I thought the Med had good weather!

KellysEye said:
As a rule of thumb there is either too much wind or too little in the Med. It's lovely but not a good sailing area.
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Of course that depends on your definition of too much or too little. Had some great lazy days drifting along in a F2/3 and some exciting ones in F7/8, agreed that's as lively as I want. Croatia next month, last time hot sun, good winds and violent thunderstorms knocking out radios. This time, who knows???
 
120km/h (F12) today down in Cerbere, 48 knots (F10) in my marina at Port Leucate.

Planes were diverted from Montpellier to the calm of Marseille. Its now much calmer again here in Montpellier. There was snow in Carcasonne.

Global warming??
 
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The weather in the Med is generally good but locally very bad.
The biggest difference is that the wind systems are driven by thermal gradients rather than pressure gradients. With a single isobar across the Med you can have local gales and serious thunderstorms.What you also get are seasonal winds like the Mistral or the Melteme forming breakaway vortices which can develop into weather "bombs" which rampage around in an unpredictable way.
The best approach is to listen to a weather forecast every day and look out for trends
 
Chris_Robb said:
Quite strange really - it has been almost flat calm overnight and still no wind! plenty of rain though. Opposite of a Michael Fish I think!

Perhaps the long and the short of it is that forecasting storms in the Med and their tracks is unpredictable.
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We are at the other end, in Almerimar, we left Gib with a "MILD" forcast and found ourselves in another "how to steer down massive waves" tutorial having just had one across biscay - I think I have enough experience to be awarded the badge for that now!!!!! I think the waves in Biscay were 15Mtrs the crew think 20 mtrs in any event they were big enough coupled with 2 days of F7-8. The med has so far served up 8 - 10 mtr waves and 49kts of wind so we are a bit apprehensive about setting off for Valletta on thursday - but the gods willing we will see you in Messy.

Cheers

Chris and David
 
>I think the waves in Biscay were 15Mtrs the crew think 20 mtrs in any event they were big enough coupled with 2 days of F7-8.

Unsurprisingly most people overestimate wave height. Force 8 is 5.5 to 7.5 metres or 18 to 25 feet. 15 metres is Force 11 violent storm.

The problem with the Med is that it's shallow thus the waves are relatively short period and steep.
 
All I can tell you that the boat 13M long had to be steered down the face of the waves and when we reached the bottom of the wave and looked back the bit behind the cockpit (which was at 45de4g to the horizontal) was easily the length of the boat again above us, above that a frothy top, this was off Ushant not in the Med. When in the trough proper waiting for the next wave the top of the wave in front was above the top of the mast And the wind was 47kts - I dont actually know how big they were and I have no desire to go back and measure them but they were well over the 7.5 stuff we are used to in the channel. Was 15Mtrs an overestimate? given we were using a 13mtr measuring stick I dont think so.
 
Spent 6 months on a 55000 ton tanker Libie/Italy and have seen some really rough weather, mainly off the heel of Italy, Never sailed in that region. admire those that do.
 
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Twister_Ken said:
Cannes struggles to prepare for festival as unseasonal wind and waves batter coast.

Waves up to 10 metres high overturn cars and damage restaurants in Côte d'Azur a week before film festival.

Story here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/05/cannes-film-festival-storms
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I think we were lucky in Marseille as we appeared to be in the eye of the storm with Northerly light to start with then nothing, then an easterly blast then southerly. Load of rain and it has not stopped until this morning. The sun has come out and we have been anchored in a quite bay off Ile Frouil, and have come in as we have been asked to dinner by a french couple we were moored against. I think they felt sorry for the poor rain soaked brits! We were sooo cold last night when the temp really fell in the pissing rain - luckily the ebespacer saw fit to work.

The sun has come out now and we have been anchored in a quite bay off Ile Frouil, and have come in as we have been asked to dinner by a french couple we were moored against. I think they felt sorry for the poor rain soaked brits!

Tomorrow we stock up for the next leg. I really hope the weather settles and we get a calm week for west coast of Corsica.
 
Chris_Robb said:
Having completed our voyage though the canals we are now sitting in Marseilles Veiux port waiting for a bloody great north gale - F 8 to 10. We have been down in the Med since the 28th April, and have had more rain that a normal british summer!
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How many times I warned people about an holiday in the Med March-June, only to see them returning disappointed about the cold and rain!

That is a misconception that Brits normally have and can only blame themselves for their notional knowledge of the Mediterranean geography weather and culture. Since I normally get mocked by Brits because of the misconceptions they have about my country, I can be only too pleased to see them in trouble because of their fat ignorance. If you do not feel welcome in the Med as a Brit, do not wonder why. Have more respect for your country's guests and neighbors and things might change.

To summarize, in the northern Med down to the height of Sardinia, do not expect a great deal of good weather until the end of June.
Mistral is the prevalent NNE wind it blows from the North down to the South of Italy. When it starts it has a cycle, locals say it gradually increases for three days and gradually decreases for three more days. This NNE wind can get to violent F9-F10 in the northern Adriatic and when it does it is named Bora.
Scirocco is a warm and dry Southerly wind blowing from Africa. It is normally quite strong in the southern Med to decrease in intensity going north. If it blows it is normally in July/August.
July to Mid August are normally nice. From mid August onwards expect violent late afternoon-evening thunderstorms, mostly in the vicinity of mountains. One minute blue sky the next black clouds and then down the havens come. Watch out for hot humid calm afternoons, these are the prelude to violent evening storms.

Mid September normally sees the return of stable weather, but with chillier temperatures and shorter and shorter days. In the whole of Italy extending even Southerner than Rome it is normal to have snow falls from December to March. Several mountain passes are closed in the winter. On several roads and motorways it is mandatory to carry snow-chains on board December to March.

The best areas for stable good weather are southern East Italy and Greece. Spain also might be OK, but who wants to visit Spain with their poor quality food and wine like Rioja which is like rocket fuel?
 
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Weather can change quickly but normally I found forecasts were fairly reliable. I haven't been there for some time but there is a VHF channel giving forecasts in a loop.

The straits between Corsica and Sardinia often produce a Venturi effect. I was holed up once in August in Bonifacio with wind speeds up to 80 knots outside. More often than not though you don't have enough wind in the summer.
 
<< The problem with the Med is that it's shallow thus the waves are relatively short period and steep. >>

I don't know where you get this idea. The Med is very deep : a few miles off the riviera coast and you are in more than 2000m of water, far more than than say the Bay of Biscay. The Med as a whole has an average depth of around 1500m.
 
Sybarite said:
<< The problem with the Med is that it's shallow thus the waves are relatively short period and steep. >>

I don't know where you get this idea. The Med is very deep : a few miles off the riviera coast and you are in more than 2000m of water, far more than than say the Bay of Biscay. The Med as a whole has an average depth of around 1500m.
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The English Channel has a depth of 50m average
 
Gulf of Gabes

Yesterday morning a bit dull and blustery.
By evening we had 50 kts across the helideck and a 6m swell.
This morning lovely and sunny with the swell diminishing rapidy.
It makes the newbies wince when the platform shudders and they grab onto handrails. We're a fixed leg platfrorm firmly piled into the seabed in 66 metres of water.
 
Marsupial said:
the cockpit (which was at 45de4g to the horizontal)
... Was 15Mtrs an overestimate? given we were using a 13mtr measuring stick
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Human beings overestimate gradient. Remember heading down that 1 in 8 hill in your car that felt like a near cliff face? 45 degrees is 1 in 1.
 
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