Century do in rough weather?

 

thanks for your help!

 

Ricki

 

Very generally speaking, the southern route is less storm prone than the north as the season winds down (the north catching the onset of winter storm cycles). December is after the tropical storm/huricane season which tapers off as waters cool; it formally ends 12/1.

 

As passenger carriers, the lines try to avoid heavy weather - not so much because of "wimps" - but because cruisers (like the glassware) tend to be prone to breakage - older bones, etc. It's the responsible thing to do.

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..... Cape Verde type hurricanes form, naturally enough, near the Cape Verde Islands. But this usually happens in August or September.

 

I don't know how you can have these links at your fingertips! I'm impressed.:D

Thanks for the education, and the reassurance. Now I can appear smart ( at least in the two areas that you had kindly written about) to the friends I bring along to this cruise.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cruise Critic members are a wealth of information! Thank you all for your encouraging comments and great links (I'm going to pretend I didn't see the video of the Grand Voyager!---Actually it's good that I saw it and now know it didn't sink).

 

Ricki the Former Chicken:)

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