Coming back from the Med

[John100156]

Jimi,

You have not given it a real chance, I urge you to bring the boat round to Sant Carles, it's just like a UK marina, not as exciting as where you are now, but having done Brighton and Torquay, I am certain you would like it in SCM, if you fancy a run, we often have boats going over to Mallorca if you fancy a longer run.

The flights are so cheap and easy to Reus and later in the year Barcelona - the marina has been checked out already by loads of us. Why not sail the boat around, me and Hurric I am sure would crew for you, keep the boat cheaply in the sun over winter and if you don't like it you can easily get C2C to move it back, come on why not give it a try......

John

 

[ACE]

Jimmy that's a shame, you seemed to be having so much Fun .....

Lots of advice I see but only you will know your best option, whatever it is I hope it gives you the time on the boat that you want. I am going to miss the Med posts and the pictures .

 

[MRC]

Take the ba delays over this. Heading down to the boat in Southampton this morning on the M3

 

[z1ppy]

Oww. The delights of the m3 on a summers day!!!

Glad to her you have enjoyed your med time and guess you would do it again if Berthing was different?

 

[John100156]

Thats one of the reasons why we moved from Torquay to SCM in the Med; during a UK summer(?) it took us just as long to get from Milton Keynes to Torquay - we can get from home to SCM via Luton-Reus in just under 5 hours door-to-door!

It was better/cheaper when parking was free at Reus airport - we left a Vectra out there for 6 months so never had to hire a car! Now that we have to hire a car its a little more expensive (but less than berthing in TQ); we also have a British couple that are Spanish residents that undertake Gaurdianage in the marina, they regular airport runs at a reasonable cost! Its taken a few years to get things going after all it was a newly constructed marina, next to a large town marina, but we are all well catered for nowadays!

Friendly and helpful spirit there too, my son and his wife invited their outlaws out to the boat last week and whilst they were on the flight, a friend overheard them talking about contacting my son to collect them from the marina, so he asked them if they would like a lift as he had two spare seats in his hire car! My son never saw his MiL again..... No just kidding, they arrived safe and sound!

And we have an active Forum to boot - SCMCHAT hosted by Hurricane which is very useful indeed!

 

[Jonmendez]

Hey when you get to RK I can sell you your anchor chain back as well!!

 

[rafiki_]

Jimmy, your Med adventure has made great reading, so a massive thanks for that. The berthing issue is something we have pondered with Rafiki. We would love to be on the coast, but living in Warwickshire means we could hardly be further away! We used to have a boat on the Norfolk Broads, which we loved, but hated the 3 hr trip each way, so we keep Rafiki less than 1 hour away, which
means I can pop over and tinker and clean as required. We like the idea of the Med weather, but are put off by the travelling. I fly long haul regularly and get fed up with airports. So good luck with the return to Blighty, and I look forward to the further adventures of Vega.

As an aside, we have just had a few fantastic days on board. The temp was high '20's for much of the time, all too rare in the UK, but nice when it happens.

 

[BartW]

so surprised to read this Jimmy,
and that the PV-gang couldn't convince you to stay there,
I thought that you'd gradually learned to cope with the mooring issue,

I'll regret that we can't meet there again in blue water and sunshine,
But I'm sure that you gave this a thorrow thinking, and that you made the right choice for yourself.

anyway,
hope we can meet again one day,
either in SOF or in old Glory Brighton

 

[jonnybuoy]

As others have said you planned the whole thing so meticulously it cannot have been an easy decision to reverse it all. As I am sure there are quite a few punters on this forum who fancy the idea of a Med move (me included), - especially after a summer like this- can you say whether it was just the expense of berthing or was it the whole stern-to malarkey or being moved around in the marina? For anyone thinking of making the move what would you say the most important thing to consider would be?

Hope you have an uneventful return and that we have an Indian summer in the offing!

Cheers
Jon

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

As others have said you planned the whole thing so meticulously it cannot have been an easy decision to reverse it all. As I am sure there are quite a few punters on this forum who fancy the idea of a Med move (me included), - especially after a summer like this- can you say whether it was just the expense of berthing or was it the whole stern-to malarkey or being moved around in the marina? For anyone thinking of making the move what would you say the most important thing to consider would be?

Hope you have an uneventful return and that we have an Indian summer in the offing!

Cheers
Jon

It's none of those - the cost I knew about; stern-to is actually easier than you think, provided your boat fits reasonably nicely into the slot between your neighbours (too tight and you're pushing them out of the way, too loose and it's easy to lose control of your own boat as you go into the berth) - no, I just don't like the lack of transparency in the process you have to go through down here in order to try and get, and then retain, a rental berth. I find it extraordinarily wearing, and that, above all, is the reason for bailing out.

Having said that - I'm having my resolve sorely tested since I started this post. We got out of Port Vauban early yesterday morning and by 10am we were anchored up tight inshore at Villefranche. A hot sunny, windless day followed, lots of swimming in the clear water, feeding the fish by hand while snorkelling, lazy late lunch, beers in the afternoon, late dinner on board, and a fab firework display provided by the town at 2230. Stayed out on anchor last night; this morning, the bin boat turned up to collect our rubbish; then we tendered into the town to get bread and the papers (Sunday Times is widely available down here), coffee on the quayside; wandered up the hill to the church where there was an organ recital going on ahead of the regular Sunday service - walking around in the morning sunshine while there's a bit of Bach echoing around the deserted streets behind you is a bit of an experience, I can tell you. Back here to the boat, toast and marmite, reading about Mo Farah's excellent result yesterday, and posting on the forum. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking _very_ hard about all this.

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[rafiki_]

It's none of those - the cost I knew about; stern-to is actually easier than you think, provided your boat fits reasonably nicely into the slot between your neighbours (too tight and you're pushing them out of the way, too loose and it's easy to lose control of your own boat as you go into the berth) - no, I just don't like the lack of transparency in the process you have to go through down here in order to try and get, and then retain, a rental berth. I find it extraordinarily wearing, and that, above all, is the reason for bailing out.

Having said that - I'm having my resolve sorely tested since I started this post. We got out of Port Vauban early yesterday morning and by 10am we were anchored up tight inshore at Villefranche. A hot sunny, windless day followed, lots of swimming in the clear water, feeding the fish by hand while snorkelling, lazy late lunch, beers in the afternoon, late dinner on board, and a fab firework display provided by the town at 2230. Stayed out on anchor last night; this morning, the bin boat turned up to collect our rubbish; then we tendered into the town to get bread and the papers (Sunday Times is widely available down here), coffee on the quayside; wandered up the hill to the church where there was an organ recital going on ahead of the regular Sunday service - walking around in the morning sunshine while there's a bit of Bach echoing around the deserted streets behind you is a bit of an experience, I can tell you. Back here to the boat, toast and marmite, reading about Mo Farah's excellent result yesterday, and posting on the forum. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking _very_ hard about all this.

Cheers
Jimmy

Sounds quite idyllic Jimmy. Looking forward to the next episode.

 

[henryf]

I'm in Villefrache in a couple of weeks Jimmy. Don't move the boat until then!

You will know when I arrive, I'm in the 140,000 tonne "other boat" probably the only boat in the bay with a flow rider on the back. Not sure if anyone else has an ice rink come to think of it either

Henry

 

[Whitelighter]

That'll be an Freedom class RCI ship then

 

[vas]

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking _very_ hard about all this.

Cheers
Jimmy

I think if you ask politely the admins they can remove the post and all of us will agree not to mention anything about it ever

Of course you'll have to stay in the med

V.

 

[MedDreamer]

It's none of those - the cost I knew about; stern-to is actually easier than you think, provided your boat fits reasonably nicely into the slot between your neighbours (too tight and you're pushing them out of the way, too loose and it's easy to lose control of your own boat as you go into the berth) - no, I just don't like the lack of transparency in the process you have to go through down here in order to try and get, and then retain, a rental berth. I find it extraordinarily wearing, and that, above all, is the reason for bailing out.

Having said that - I'm having my resolve sorely tested since I started this post. We got out of Port Vauban early yesterday morning and by 10am we were anchored up tight inshore at Villefranche. A hot sunny, windless day followed, lots of swimming in the clear water, feeding the fish by hand while snorkelling, lazy late lunch, beers in the afternoon, late dinner on board, and a fab firework display provided by the town at 2230. Stayed out on anchor last night; this morning, the bin boat turned up to collect our rubbish; then we tendered into the town to get bread and the papers (Sunday Times is widely available down here), coffee on the quayside; wandered up the hill to the church where there was an organ recital going on ahead of the regular Sunday service - walking around in the morning sunshine while there's a bit of Bach echoing around the deserted streets behind you is a bit of an experience, I can tell you. Back here to the boat, toast and marmite, reading about Mo Farah's excellent result yesterday, and posting on the forum. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking _very_ hard about all this.

Cheers
Jimmy

Jimmy

I know how you are feeling, and my advice would be stick it out and deal with the issues, it will be worth it.

We moved our boat to Mallorca in 2004 and at the end of the first season we were ready to pack up and come home. Our issue was not mooring but the Engineer we were using in Mallorca who was either hopeless or a con man - still not quite sure which!

We enjoyed some great experiences out on the water but the stress of dealing with this man seemed too much. We completely lost trust in him and felt wary of other Engineers. We were out of our comfort zone and just felt like cutting and running back into the familiar surroundings in the UK.

At the time, just like you I posted an "I'm coming home" message on here and got some very supportive comments from other Med based boaters basically telling me that I hadn't given it enough time to understand how it worked out there and just to deal with the issues and enjoy the boating. Luckliy I had also got to know one or two other UK boat owners in the marina who also said the same thing.

We didn't really want to come back - the prospect of having to wear more than swimming shorts to have a day out on the boat didn't appeal - but the Engineer problems really did stress us out. Eventually though we decided to give it one more year just to say we had given it a fair chance.

We found another, English, Engineer who turned out to be a great guy and at the end of the second year even bought a bigger boat! We had a a further four years out there and it was a great experience, we are so glad we stuck it out.

Your issue seems to be renting a berth. Well you did choose what is probably the most expensive and popular part of the SoF (can't blame you for that, its a great location) but as you said the only way to really guarantee security of tenure is to buy your berth (can't blame you for not wanting to do that either!). However, the Western Med is a big place with plenty of great cruising opportunities. The Balearics are to my, perhaps biased, mind wonderful cruising grounds and given the current economic situation I don't think you would have any problem renting a berth on an annual basis from a number of marina's on Mallorca at a reasonable price. Also there seems to be a great UK community in San Carlos (as well as a UK run marina) so that must be worth looking at.

Before you throw the baby out with the bathwater I would really look at alternatives to where you currently are. Flights to Mallorca and the Spansih Costa's are year round and the sun shines, the sea is warm, the beer is cold and the food is great just as it is in the SoF.

I was told to "sort it out and give it one more year". I am grateful to all who told me that, we had a great time for five more years.

Best Wishes

Martyn

 

[DavidJ]

Can't let this post go without a plug for Empuriabrava, north med Spain. Beautiful cruising ground, lots of nooky bays, clear water. Don't be put off by the size, because it's on a canal system you only see say 50 boats at any time. Avoid August too busy too hot. Gets a bit windy at times but no marina swell.
One of the forumites daughters even has a restaurant here, called "Sabores"

 

[Mr Googler]

Can't let this post go without a plug for Empuriabrava, north med Spain. Beautiful cruising ground, lots of nooky bays, clear water. Don't be put off by the size, because it's on a canal system you only see say 50 boats at any time. Avoid August too busy too hot. Gets a bit windy at times but no marina swell.
One of the forumites daughters even has a restaurant here, called "Sabores"

What's a "nooky bay"

 

[DavidJ]

What's a "nooky bay"

It's not a bay for nooky!

This is nooky
http://marenostrum.org/galeria/costabrava/CalaAiguadolcPORTSELVA.jpg

 

[Portofino]

J,
You could still read the Sunday times on the afft deck after anchoring off any where on the Cote d Azur for a few days . Then motor back 2 hrs to Genoa to to your long secure rental birth ( cheaper than SoF ) .Short walk fly home .
Living and boaty expenses all a lot less, compensates for the extra poss diesel used/ season
PV , is not working = try else where before giving up.
Or San Remo really cheap about 1 hour from Cap Ferrat .
Loads of scooters and italien bikes - great place , but no airport in walking distance.
I rented my birth out for approx 2 y ( diff punters managed by Captainerie ) .
Then without any real planning -in August 05 - on whim ! - bought my boat and Capitainerie served notice 2 wks on the punter , like you arranged boat to be trucked down from Poole to La Nap, ( via La Rague ) to take my place -- booting the punter out I,am afraid in the middle of August !! Sorry folks .
So I can see both sides of the birth issue , in SoF it's popular even in this ecomonic climate.
In fact this season is one of the busiest I have seen this year here
SoF is in an economic " bubble" has not been pricked yet hence no bargains/ deals to be had
How ever as mentioned Spain/ Italy ( basically PIGS) ecomonic woes and plenty of births with long secure renatal .
Sounds like you have been unlucky @ PV
The Var, Porqueroles , Callanques , Corsica, Elba , are similar to the experiance you accurately describe @ Villefranche , but are better by a Factor of min 10 x
So it would be a shame to come home so soon without wetting Vagas bottom in these places .
That my sales pitch over , best wishes where ever Vega ends up

 

[Nick_H]

We're off to pick up the boat in St Tropez tomorrow for a 3 week cruise. This is what we have to look forward to. I think you should stick it out a bit longer