2014 season Corsica Sard Scily general info sought

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pcatterall

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We are overwintering ashore at Port Saint Louis. We are starting our armchair plan for 2014. General idea is to cruise slowly the French coast the West of Italy and the main islands and overwinter ( Scilly Malta?) in 2015 moving into the Eastern Med Greece Turkey etc.
Will welcome any general ideas/suggestions about this tentative plan ....places to stay/avoid and eventual overwintering.
many thanks
 
RobbieW said:
We've been around Sardinia and are currently going clockwise around Sicily en-route to Licata., you may find our blog useful too - www.sailblogs.com/member/syspringdawn/.

I've been updating CruisersWiki as we go and of course theres JimBs site
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Hi Robbie

When are you hoping to get to Licata ? We could do with some info about what and how the marina is set out . Still not sure if we going to Licata or Ragusa where we wintered out before .

www.dufour385.webs.com
 
sailaboutvic said:
Hi Robbie

When are you hoping to get to Licata ? We could do with some info about what and how the marina is set out . Still not sure if we going to Licata or Ragusa where we wintered out before .

www.dufour385.webs.com
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We plan to get there in early October, booked in till May 31st at 1376 Euros inc VAT (12.5 mtrs monohull) + water & electric. There are no fingers, its all med moorings; the marina looks to be about as complete as the Google maps picture shows it. I think what swung it for us was that Licata sounds like a more functional winter town than Ragusa, we expect to be in UK till early Jan then back on board till we leave.
 
Hi Robbie

thanks for that info .look like there not been any real chance since we looked at it in 2011 .
if we do go there it will be mid to late Oct .

any way nothing can be as bad as our last winter stay in Greece , I don't know how any of us liveaboard manage to get thought it with out ended up in side .

www.dufour385.webs.com
 
When we did much the same we followed the coast right around the Gulf of Genoa as far as Elba. Many people told us to jump across from Nice to Corsica but we felt that the G of G was the most interesting and enjoyable part of Italy. From Elba we crossed to Bastia and did a figure 8 around Corsica and Sardinia, wintering at Port Toga, Bastia. Excellent place to winter, very convenient for ferry and airport and quite secure. Following season we went back to Elba, then south down west coast of Italy, down east coast of Sicily, along the foot of Italy and across to Greece.

You need several months to do justice to Corsica and Sardinia but summer months on Italian west coast are hard going and expensive. Offshore islands not too bad with several good anchorages. If doing it again I would not bother, go from Sardinia straight to Aeolian islands.
 
Hi vyv
interesting point you made , you tend to hear us Brits reporting on here that Italy so expenses , I can't honestly say we found it no more expenses then any where else , can I ask please what is It you found more expenses ? The food cost no more then any where else , ie fruit and veg cost no more then Greece and it fresher and there lots more of it ,
bread about a euro the same as most places ,
You can have a meal out for around 12 Euros , less inlaces and more in others .
Yes fuel is what cost more but we use a lot less then we did in Greece and had a lot more wind so we manage to use the yacht for what it was made for , to sail .
what's left ?
Marina prices ? Well we can't readily comment on then cost we don't use them , all I can say is we had two night near Rome at 15 Euros a night incl water and ele , and the three harbours we used on the Italian coast where free .

We had no problem finding anchorage , this year we also cruised east coast of Sicily the Aeolian islands some of the east coast of Sardinia and the west coast of Corsica finding anchorage where ever we went we are now on the south coast of France fuel cheaper then last time we brought it in Greece , port saint Louis last fill up at 1.34 at a garage . And we just made enquiries at a marina near Cannes as we want to go to the boat show just in case we can't find any where to anchor and we been told it 55 Euros a night .

So I am a bit lost why people keep saying it more expenses , more expenses to what ? .

Please don't turn my question into some kind of argument over Greece and Italy . Sailing in Greece as I have for more years then I can count I am very much a were on the difference of both country's.
apologise for any spelling mistake or any commas I missed out I am a bit dyslexic , which some rude and mindless people have pointed out in the past ,
 
Anchoring is always our preference. We rarely had a problem finding an anchorage in Corsica, Sardinia or the offshore islands of Italy. Sailing south along the mainland Italian coast is a different matter altogether. Anchorages are rare, some of the ones we used were tenable only in good conditions, forcing us into marinas. We were paying around €60 per night as out of season rates in May, told regularly that the cost would be higher in June to September. It is possible that if we had plenty of time for slowly cruising the coast we might have found more anchorages but I rather doubt it, we are well used to studying charts for likely places.

I plot my running costs every year. For the year we passed through Italian waters my fuel costs were no more than in most other years. My berthing costs were close on twice what they were in France and Spain, and considerably more than in Greece subsequently.
 
FWIW, comparing Italy to Spain (not been to Greece) we've found that our grocery bills are up to 50% more in Italy. A basket that would have been around 45 euros in Spain is 65 euros in Italy. True, where you can find a market in Italy, the produce is good and cheap - but when in an anchorage you usually take what you can get from the shops around.
 
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The main expense setter is the ratio of marinas to anchorages, but this only applies to boats which prefer to use marinas. The west Med then appears far more expensive than most East Med countries. Or you'll spend some uncomfortable nights! The trouble is that (apart from the Balearics, and S Corsica and N Sardinia) the west Med is chronically short of sheltered anchorages.

Unlike the east Med, from Croatia eastwards, where there are far more anchorages than marinas. Until you reach Cyprus and the Levant, where there are precious few of either! As along much of N Africa.

So it's easier to go cheap in the E Med. As long as you don't mind missing out on the quality of food and wine . . .
 
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Thanks guys for explaining all that , so what we talking about is marina prices , maybe that why we not found much different as we don't use them , tho. I M Sure there will come a time when we have have to ,

Shopping in supermarket and street market we found very little different in prices only when we shop in small shop we notice. A rise in prices .

Anchorages again the area we been cruising we had no problem find them , ok may not be fully enclosed like some in Greece but good enough and safe some time rolling , we had some blows why we been here .

I should really stop harping on about this in case the charter company decide to start doing mass charters here and spoil it all .

www.dufour385. Webs.com

Ps

Vyv I have just Pm you on another matter , right down your street , maybe you can help out .
 
When we left Greece in May we was spending around 100 a week if you don't include the vino , we now spending around 115 to 120 a week and that include the pets food . Last time we stocked up In Olbia we found it very reasonable .

Although we need to be carefully with our money I would let 20 a week stop me cruising these parts , we enjoyed it so much our plain is to sail here again next year .

Tony your back then ? We off to Cannes to boat show then Pisa after that we may cross back over to Sardinia if you about let us know .
 
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