A weekend in Sant Carles

A

Adethefridge

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Cheltenham / Albufeira
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Spending next weekend in SC with a view to moving our t37 There later in the year
Any advice on birth selection and local attractions would be most appreciated as viewing a new town / Marina in Febuary can be very misleading if the Algarve is anything to go by.
 
Adethefridge said:
Spending next weekend in SC with a view to moving our t37 There later in the year
Any advice on birth selection and local attractions would be most appreciated as viewing a new town / Marina in Febuary can be very misleading if the Algarve is anything to go by.
Click to expand...

How are you travelling from the Airport? Hire car or public transport?
T37 berth wise you will be in the middle section of the marina, in front and to the left (as you look at it from the shore) of the reception/restaurant building.

It might be wroth you joining the forum at www.scmchat.com and asking there - its the berth holders message board and you may get some focused answers plus you might find people out there who would be willing to give you a rough guide
 
Thanks Whitelighter
Hire car from Barcelona airport which is one of the down sides as we are only 45 mins from the airport in Portugal but I hope the location will more than make up for the extended travelling time
I had forgotten about their site and will post there as well
Cheers....
 
Adethefridge said:
Spending next weekend in SC with a view to moving our t37 There later in the year
Any advice on birth selection and local attractions would be most appreciated as viewing a new town / Marina in Febuary can be very misleading if the Algarve is anything to go by.
Click to expand...

Are you algarve based now, interested to hear what the issues are as we are on our way down to Portimao in a couple of months. It all looked pretty open and pleasant when we were there in October...?
 
Nigelpickin said:
Are you algarve based now, interested to hear what the issues are as we are on our way down to Portimao in a couple of months. It all looked pretty open and pleasant when we were there in October...?
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Yes we are and have been in Portimao for the past three years and one year in Alburfeira before that
No issues we'v really enjoyed our time there just think it's time for a change of scenery, Portimao was had a lot of bad press yes it does get noisy in the summer months with the beech bar party's and yes the storm a couple of years ago did wreak havoc on the north pontoons we were there it was one hell of a storm ! The south pontoons are the most sheltered but closest to the beech bars and the noise they generate it has never bothered us as we are generally in the bars
The actual town of Portimo isn't very attractive but playa de rocha beech is kept in great shape as is ferragudo
How long are you planning on staying in Portimao ?
 
Adethefridge said:
Yes we are and have been in Portimao for the past three years and one year in Alburfeira before that
No issues we'v really enjoyed our time there just think it's time for a change of scenery, Portimao was had a lot of bad press yes it does get noisy in the summer months with the beech bar party's and yes the storm a couple of years ago did wreak havoc on the north pontoons we were there it was one hell of a storm ! The south pontoons are the most sheltered but closest to the beech bars and the noise they generate it has never bothered us as we are generally in the bars
The actual town of Portimo isn't very attractive but playa de rocha beech is kept in great shape as is ferragudo
How long are you planning on staying in Portimao ?
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thats interesting, we are booked in from September and have no exit date, (setting off in May to take the bait by sea). We would probably take an extended cruise into the med during June/July/August in 2017 and then back to PM for the fall; but it's all very much in the wind as it were.

We've asked for a berth in the north basin as we assumed the south end would suffer from the issues you have pointed out.

Our main priority is hiking/cycling and using the boat as much as possible in the fourth and fist quarter so the location and weather seem to be spot on.....

We visited SC a while back as a potential and still may go for it in 2018; unless the great loop becomes too much of a temptation. :)
 
Adethefridge said:
Spending next weekend in SC with a view to moving our t37 There later in the year
Any advice on birth selection and local attractions would be most appreciated as viewing a new town / Marina in Febuary can be very misleading if the Algarve is anything to go by.
Click to expand...

As others have said. Berth selection will be dictated by your length. We moved there in July last year and although only managed a couple of visits due to health issues, for us it ticked a lot of boxes - and for our first foray into the Med the comfort of still being with MDL with finger pontoons etc was a big positive for us.

As for the trip from BCN, don't be too put off, as its twice the distance from Reus and Castellon both of which are c50 miles closer - assuming of course that you can get flights to both. PM me for any more info as we were in your shoes this time last year. I found that one thread on here opened up a plethora of PMs containing valuable advice

Good luck with the search.
 
We spent 4 days there in September , I would pre book fights ,we did not , we used firefly car rentals , never again , they debited our credit card 4 x the Cost of original car hire ,even though we had pre paid, came up with some cock and bull storey just had confirmation that they are refunding in full ( thanks to Barclaycard ) berth wise you will be ok, we wanted a 20 m berth but M D L do not own any , and did not bother to inform us of this even though we had been in contact direct with the marina before our visit ,
We spent some time exploring the area , by car and it's quite pleasant , boating wise for us we felt there was not many places to go to that would keep us occupied , and interested , the biggest disappointment was the quality of the water, in the lagoon , brown and full of weed , but to be fair we were told that once you get out of the lagoon it's better,
I know a lot on here berth there and it is very competitively priced , the marina and club house are 1st class and everyone we met were very friendly and helpful, but for us the lack of being able to rent a berth rather than buy was the deciding factor,
 
Nigelpickin said:
thats interesting, we are booked in from September and have no exit date, (setting off in May to take the bait by sea). We would probably take an extended cruise into the med during June/July/August in 2017 and then back to PM for the fall; but it's all very much in the wind as it were.

We've asked for a berth in the north basin as we assumed the south end would suffer from the issues you have pointed out.

Our main priority is hiking/cycling and using the boat as much as possible in the fourth and fist quarter so the location and weather seem to be spot on.....

We visited SC a while back as a potential and still may go for it in 2018; unless the great loop becomes too much of a temptation. :)
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The north basin is much more exposed
Having said that we'v not heard of anything untoward since that night two years ago and have met many boater who have been there for many years,
The marina offered a great discount on our 3 year lease and have always been very helpful
 
Will you be there on Friday night? There is normally a get together in the bar of anyone who is around so would be a good time to meet people!
 
Ade - was that the storm when the Tornado struck Lagoa? There was another one a few years ago when two yachts dragged their anchors inside the mole and went aground on the beach by the castle at Ferragudo.

Nigel - fantastic weather today. Pretty much what we would regard as a perfect summer day back home but not much boating going on. It's winter apparently!
 
IDAMAY said:
Ade - was that the storm when the Tornado struck Lagoa? There was another one a few years ago when two yachts dragged their anchors inside the mole and went aground on the beach by the castle at Ferragudo.

Nigel - fantastic weather today. Pretty much what we would regard as a perfect summer day back home but not much boating going on. It's winter apparently!
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I look at the weather in PM every day Richard, it's quite depressing here at the moment :( can't wait to set off.
 
Sorry, we've only got back from a long weekend last weekend so we won't be there ourselves.
Just ask anyone as you walk round - everyone is very helpful and friendly.
Our marina manager (Nicolas) should be back from Dusseldorf - ask for him at reception and tell him Mike from Jennywren suggested that you should speak to him.
He knows about these forums and how serious and passionate we are about our boating.
Might be worth phoning ahead so that he can make sure that there is someone on site to show you round.

If you have a car, a good place to visit is (what we call) the lookout.
Here is a Google Maps link to the lookout's location.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...1s0x0000000000000000:0xe0902bfdfca6aa04?hl=en

And this is a link to the view you can see from there.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...5548ee4e45a5:0xdbb1d4de754eb684!6m1!1e1?hl=en

The lookout is in the foothills above the town with the marina in the center of the above view.
The green area to the left is the rice growing fields of the Ebro Delta.
Beyond the marina, you can just pick out the mussel beds and if you pan right, you will see the extent of the lagoon.
You can see from here just how well protected the marina is from the sea.

This is MDL's promotion video



and this is a video of the marina itself taken from a drone - starting with a shot from the lookout.

 
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We had lunch at the marina last week, Tuesday I think, and stayed in a hotel along the road, just for the night driving South.
Lovely marina but couldn't say the same for the town or the environs. From our hotel after dark there were seemingly hundreds of channel marker lights leading out past that long industrial jetty ... is it shallow getting in and out? ... couldn't really tell what was going on. Maybe it was something to do with coasters calling at the jetty.
Wandered along the marina looking for Whitelighter's Azimut ... thought we'd found it but it turned out to be one called Esprit.
 
Kingfisher 3 said:
We had lunch at the marina last week, Tuesday I think, and stayed in a hotel along the road, just for the night driving South.
Lovely marina but couldn't say the same for the town or the environs. From our hotel after dark there were seemingly hundreds of channel marker lights leading out past that long industrial jetty ... is it shallow getting in and out? ... couldn't really tell what was going on. Maybe it was something to do with coasters calling at the jetty.
Wandered along the marina looking for Whitelighter's Azimut ... thought we'd found it but it turned out to be one called Esprit.
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I've been in/out once in a 78 footer and there was no particular problem regarding depth, though of course you had to follow the channel, but that's fine. The real issue for night work is what seemed like thousands of pot markers. No problem at all in daylight but they made SCM basically a non starter or at least a v difficult starter for anyone wanting to enter or leave port in darkness. Thus, finding the night time channel markers is academic imho because you are unlikely to night sail much anyway. Nice clubhouse, town was sort of a bit average imho. All academic anyway till you get over the long distance to the airport, which I can't! Marinas is as much an each-to-their-own topic as boats :D
 
IDAMAY said:
Ade - was that the storm when the Tornado struck Lagoa? There was another one a few years ago when two yachts dragged their anchors inside the mole and went aground on the beach by the castle at Ferragudo.

From memory it was two years ago this month we had just arrived so it wasn't a good.
It ripped through the gangplank from the marina office to the fuelling pontoon
We spent the weekend running from boat to car to bar ...
Click to expand...
 
Adethefridge said:
IDAMAY said:
Ade - was that the storm when the Tornado struck Lagoa? There was another one a few years ago when two yachts dragged their anchors inside the mole and went aground on the beach by the castle at Ferragudo.

From memory it was two years ago this month we had just arrived so it wasn't a good.
It ripped through the gangplank from the marina office to the fuelling pontoon
We spent the weekend running from boat to car to bar ...
Click to expand...
Sorry for drift

Were any boat in the water damaged and do you know which wind direction hits the North Basin; I guess either E or N?
Click to expand...
 
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