There was a very stable high pressure system sitting over Greenland. That high was predicted to and did block sandy from making the usual up the coast and out to sea path of hurricanes. That's the reason that all the predictions were calling for a right turn. The only question with Sandy was whether it would make it's westward turn over North Carolina or further up the coast over New Jersey. So there was no question how the storm was going to behave just the fine details of where it would track. The captain made a very stupid decision where to head once he went to sea. North East was the course a rational sailor would have gone.