Bareboat in Med with novice friends - where?

skyflyer

skyflyer

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I've been sailing in SW of UK for ten years and have my own boat but am planning a bareboat charter in the Med next year in early September with friends who have almost no sailing experience (they went on a crewed 40ft day cruise on holiday in Crete this summer and want to do more!)

So as the "experienced" skipper it is left to me to choose the area and boat! The problem is that my experience of the Med is a big fat zero!

I am mindful that our friends' idea of a great sailing holiday probably doesn't include being heeled over in F6 making a 6 hour passage between anchorages! On the other hand I really don't want to be sitting around in light air getting nowhere and having to motor all the time.

So we are looking - in the absence of better advice - for an area where we have plenty of short passages but enough wind to actually be sailing. I am expecting a fair proportion of the daytime to be shore based, plenty of swim stops, long lunches at anchor and so on.

All expert advice and previous experiences welcomed
 
skyflyer said:
I've been sailing in SW of UK for ten years and have my own boat but am planning a bareboat charter in the Med next year in early September with friends who have almost no sailing experience (they went on a crewed 40ft day cruise on holiday in Crete this summer and want to do more!)

So as the "experienced" skipper it is left to me to choose the area and boat! The problem is that my experience of the Med is a big fat zero!

I am mindful that our friends' idea of a great sailing holiday probably doesn't include being heeled over in F6 making a 6 hour passage between anchorages! On the other hand I really don't want to be sitting around in light air getting nowhere and having to motor all the time.

So we are looking - in the absence of better advice - for an area where we have plenty of short passages but enough wind to actually be sailing. I am expecting a fair proportion of the daytime to be shore based, plenty of swim stops, long lunches at anchor and so on.

All expert advice and previous experiences welcomed
Click to expand...

You won't go far wrong in the Ionian as your never far from an anchorage or small harbour. However its horrendously busy in the peak season.
 
SimonFa said:
You won't go far wrong in the Ionian as your never far from an anchorage or small harbour. However its horrendously busy in the peak season.
Click to expand...

Thanks, we will be going after school holidays have finished - i.e. first or second week of September - how does that relate to 'peak season'?
 
Last two weeks of September in the Ionian is just after the busy period and sea temp has risen. Everything still open but not crammed, lots of 2 hour short trips if you want time swimming etc
 
Recently went to s ionian last week of September, still fairly busy although I have seen it worse.

Places like Fiskardo fill up early in the day.
 
We had a good time in Sept around the Outer Sporades. Crowds had gone and room in the ports. Weather is less windy after Aug too. Flew into Volos. Out of the 6, two of us were experienced, the others none.
 
DownWest said:
We had a good time in Sept around the Outer Sporades. Crowds had gone and room in the ports. Weather is less windy after Aug too. Flew into Volos. Out of the 6, two of us were experienced, the others none.
Click to expand...

I would not rely on that weather forecast! You pays your money and has to just hope, anywhere in the Med... BTW where did you pick up your boat? Volos itself? I've been there a couple of times and would not consider it an ideal base, though we did find a nice restaurant with menu solely in Greek.

Mike.
 
mjcoon said:
I would not rely on that weather forecast! You pays your money and has to just hope, anywhere in the Med... BTW where did you pick up your boat? Volos itself? I've been there a couple of times and would not consider it an ideal base, though we did find a nice restaurant with menu solely in Greek.

Mike.
Click to expand...

Not Volos, a tiny place somewhere near Niaou. It was Sunsail and the place only had a few houses and a Taverna.
At the time, the general word was that the winds drop off from the August levels and it worked for us. Didn't have to reef.
Seems they are the Northern Sporades, just looked in an Atlas to see if the port was there.
Docked in one island and chatted with a flotilla lot. They had Jag 27s with 2 or 3 on board. They asked to see over the Benny 46 we had and gaped. But, when we compared prices, there was not a big difference per head. Left them a bit thoughtful.
 
One comment ... both Greece and Croatia are stern-to mooring, and last time I was in Greece (quite a while ago) this involved dropping the anchor and then reversing up to the quay and making the stern fast ... in Croatia you reverse in, make the stern fast and pick up lines from the quay - these are attached between the quay and concrete blocks about 20m out in the harbour and lie on the sea bed, so you pull them up and make fast at the bow.

The anchor method (Greece) means other boats can pull your anchor up, or lay chain over yours, and you can be pulled up short of the quay by your own anchor if you estimate the chain length wrong.

The rope method (Croatia) has quite a bit that can go pear shaped if the crew don't really know what they are doing.

Reverse in, make the upwind stern line fast first - so you can motor forwards against it to keep the boat straight if it's blowing (but most charter boats have bow thrusters these days). Simultaneously, the crew use the boat hook to grab the line from the quay (it hangs down into the water or some nice harbourmaster may have pulled it up for you to grab) ... go hand-over-hand to the bow pulling the rope out of the water ... when it goes taught, make it fast to the bow. Got to be careful not to pull the rope up into the prop if motoring against a side-wind and wear gloves to avoid lacerating your hands on the shellfish attached to the rope.

In years of cruising the Med, I've had my anchor pulled up, I've pulled up other boats anchors, my crew have pulled up the mooring lines to discover that somehow they reversed their direction and pulled the rope taught to the quay instead of the block in the channel, I've wrapped a rope in the prop when leaving because the crew on the bow didn't let go so we pulled the mooring rope off the sea-bed and up into the prop. It's all good fun and nobody died :encouragement: ... but my preference would be for the greek anchoring option with a novice crew.

I have a boat in Croatia. :D
 
Baggywrinkle said:
my crew have pulled up the mooring lines to discover that somehow they reversed their direction and pulled the rope taught to the quay instead of the block in the channel, I've wrapped a rope in the prop when leaving because the crew on the bow didn't let go so we pulled the mooring rope off the sea-bed and up into the prop.
Click to expand...

The most confusing thing I've had in Croatia is when the lazy lines from the blocks have been crossed under the sea before they reach the quayside. You pick up the slime line and start reeling it in and it starts to get tighter/heavier as you walk down the side of the boat as you are expecting .... but then you realise that the line is vanishing under the boat and you are pulling it up against the bottom of the hull. At that point panic begins to set in as the boat is now starting to drift sideways in the wind and your pulling hard is making things worse. :ambivalence:

The obvious question is how do the lazy lines get crossed in the first place? I'm guessing that lads coming out of the bar at night after a few drinks and doing it for a laugh seems a possibility. :rolleyes:

Richard
 
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