Estimate time and cost to sail from Baltic Sea to Mallorca

Voyager 5

Voyager 5

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Hi guys, I am new to the forum, very nice to meet all of you.

I have been an avid sailor and windsurfer since I was 4 years old, and I finally got my own first boat, a 28 ft sailboat and I plan now to sail it single-handed from the Baltic Sea to Mallorca.

I know a lot of people has done this before, I am trying to estimate the sailing time, assuming I sail about 40-50 NM a day (10 hours a day at 4-5NM/hour), sleeping overnight in marinas, I come up with a 65-85 days period on a ~3400 NM route (starting near Stockholm and ending in Palma de Mallorca).
This assumes NOT crossing the Bay of Biscay, but going along the coast of France, thus it takes longer.

Here is a map of the route:
Capture.png


Is it my estimate overall too optimistic?
(I know that I have not included days where bad weather or storms could force me to stay put and wait for a better window, this would make my estimate longer).

I would be really grateful if any of you that has done this route or a part of it can offer his perspective to calculate the miles one can do per day.
Thanks.
 
If you want overnight stops you severely limit your miles per day and you increase distance sailed. There are also parts of your route where convenient overnight stops are not feasible, especially between Bordeaux and the Spanish border.

In tidal areas, you have to think about access to tidally restricted ports - for example you might want to both enter and leave when the flood tide reaches a certain level above datum, thus you automatically have an approximately 12 hour stop if you want to get out on the next tide.

In your shoes I'd consider taking a crew and doing some overnight legs which will double (or more) the distance you can sail in a day, or I'd look at coming down to the Med through the canals.

FWIW early this year I sailed Hamble-Cannes, stopping approximately every three days. 2100m and 20 fullish days at sea, so a little over 100 miles a day in a 34' boat.

If my experience holds good you can count on lots of light headwinds (especially in the Med) and winds from other directions which are not strong enough to let you sail at good passage making speeds. Thus, be prepared to do a lot of motoring if you want to stick close to any sort of schedule.
 
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I have been studying the French canals option, it seems probably faster for people like me that plans to stop at night, versus the sailing around Spain and France.

I have estimated roughly 600 NM, but I could not find anywhere a precise estimate.

If anyone has done this before: would it be fair to assume 15 days of travelling from north of France to the south coast of France into the Med, at an average 4-5 knots an hour, going 10 hours a day?
 
Voyager: regarding the French canal route, there's plenty of information on line.
Also, this thread is helpful: http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?207998-French-Canal-Guide-book
The Michael Briant guide book mentioned is by a forumite, Paw Paw, and well regarded.

Regarding choice of route to Mallorca, it might be helpful to note that many boats heading to the Med from even the UK don't actually get there until their second season. Rushing means wou miss out on a helluva lot of stuff along the way. Of course, you might have different priorities. 3400 miles day-sailing (which, as said, isn't always realistic) is a fairly big ask.
 
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Minimum practical time is 3 weeks. You need to allow for locks which in some stretches limits your daily runs. Presumably your draft is less than 1.6m.

If your objective is just to deliver your boat to the med then you may well find road transport from a N European port more economical and much quicker. If, however you are treating this as a holiday or an adventure then take your time. You can do a leisurely trip taking a whole summer from April to October and enjoy visiting a wide variety of ports and enjoying very varied sailing - far better sailing than you will ever get in the Med, although a bot short on sunshine!
 
macd said:
Also, this thread is helpful: http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?207998-French-Canal-Guide-book
The Michael Briant guide book mentioned is by a forumite, Paw Paw, and well regarded.

Regarding choice of route to Mallorca, it might be helpful to note that many boats heading to the Med from even the UK don't actually get there until their second season. Rushing means wou miss out on a helluva lot of stuff along the way. Of course, you might have different priorities. 3400 miles day-sailing (which, as said, isn't always realistic) is a fairly big ask.
Click to expand...

Mac, many thanks for that link, I missed it during my search. On one site I found it said about 34 days, so I wanted to double check this here with other sailors. In that sense Tranona confirmed that 3 weeks is a realistic expectation. So thanks also to Tranona for this very helpful input.

I agree with both of you that there is potentially a lot to see and pushing hard to destination is never a good idea. The problem is as always: time availability, costs, wear and tear on rig and the engine, possibly other issues (hopefully not).

I am only temporarily in Sweden, where I have spent some cruising time during the last 2 "summers", I find the Med much more attractive from all points of view. As Tranona said, up north is a bit (a boat) short on sunshine, so my interest is only to get the boat in the Med based on these 2 parameters:
1) as fast as possible
2) as cheap as possible

The channels path seems cheapest, but takes about 20 days.

The lorry option from North Europe is under evaluation, it may be the best if one can find a good delivery price (normally it would be around 5000 eur, but at that point the canals path is much cheaper probably less than 2000 eur overall - if you exclude food and internet/phone cost which you would need anyway wherever you are).

My boat is 1.58m draft, hopefully it can pass through all the channels, based on what I have read on various sites.
 
For sure in the open sea and for such a big trip you cannot say with much certainty "I will travel so many miles each day and arrive in so many days (more or less)" because of the weather. It could force you to stay in one place sometimes for days. Through the canals, I guess (without having any personal experience) it's safer to do your calculations. Probably fewer external factors to affect your overall plan.
 
cmedsailor said:
Through the canals, I guess (without having any personal experience) it's safer to do your calculations. Probably fewer external factors to affect your overall plan.
Click to expand...

There are water shortages if it's a dry summer, which reduces available water depth. Locks, bridges and tunnels can sometimes close for repairs. These are usually scheduled well in advance, but sometimes not.
 
Twister_Ken said:
There are water shortages if it's a dry summer, which reduces available water depth. Locks, bridges and tunnels can sometimes close for repairs. These are usually scheduled well in advance, but sometimes not.
Click to expand...

I was also reading that sometimes one may get stuck behind a barge and each time you reach a lock this creates trouble, longer waiting time, etc. I am sure there are also other possible troubles that I still have not figured out.
 
I only have knowledge of the Rhône from Lyon to the Med but one factor that may limit you on the French canals is the shortage of marinas. We found it was only practical to do about 50k a day. Navigating at night by pleasure boats is not permitted so you may have to tie up with several hours of daylight left.
Best to treat it as an opportunity to explore France on the way as you likely won't pass this way again rather than a speed test.
 
50nm a day, day in day out sounds very optomistic. That is a pinishing schedulte and inevitably even if you are game for most weather there will be plenty of lost days for one reason or another. A lot of time will alos be lost making port.

If the need is to do the trip as quickly as possible you will make far better time selecting your weather windows and running night and day. For example down the channel I have happily done east to west, or east to the CIs in a 24 hour run, and it that coincides with Easterlies it is surprsingly pleasant. The same trip battling into the more usual SWly is much more demanding on sole and boat.

So I would bet a 36 hour run, and then some port, is the way to go. Not least that sets you up better for ports that fit in with your plan. For example I probably wouldnt want to make port anywhere between say Dover and Portland as anywhere is out of your way other than Eastbourne which is barely far enough from Dover to make the stop worth while.
 
ghostlymoron, ip485, pcatterall, thank you this is all valuable advice.

ip485 it may be a better perspective if I decide to sail, to do what you said, i.e. go with the right weather window for a few days, then stop.

pcatterall, that is my fear: that even with a higher clearance I will touch bottom, plus having a 12 metres mast on deck for 30 days on a 28 ft boat is not really the most comfortable thing.
 
I was wondering if any of you can provide some help with the estimation of mooring costs for the night stops, both on channels and sailing at sea for the part north Europe/France/Atlantic Coast of Spain (I guess as soon as I turn into the Med the price will be higher and probably at least 30-40 eur a day).

Would 20 eur/night be reasonable for the sail path?

And would be 10 eur/night reasonable for the French channels path?
I know in some channels is possible to moor for free in some areas, unless I am mistaken. I doubt the same is possible on the Atlantic coast of Europe, given the lack of sheltered area, again unless I am mistaken.

Thank you for all your help, gentlemen.
 
Voyager:
High marina prices are no hardship if you don't use them ;)
And anchoring single-handed is usually much easier than berthing. If it's a skill you don't have, it's one you'll need to survive in the Med on a tight budget. Many (most?) of us much prefer anchoring to noisy, congested marinas...and would even if they cost the same.

In Brittany (N & S) and Northern Spain, there a plenty of anchorages: you can berth for free.
The Portuguese coast to Cascais (near Lisbon) has relatively few anchorages: some, but you'd need nights in marinas, too.
South of Cascais, it's possible to day-sail and anchor all the way to Spain, and even beyond there to Gib. At Gib you'd probably need a marina, depending on how the coastguard fascists are feeling off La Linea (I've not been there for a while).
Once in the Med much will depend on conditions. The Costa de Sol has few secure anchorages, but a smattering of places you can drop the hook in benign weather. The Costa Blanca is richer in good anchorages.

If you're prepared to use the hook whenever possible, I'd say you can certainly budget on €10 per night or even less, which should allow you the occasional night in a marina to top up with water etc. It's a bit of an 'how-long-is-a-piece-of-string?' issue: it depends mostly on your preferences.
 
Mac:
I am in favor of using the hook whenever possible and reduce use of marinas to minimum, hence what you said is very good news to me. Thank you for the info about the various possible anchoring areas, this is very helpful.

I am starting to reconsider the sailing path, even though it will be a very long journey, but surely it would cost less if I could anchor for free and sail mostly with sails and reduce the engine use to minimum (of course depending on wind direction, weather, etc.).
 
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