Swell direction in the leewards

[ArgleBargle]

hi. sorry to double post this in chartering and cruising, but couldnt decide which was more appropriate. the thread despots may remove one post, i suspect.

going antigua to st martin in late march/early april and doing some early trip planning. some anchorages along the way untenable in swells from the north, some from the south.

my question is does the swell direction pretty much mimic the prevailing winds for that time of year (E/ESE), is it random, or is it predictable but different from the prevailing wind direction (and, if so, does anyone know from what direction and how bad the swell is at that time of year)

thanks acres in advance

[Splashme]

I was down there for 13 months. Most of the time the waves come from the NE to SE, depending on the direction of the trade winds. Swell, if there was any, generally came from storms in the North Atlantic, so swell was N to NE, but rare, and we had no problem with it, aside from going over some shallows on the NW end of Guadeloupe. It was only then that you could see a swell was running.