The Atlantic crossing (Carrera de Indias)

node · earth · North Atlantic — Andalusia and the Canaries to the Caribbean, returning via the Gulf Stream and the Azores

The westward passage from Iberia to the Caribbean and back, which within a generation of 1492 hardened from a gamble into a scheduled convoy system. The outbound leg exploited the north-east trades: south to the Canaries to pick up the wind, then west on a near-constant heading, a passage of about five weeks in a good year. The return could not retrace it. Homebound ships worked north through the Florida Straits and the Bahama Channel, riding the Gulf Stream up the North American coast until they reached the westerlies near the latitude of Bermuda, and only then turned east for the Azores and Spain. Spain formalised the pattern into the flota system, with escorted fleets sailing on fixed dates and returning through Havana, administered from Seville. The shape of the route is dictated entirely by the wind: the Atlantic is not crossed, it is circulated.