From Europe to the Caribbean by air
Four European cities are the main air gates to the Caribbean.
- London, Paris, and Madrid - fly to islands across the caribbean.
- Amsterdam - flies to the Dutch Caribbean, with direct routes to Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire, and Sint Maarten.
From these four cities, direct flights cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean.
From Europe to the Caribbean by sea
Sailing to the Caribbean is a known ambition among European sailors. Some make the crossing once. Others split the year, spending the warm months from May to November in Portugal, Spain, France, or Italy, and the winter months from November to May on a Caribbean island or shore.
The route south is well worn. British and French sailors come down through the Bay of Biscay and stop along the coast of Portugal, at Figueira da Foz, Cascais, or Lagos, where Portuguese sailors join them. From there the fleet heads to the islands of the open Atlantic: Madeira, the Canaries, and Cape Verde. In November they cross west to the Caribbean on the trade winds, the steady easterly wind that has carried sailing ships along this route for centuries.
The ARC - Atlantic Rally for Cruisers
The ARC is the great event of this crossing. The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers has run every year since 1986, and it gathers over 200 boats to sail the Atlantic together. The fleet starts at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and finishes at Rodney Bay in Saint Lucia, about 2,700 nautical miles to the west, arriving in the Caribbean before Christmas. A second route, the ARC+, starts at the same place but stops at Cape Verde before crossing to Grenada.
The return closes the loop. Each May the ARC Europe sails the other way, leaving the Caribbean and stopping at Bermuda and the Azores before crossing back to Portugal. The boats follow the same great ring of wind and current that ties the two shores together.
- Figueira da Foz, central Portugal
- Cascais, near Lisbon
- Lagos, in the Algarve
- Funchal, Madeira
- Las Palmas, the Canary Islands, where the ARC begins
- Mindelo, Cape Verde, the ARC+ stop
- Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia, the finish
Where the boats land
The trade winds carry the boats to the eastern edge of the Caribbean, the first islands in their path. Most of the ARC fleet lands at Saint Lucia, and the ARC+ fleet at Grenada, both in the Windward Islands. From there the boats spread out. Some stay in the Windwards. Others sail north up the chain of the Lesser Antilles, through the Leeward Islands toward Antigua, Saint Martin, and the Virgin Islands. The eastern islands are the gateway to the whole Caribbean, because they are where the Atlantic crossing ends.