While checking weather windows for sailing down to Canaries, the route is very important. I want to stay out the shipping lanes as much as possible. Easier said then done here. Based on MarineTraffic website, where they display vessels with AIS, Automatic Identification System, there is a whole lotta traffic just offshore here, and inshore too. I already got the worst of it around Scillys and especially Ouessant, just before I got to Brest, but there are some very heavy bits still to come. Straights of Gibralter are super busy, but as we can be a little offshore, I think we can mitigate it a little. Still, constant vigilance is required.
Here is the Bay of Biscay.
…and the coast of Spain and Portugal, Straights of Gibraltar, and Morocco:
…and the transatlantic
I know the distances are large, but that is a bloody lot of traffic!