In La Linea till May next year. Shall we turn right or left?

Should we turn left or right?

  • Turn left to Greece

    Votes: 19 52.8%

  • Turn right to the Canaries

    Votes: 17 47.2%
  • Total voters
    36
RichardS said:
What about sea temperatures?

My family all like swimming .... but will not swim if the sea temperature is below 25 degrees. This means the Adriatic / Ionian is perfect for us in July/August/September although swimming is off the agenda outside those months. The Caribbean and the Indian also meet the requirement but my recollections of a holiday in the Canaries many years ago is that it would be a no-no for us.

Richard
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That's the problem here. You have the nearly all year round sailing that the Med doesn't have, but never gets a really nice swimming sea temp like the Med does in the summer. Although lots of peeps on holiday do so, it's not for me.

I can now have a dip in my heated pool though (novelty definitely not worn off yet!).
 
capnsensible said:
That's the problem here. You have the nearly all year round sailing that the Med doesn't have, but never gets a really nice swimming sea temp like the Med does in the summer. Although lots of peeps on holiday do so, it's not for me.

I can now have a dip in my heated pool though (novelty definitely not worn off yet!).
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Nice Casa!
Stu
 
dslittle said:
Why don't you write a pilotage guide - much more interesting!!!
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That's very tempting, we have talked about it. There was a nice book similar to the Straits Sailing Handbook. Doesn't seem to have been revised in about ten years. Got half an idea to do just that, a longer term project.

Will start with Lanzarote and get it on the school site sometime early next year though.
 
of course it is all opinion but for me the Caribbean is the very best cruising ground in all the world.

Diversity of cultures? Well there is Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Bahamas, Mexico, Panama, ABC Islands, Venezuela, Trinidad, Windward and Leeward Islands - it really is so much more than the Virgin Islands yachting charter holiday resorts.

There are constant and fair winds, wonderful anchorages, terrific climate and compared to the Med so inexpensive. The year before last we went on a 3 month cruise from Gib to Malta and back... http://www.michaelbriant.com/cruise_1995.htm I think it ended up costing around £6,000 because of marina fees and fuel costs... I could have had at least a year in Caribbean for that money!

As for getting home - by air - there are some incredibly cheap flights from the French Islands to Paris, charters out of Tobago that end up being not much more expensive than EU flights and when you ad in the marina fees......

I spent 4 years in the Med and loved Turkey. The Greek islands were full of tourists and the food dreadful. When I got to the Caribbean my life became 'a beefburger in paradise'!
 
Has you said , it all a matter of opinion, this year we started in Sicily , sailed to Greece , Croatia , cross to Italy , then back to Greece , from there we sailed to Sicily and now we in Malta , mooring fees nil , there was a cruising come tourist tax in Croatia , and we sit in Prezeva doing a refit for six weeks , so there was a haul out and in plus standing fee ,
Why it cost you 6k it's any body guest , regarding fuel , , this all depend of the type of boat and in how much hurry your in . We use around 250 lts this year . That's about 500NM and we covered 2900 NM in all .
 
This question has just started to cause a bit of mental pacing up and down as what to do in a few months slowly begins to gain some interest.
So first off a generous present of a handful of Med pilot books sparked some interest in popping in for a look, though it's never really been on the radar for some reason.
Then a couple of hours pouring over Google earth anchorages from South Africa to the Pacific with a well travelled cruiser rekindled interest in getting back to the lovely trade winds...

One thing might be a show stopper for the Med, while marinas aren't forbidden it just normally isn't something that is even considered - so, can you anchor all the way, say Gib/balearics / Sardinia / Sicily / Greece? And still have a good time?
 
It depends on how long you are intending to be away. If you just go to the Canaries it's a nasty beat back to the Med. If you have time cruise the Med first then Portugal, Canaries, Caribbean. It is worth spending at least three year in the Med to have a good round then at least three years in the Caribbean for the same reason. We know a number of cruisers who did Med/Caribbean.
 
GHA said:
One thing might be a show stopper for the Med, while marinas aren't forbidden it just normally isn't something that is even considered - so, can you anchor all the way, say Gib/balearics / Sardinia / Sicily / Greece? And still have a good time?
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Balearics certainly, loads of good anchorages. Sardinia - depends. Not much anchoring down the east coast but plenty along the S and SW coasts. Sicily - not really sure as we only did the east coast, where anchoring was certainly OK. Greece - superb, there cannot be many better places so far as choice of anchoring is concerned (not trying to start an argument with Croatia enthusiasts!) Having a good time? Well we have for the past 12 years.
 
vyv_cox said:
Balearics certainly, loads of good anchorages. Sardinia - depends. Not much anchoring down the east coast but plenty along the S and SW coasts. Sicily - not really sure as we only did the east coast, where anchoring was certainly OK. Greece - superb, there cannot be many better places so far as choice of anchoring is concerned (not trying to start an argument with Croatia enthusiasts!) Having a good time? Well we have for the past 12 years.
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Ta, sounds doable. The "have a good time" was more like "not be stuck in the corner of a dirty port with a mile row to get ashore" :) another slightly off putting factor is the lack of constant good wind, here in the Algarve it's only couple of weeks to the trades... , is it really true what they say? No wind or quite a bit from the front of the boat?
 
GHA said:
Ta, sounds doable. The "have a good time" was more like "not be stuck in the corner of a dirty port with a mile row to get ashore" :) another slightly off putting factor is the lack of constant good wind, here in the Algarve it's only couple of weeks to the trades... , is it really true what they say? No wind or quite a bit from the front of the boat?
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We almost always row rather than motoring and would not consider going a mile. Not too many times when we are not within easy distance of the beach. On wind, one man's gentle breeze is another's gale. In the past few years in Greece it has been very difficult to predict. In 2014 winds were generally moderate with some meltemi for a short time but quite a few southerlies. In 2015 there was no meltemi at all in the Aegean and we enjoyed light wind sailing for most of the season. In 2016 the meltemi blew with a vengeance (northerlies) all season with brief lighter spell between F6-7s. Early and late season were quieter with very pleasant sailing.

But you are not going to get the constant winds of the Atlantic anywhere in the Med. In summer the range of barometric pressure is tiny, rarely outside 1000 - 1020 mbar, with winds as you might expect.
 
GHA said:
Ta, sounds doable. The "have a good time" was more like "not be stuck in the corner of a dirty port with a mile row to get ashore" :) another slightly off putting factor is the lack of constant good wind, here in the Algarve it's only couple of weeks to the trades... , is it really true what they say? No wind or quite a bit from the front of the boat?
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I think to make the most of Med sailing , you have to not want to be anywhere at any given times . In other words have no plains , in that way you end up with a lot more sailing a lot less motoring .
We often say that we start off with plain A or B but endup doing C .
Example , we was going to Crete two years back but because of the wether we ended up in Turkey . ( maybe just bad navigating on my part :) )
I sure people think we having them on when we say we sail 75/80% of the time , when you consider the miles we cover each year .
The truth is we can , because we in no rush to get any where and if we do want to get to any particular place hen we wait until we can sail or at less sail most of the way .
 
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Biggles Wader said:
Left,right?How about the third way and go straight on?You could soak up the rich cultural diversity of West Africa.I think you would love it.:cool:
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Done my cultural diversity of south west africa thank you very much! Dirty scruffy corrupt dump!
I nearly died from malaria, got shot at and had a 9mm shoved in my face! Diversity? You can stick it thank you very much!
Stu
 
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