Trans-Atlantic weather in April

[thunderbird56]

I'm thinking of booking a trans-atlantic from Miami to Barcelona in April. Anyone familiar with weather and sea conditions that time of year?

[dforeigner]

As long as there are no cold fronts, toward the end of April, waters are smooth.

 

To get an idea what the oceans are doing, visit:

 

wunderground

[glgolfer]

Here's another useful site.

http://www.stormsurf.com/mdls/menu.html

 

I have www.wunderground.com as our home page. We add the ports we're visiting to the favorites and keep track of the weather before we go.

 

We did a transtalantic in April this year. Had to bypass Bermuda as they shut it down due to gale force winds. Rough seas the first couple days and smooth sailing after that.

Form Miami to Southampton, England.

[Bollinge]

That would depend on the weather!

[aprildream]

My TA this past April was smooth sailing but it was a little chilly out on deck for me. I was glad I didn't splurge on a balcony because I wouldn't have sat out there much.:cool:

[Vampire Parrot]

You can never predict more than a few days (or maybe, a week) in advance what the Atlantic is going to be like. I've crossed it in January, July and October... and each time it was calm some days, and a bit rough on others.

 

However, every day of every trip across "The Pond" has been fantastic, no matter what the weather! And we even used the balcony during a force 10 gale... we had a stern cabin so were sheltered from the 60 mph wind...

[bobbycruiser]

You can never predict more than a few days (or maybe, a week) in advance what the Atlantic is going to be like. I've crossed it in January, July and October... and each time it was calm some days, and a bit rough on others.

 

However, every day of every trip across "The Pond" has been fantastic, no matter what the weather! And we even used the balcony during a force 10 gale... we had a stern cabin so were sheltered from the 60 mph wind...

 

 

i kinda get off on that kinda stuff. i bet that was kinda intense

[Vampire Parrot]

i kinda get off on that kinda stuff. i bet that was kinda intense

 

It was good fun! The wind was 50mph gusting 60mph, but we were heading straight into it at 18 kt (I love GPS) and so the wind over the deck was 70mph. Needless to say, the deck was closed to everyone, pax & crew.

 

The Atlantic tends to develop long swells in weather like that after a few days, so the ship rides up and down the waves, with the peaks being about 30' higher than the trough. The peaks were 2-3 shiplengths apart. Typical mid-Atlantic storm weather, according to a senior deck officer. The stabilizers were out which reduced the roll to just about nil, but as is often the case, the stabilizers did increase the pitching slightly. The ship (P&O Arcadia, same hull as HAL's Vista class & Cunard's Queen Victoria) rode the waves very well.

 

What was funny was dancing in the nightclub.... it was a formal night so all the guys were wearing tuxedos, the gals were all wearing high heels.. and the nightclub was fairly close to the bow. So we'd be dancing, then the ship would pitch up... everyone would take 4 simultaneous steps to the left, and keep dancing... then the ship would pitch down, everyone would take 4 steps to the right and continue dancing... imagine "Saturday Night Fever" combined with Line Dancing and you've got the picture.

 

 

However, about 30 people did get injured (broken limbs, severe brusing) nearly every one of them fell on stairs because they didn't use the handrail. They forgot the golden rule "One hand for thyself, one for the ship".

 

We had a cabin on the stern which was fun! The wardrobe door wouldn't stay closed, we had to put our camera, eyeglasses etc. on the floor...

 

Before anyone asks : no, we wern't the slightest bit worried. We knew the ship was built to sail in weather worse than that....