Southampton - Canaries. October weather

[parmabob]

I know that weather can be unpredictable but I was wondering what peoples experience has been of the weather during mid October from Southampton to the canaries - in particular the bay of Biscay. Is that generally quite rough??

[Keith1010]

Yes it can be rough in October.

 

My advice is to hope for the best but to prepare for rough seas.

 

Keith

[sddsddean]

We did a P&O cruise to the Canaries over Christmas week. The weather was warm and sunny in the islands. The BoB was a bit choppy going out (wife was in bed, which is her usual way of dealing with it!), but no problems on the way back. Luckily, a bit of rocking and rolling doesn't bother me, though the worst I've had is on a cross channel ferry in June!, so you never really know.

 

Simon

[DYKWIA]

We did a P&O cruise to the Canaries over Christmas week. The weather was warm and sunny in the islands. The BoB was a bit choppy going out (wife was in bed, which is her usual way of dealing with it!), but no problems on the way back. Luckily, a bit of rocking and rolling doesn't bother me, though the worst I've had is on a cross channel ferry in June!, so you never really know.

 

Simon

 

We've been lucky to date - millpond and beautifully warm-hot, then foggy and cold on the way back. Last time was very calm, about 35 hours later we had friends travelling the opposite way through the BoB and apparently it was horrendous.

[Static events]

We did the Canaries from Southampton in October and the seas were perfect the whole cruise. Also great weather in the Canaries.

 

I have been through the bay of biscay about 15 times and its only been rough once (touch wood).

 

:halo:

[cruisingdelt]

We took this cruise in October of 2010. It was warm and calm but don't use that as a guide. Any cruise can hit rough seas, especially the Bay of Biscay. The crew told us the outbound leg of the prior cruise through the Bay was awful. Bottom line, take the cruise and enjoy. None of us can control or predict the weather!

[Emma on sea]

We did this cruise October 2017 , the weather was amazing in the canaries and Madeira , around 35oC

 

Bay of Biscay was calm and beautiful on the way out

 

The way home , however .... we followed hurricane Imogen ( the one that hit Ireland ) and had waves of up to 6 metres , when the window in the main dining room went under water they closed the blinds !

 

Sea sick bags were available in the public loos

Luckily we weren’t sick , but I have never been so scared in my life

The next day was still a bit choppy , the pool in the solarium was drained as the waves in it were so big !

 

 

Made a good story to tell when we got home 😀

[Iamthesea]

We took this cruise in October of 2015. Great weather! The seas were slightly rough. ;)

[mike x ftc]

We did this cruise in Oct 17 and it was great, really lovely weather all the way down and in the canaries but the bay was a bit choppy on the way back! It usually takes about 20 hours to get through from one end of the bay to the other, you'll be asleep for half of it! We live just outside Southampton and go across quite a lot and to be honest most of the time it is absolutely fine. It's a small price to pay to get to see some lovely Islands and soak up some late summer sun.

[Brookefairway]

Hello

HOw was your sail last October? We are thinking of same this October. Says temperatures are only 70 to low 70s was water swimmable this time of year or too cold?

[Presto2]

You never know - we did a cruise on Britannia to the Canary Islands in August 2015 and the weather was terrible ! It poured down with rain in Lanzarote --- Fire Mountain was entombed in cloud and it was pretty grotty on all other islands. I would like to think that we were just unlucky and that the weather is usually kinder than this. (Having said that, have never had a bad sail through BOB (from early Spring to late Summer)

[downsmead]

We did this trip last year in October on Princess, the Bay of Biscay was Ok but we missed Madeira due to bad weather (not sure if your cruise is due there or not).

[chemmo]

We did this cruise early October 2018.

 

Cool but calm as far as Vigo. I took sea sick tablets as a precaution.

 

Warm and bright in the Canaries but not hot...I did need a light cardigan on deck in the evening.

 

Foggy heading to Lisbon but the weather brightened.

 

Dull but calm weather on the return.

 

If I wanted a last taste of Summer (sun the priority) before winter I would book a hotel in one of the islands, fly there, enjoy 10/12 days with more reliable weather and save money. However, for an end of season cruise it was enjoyable and I would do it again.

[villauk]

51 minutes ago, chemmo said:

If I wanted a last taste of Summer (sun the priority) before winter I would book a hotel in one of the islands, fly there, enjoy 10/12 days with more reliable weather and save money.

 

 

Yep, me too.

[GastroGnome]

We did it in 2017 too - and although it is quite right that we followed Imogen back and it was rougher I don't remember it being  frightening.  We eat in Luminae which is more mid ships and certainly the window blinds were not closed there.  The majority of the time was overnight anyway.  I am really not a good sailor but I needed nothing more than my "zappy bands" (The acupuncture / electrotherapy based things you put on your wrists to reduce nausea).

 

OP the weather is variable and the bay can certainly be rough - but the X ships are very large and have good stabilizers.  But the cruise has a lovely itinerary and I would absolutely repeat it.  The ship had a different demographic / social feel from other X cruises we had done before  - or indeed since.  I can't fly long distances for medical reasons so we are limited to cruises from the UK or Europe so this wasn't the difference between Europe cruises and Caribbean for example.  It was quite odd.  But we loved it anyway!

[DebbieMacG]

We did it in October 18, weather in the ports was really good. There was a lot of movement when at sea most nights but we had several storms following us, the day after we were in Madeira the port was closed for bad weather. I have to say it’s the cruise where I felt the most movement overall but I put it down to the storms.

 

We did the Bay just this week and the weather was lovely! 

[EndlessSea]

We are planning for October 2020 and surely hope that the weather and currents in the BoB will be good for us.  You never know.  We sailed around the Horn several years back and actually looked forward to some rocking and rolling.  We were so disappointed because the sea was like glass - calm and not a wave to be seen.  Go figure.