How long to Valencia?

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robmurray

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I am thinking of delivering my own boat to a marina just north of Valencia next season. It would have to be done in work holidays. I would leave from Falmouth and would imagine sailing for 2-3 days at a time and then stopping for a night. Quite a fast 41ft boat. Any thoughts on how much time I should alloow for this?
 
robmurray said:
I am thinking of delivering my own boat to a marina just north of Valencia next season. It would have to be done in work holidays. I would leave from Falmouth and would imagine sailing for 2-3 days at a time and then stopping for a night. Quite a fast 41ft boat. Any thoughts on how much time I should alloow for this?
Click to expand...

Much too simplistic. You have a fundamental decision about whether to do Boscay in one hit or follow the coast - big time difference. Non-stop sailing you can reckon on 120 miles a day, but day sailing anchoring or stopping in port every night, maybe 60 miles a day. A delivery crew would work on 100 miles a day average and fire up the donk to keep that up.

So, you need to do some research using the Pilot books and other sources such as Crusising Association into the alternatives and work up your own passage plan. Key factors are weather windows across Biscay, the prevailing wind for the time of year, whether you are cruising or delivering and your own (and crew's) preference for style of sailing.
 
Some basics:

Port of loading: Southampton, GB
Port of discharge: Valencia, ES
Distance: 1535 nautical miles
Vessel speed: 6 knots
Time: 10 days 16 hours

Now add your time in ports of call and whatever contingency you feel appropriate

When night sailing then go 20 to 25miles off the Portuguese coast to avoid pots and fishing nets.
 
14 days is very doable in fair weather seasons imho - but you say in several hits. I think you ought be able to reckon on more than 5knot average for fastish boat. But other factors will come into play - generally weather and busted boat and (less likely but often more serious) busted crew.

Best is not to have a "plan" too much - i did a uk-med trip once where we didn't stop at ANY of the planned ports except Gib. NB gib is good for cheapy fuel of course, and easy flites just a walk from marina bay. Otherwise be ready just to bosh sod this and get inshore. BUT also be ready to - yeehah - stay out at sea cos the going is very good when it's good in sorta the same way that when it's bad it blimmin awful.

20 or so miles off the portuguese coast - careful - there are big metal ships in TSS's which run clockwise round europe mainland inshore, anticlockwise offshore. So heading south inshore in the inshore traffic zone ITZ of those TSS's - there lotsa ships heading north. Whereas if you stay way way offshore - nothing to your stbd cept Atlantic and inshore the ships are going your way and overtaking, which is better imho. But depends if you gotta stop in la Coruna etc.

A great option would be to look way ahead on wetterzentral.de etc for fair weathr direct to Gib or at least south poach'gull. Any big waves from north trades stop the moment you are in the lee of poachgul - east of Cabo SV. Easter week maybe if that's sorta April onwards.

Two good items for improved peace of mind when offshore sailing -
1 AIS B transceiver so your boat looks like a ship instead of some hopeful flotsam and you can see ships adjusting course for you 10+nm away with pc software such as $99nimble navigator, and you can quickly find next nearest ship, next soonest event etc.
2 Satphone with summink like mailasail for forecasts.

Plus chocolate hobnobs, of course. And pot noodles.
 
Ref. the biscay bit we went scilly isles- portugal a few hondred miles off spanish coast and even there it was a nightmare working out what the trawlers were doing during the night.Also a boring passage even when calm with the thought it might get rough if we don't speed up.We had f9 forecast but it didn't get that bad.
 
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Steve Clayton has worked out the non-stop time as 10 days 16 hours at six knots. I would add 25% to that for no wind, running out of fuel, stopping for very bad weather and breakages. You are likely to get two of those, perhaps more. If you do go non-stop work out every meal, drink, toilet paper, bottled water etc etc and multiply by crew number and add 10%. We did both of those on long passages and were glad we did.
 
what total garbage about long distance sailing yet again, KE. Running out of fuel, no wind etc on that trip uk-med would imply that the original poster is an unprepared F'wit, which is clearly is not. Your notion of "adding 25%" to the non-stop time sounds wise but is utter garbage in this instance. Does a broken engine or rig get fixed in 25% of 10 days? Of course it doesn't. Look at the original question. He isn't gonna buy a boat and set off on the ARC with the previous owner on board cos he's clueless and/or scared stiff and then blog precisely how many hours above 35knots (hardly any) he experienced like you did, is he? No.

Back to original question - Doing the trip on and off here and there is likely to break down as four or five long weekends, maybe two months with work and weather and having a life outside sailing etc. So i reckon start looking for weather mid-late march (check when Biscay insurance is valid from-to) and book the Valencia berth from say 1st June.

Warning re Gibraltar - arrival there in or around May means you coincide with carib-med transat boats and it can be full, no room etc. Book ahead at pieroffice@marinabay.gi (i think)
 
Hi Mike, even when we bought Seraph back to UK we estimated 5 daya from Denia to Gib with good forecasts. Weatherbound in Almerimar for 3 days screwed that up and flights booked from Gib all messed up. If OP must have boat in location and must also be back in UK (or elsewhere) by a certain date then he needs a plan B.
 
Steve Clayton said:
Some basics:

Port of loading: Southampton, GB
Port of discharge: Valencia, ES
Distance: 1535 nautical miles
Vessel speed: 6 knots
Time: 10 days 16 hours

Now add your time in ports of call and whatever contingency you feel appropriate

When night sailing then go 20 to 25miles off the Portuguese coast to avoid pots and fishing nets.
Click to expand...

As I type my yacht is being delivered by PYD from Falmouth to Tarragona. They allow about 12 days with only one or two brief stops.

Which marina are you headed for?

TudorSailor
 
If you just want your boat in Sant Carles, you can't beat road transport. I had my 37 footer brought back from there last year for less than £5k including cranage and mast work each end - 5 days to Poole. Sea delivery will cost you at least that when you count all the extras and you will have 1200 miles on the clock that you have not benefitted from!

Simon Butler of Boat Shift did mine, but there are many others.
 
Forget the numbers as they ignore bad weather, boat problems, crew problems hangovers, distractions and the unexpected.

Allow four weeks and you will enjoy it. We did.
 
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