Margarita,

can't help with the first two, but the third is so obvious you'll kick yourself. From memory the answer is the next line in the song "...on the Banks of Newfoundland".

In case you are not familiar with the North Atlantic, the Banks are an area of comparitively shallow sea where the Gulf stram and Labrador current meet giving rise to very cold damp air most of the time. The general track of depressions from the Carribean up the coast of America and out across the North Atlantic gives prevailing winds from the Western quadrant (SW - NW) across the Atlantic. Finally the reason ships going to New York and other ports on the N American seaboard go across the banks is that this is the shortest (great circle) route.

Pete M