Charter Destination ??

[whisper]

Hope to book a one week charter at Excel with the choice being narrowed down to:- a) Kos and do a northern cicuit or b) N.Sardinia and S.Corsica. Plan to go in early/mid May
Any of you learned people got some pros & cons for the above please ? Our priorities are :- good sailing, lovely harbours, good food.

 

[cgull]

Sardinia and Corsica quite expensive on restaurants....

 

[T_S]

Last August we chartered from Corfu down to Paxos, across to mainland Parga and upto Sayiadha. Some very nice little harbours visited on our holiday, the avarage cost for a gut buster for two in most of the tavernas was around 30 Euros!

 

[HenryB]

You may find that you are somewhat restricted with just a single week charter from Kos. The standard Greek charter contract has one clause which states that you must be at your furthest point from your base by 1/3 of your charter - i.e. the 2nd night of your trip. It also states that you mustn't leave a port if the forecast is for winds of over force 6. If the meltemi decides to blow then you could easily be snookered.
I second the other suggestion of sailing in the Ionian (though for my money I would prefer starting from Lefkas or thereabouts), another safer option would be the Saronic, maybe from Athens.

All IMHO

 

[TonyD]

Did both of these in 2003. The northern route from Kos is doable in a week (round trip is about 105 miles) but it may involve a fair bit of motoring to get to Patmos on your second night, if you play it "by the book" as HenryB suggests.

N. Sardinia and S. Corsica is very easy in a week. You can usually cover at least two destinations in the same day on N. Sardinia as they are all close together. There are buoys to pick up around the islands, but avoid the marinas if you want to keep the costs down. Eating out in Sardinia is generally more expensive than Greece, but the quality can be higher as well.

I enjoyed Sardinia/Corsica more, but this may be because it was less busy, and different from my usual cruising areas in Greece and Turkey. A change is as good as a rest!

Tony

 

[jamesjermain]

I chartered in Corsica some years ago so things may well have changed a lot. We went early in the season (beginning of May) and the weather was wet and windy. The harbours were generally lacking in facilities and less friendly than the eastern Med. Eating ashore was definitely more expensive.

The Staits of Bonifacio can be a nightmare. It is one of the most notorious stretches of water for gales and huge seas in the Med. We had a Force 7 while crossing and I have never been in worse seas.

Sardinia is expensive and, in many places over-developed.

As you might gather, it is not a part of the world I would particularly want to return to.

 

[whisper]

Not too worried about wind strength - got caught on the N.side of Majorca 2 yrs ago in a Mistrale that gave us a day's sailing in F8/9. I slept through half of it - only woke up on the occasions that I crash landed back onto my berth. Rest of the time was really good fun. Glad I wasn't in a motorboat, though. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
We normally try and do about 150mls in the week so it may be that we would have to do a lot of "ducking and diving" - or do I mean tacking - to get our sailing hours in.
Possible destinations have now altered in that Kos has been given the elbow and has been replaced by 9 days out of Lavrion so would visit the Cyclades. The 9 days is possible because flights to Athens are daily as against weekly to the other possibilities. All-in price for 9 days ex Lavrion, including parking fee at Luton, is cheaper than for 7 in Sardinia for a similar boat and flying ex E.Mids, where no parking would be necessary. Furthermore the flights to Athens are during the day as against some ungodly hour ex E.Mids. to Olbia.
Thanks for your input everyone.

 

[jimi]

We had a family one week charter out of Kos a couple of years ago and got as far as Patmos. Well recommended, a beautiful part of the world.