med cruise cum delivery - is my plan sound?

[Donheist]

I have decided to relocate my boat from corfu to england. i looked at road haulage but decided to spend 8 weeks wages on taking 8 weeks off instead and sailing her back. we are 1.8m deep so canals are out. work have been very reasonable and given me the last 2 weeks of april and the school holidays.

my plan is to make an extended cruise of it with wife, and two daughters who are 3 and 5' getting friends to do/help with longer passages. wife doesn't mind long day sails but we need crew for longer at sea. both of us can lead watches but prefer not to do alone.

so plan is to get mates to come and help me get corfu to syracuse and then up to somewhere near naples in the first 2 weeks. then park her somewhere safe (this is the main gap in the plan)

then in july we spend 2 weeks getting to sardinia via elba and corsica in day sails. fly in crew to help us get to minorca and hop the balearics. crew fly home and we coast hop to e.g. cadiz then leave her for winter

spring 2015 i get v experienced skipper plus pals to get me from cadiz to falmouth in 2 weeks plus a week contingency to catch weather

idea is to give crew a mix of mile building plus cruise and minimise worry for wife and family.

i am confident of finding somewhere reasonable to lay up in spain but where to stop for 12 weeks in w italy? we won't be there so transport and facilities are largely irrelevant compared to security.

and have i missed any other sensible route options? are italian marina prices such that i might be better having her delivered part of the way?

i have already chartered in aeolian and sof so missing those is not the crime it otherwise might be.

advice welcome.

 

[macd]

No-one else has chipped in, so here goes...

...last 2 weeks of april.... plan is to get mates to come and help me get corfu to syracuse

You could be OK with that, but April weather is often changeable in the Med generally. It certainly was this year, with lots of blows passing through. Even in southern Turkey, summer didn't truly arrive until well into June.
Don't know why you'd go to Syracuse on a tight schedule (well, I do 'cos it's a grand place, but...). Given reasonable conditions, Corfu to Naples is certainly doable in your time frame, even short-handed. Corfu to Rocella Ionica, favoured by many, is about 200miles, so less than two days. From there to the Straights of Messina is just a longish day-sail (though it can feel longer if you overdid the famous pizzas). After that it'll feel as if you're halfway there. Well, you will be, more-or-less.

spring 2015 i get v experienced skipper plus pals to get me from cadiz to falmouth in 2 weeks plus a week contingency to catch weather

I think you know what anyone would say. Depending when in 'spring', perhaps too early for comfort. But plenty have done it. Wait until late April/May if you can: up to early May, the usual northerly 'Portuguese Trades' that you don't want on the nose probably won't have established. And beware the Portuguese coast in a blow: to my mind, more hazardous than Biscay, despite the latter's slightly overblown reputation. The week's contingency is wise, but be mindful that I once waited over three weeks in Galicia (in May) for helpful conditions across The Bay.

Fair winds...especially for the kids.

 

[blenkinsop]

For W Italy I can recommend Fiumincino, where, above the bridges, there are several yards where many boats lay up. They have few facilities, and are therefore economical - a fraction of the cost of local marinas. The bridges only open early morning and evening (+ midday on Sunday) but this is a relatively minor inconvenience if not coming and going frequently. You would also be adjacent to Rome's airport.

 

[Donheist]

possible plan B

food for thought. i agree biscay would need to be late spring ie may. the rome option is interesting if i could get there in the first fortnight. i'd skip syracuse then - that's part of giving the crew a mixed trip - help me move my boat in return for a cheap holiday. they can see rome instead.

portuguese coast - interested in thoughts around new plan b -

me and mates get to trapani or palermo in 2 weeks. i hand over to delivery crew (need to find) who get her to cadiz or near gib. i can fly out for a weekend to meet them in spain. lay up 10 weeks. as a family we take 3 weeks getting to la coruna playing in rias if time then get my skipper pal to get us to plymouth in last 3 weeks of august. better weather and i get the boat back next yr. plan to keep her in suffolk so can start my marina contract then and hop her back through autumn in weekends using the linked marinas.

is 3 weeks enough to do portuguese coast in longish hops with a prudent approach to weather?
what might the delivery cost?

 

[macd]

is 3 weeks enough to do portuguese coast in longish hops with a prudent approach to weather?

You can do it in three days if you're not bucking headwinds (assuming you're talking about Cape St Vincent to, say, Baiona. Algarve adds another day or two day-sailing; Cadiz to E end of Algarve is a longish day-sail).
If you'd prefer to day-sail, St Vin to Baiona can be done in a week or so. As well as general weather, be sure to check swell forecasts on that coast: big swells from systems a thousand miles away can close several of the harbours. And absolutely do not attempt to enter any of them against local advice: people regularly die that way.

 

[Donheist]

Thanks for the advice - helpful.

I will follow up on the Rome option then reflect on whether to spend the (likely) only 6 week holiday I'm going to get in a bit cruising Tuscan islands, Corsica, sardinia, Balearics BUT leaving the boat in Spain all winter with no more hols OR beast it to Cadiz with help from delivery crew and then spend most of my 6 weeks on the atlantic coast of iberia and biscay BUT get the boat back to UK where I can use it autumn winter.

Not an easy decision...

 

[Tranona]

I did a similar thing 3 years ago. Left Gouvia on 1 May. Lousy weather, headwinds all the way. Not sure going to Syracuse is a good idea if you only have 2 weeks. If you are going south then it makes sense to stop in Malta rather than go north to Sardinia. We went straight to Sardinia non stop and it was hard work at that time of year, but had a schedule to keep. Next stop was Majorca, motoring just about the whole way. Unfortunately we had 2 autopilots fail so the prospect of completing the rest round the outside against a time schedule and hand steering was not attractive. So went to Sant Carles and had the boat trucked back from there.

Your plan of stopping in southern Spain or Portugal for the winter is much more sensible as you can get up the Portuguese coast the next spring before the northerlies set in. However once you add up the cost of marinas, paying airfares, delivery crew, fuel, plus wear and tear on the boat, delivery by road from Spain or SoF starts to make sense unless you really want the holiday element. If you are doing the first leg delivery style, Gouvia to Sardinia through the Straits of Messina makes sense with good places to leave the boat and a good starting point for the holiday bit.

 

[Donheist]

Back to Plan A

Well, good forum day. I have just had a very attractive quote from Massimo/Max in Fiumincino so I have bitten his arm off. Thanks for the tip! So now going to skip Syracuse and go from Corfu to Rome in first 2 weeks. Then as plan A but the more Northerly start point ought to make my lay up a bit further round Iberia.

The trucking is something I have explored as Tranona may remember from an earlier thread. I got stuck on a) price and b) height - with the deepened keel and our gantry I'd have had to take the gantry down to get under bridges - just felt like too much disruption for a marginal financial position. I'm not sure it'll cost lots more - 5 return flights next year is a significant saving on 13 this year, and winter in spain is not so dear. Rome mooring cheaper than Gouvia and won't be using marinas more than once a week on the big trip. I won't be paying a delivery crew on plan A apart from a bit of Biscay help for one skipper in 2015 at mates rates. Fuel and onboard provisions are on my account but the crew are paying travel expenses and meals ashore. I probably haven't factored in wear and tear - i.e. bound to drop a boat unit or two on unplanned maintenance. But there are worse ways to spend a summer...

 

[Tranona]

Yes, height is a problem. My boat has a shallow draft keel and I took the bimini frame off. Could have coped with more height but the route to use was slower and therefore more expensive!

Sounds like a good plan to go to Rome. Rest of plan should work with lots of flexibility to choose overwintering. Pity I did not have the time as my shallow draft allows the canals, but you can't turn the clock back. My little trip to the IOW the last couple of days not unlike spring sailing in Corfu - pity that you only get a small number of such days weatherwise here, though.

 

[duncan99210]

Just to throw another option into the pot, Cagliari on southern Sadinia has an adequate marina (del Sol IIRC) for 20 euro a night for twelve metres. Airport 10 mins away with daily UK flights and a good jumping off point for Mallorca. You coul get there with two three day hops from Gouvia - hop one to the Aeolian Islands, with some nice places to visit for your crew then second hop to Cagliari. Two day hop from there to Mallorca with the advantage of being a bit further south and therefore less affected by einds out of the Golf De Lion.

 

[Donheist]

Thanks duncan. I thought a lot about this since posting. i figured it will be a real thrash to get her all the way back next year. If i don't get her all the way back then i figured it would be nice to make a trip of it. Also, corfu to sicily will be my first passage longer than a cross channel. there are options to 'duck in' to s italy if it proves tough. then i have a couple of months to learn from mistakes before the next passage - sardinia to minorca. your plan makes a lot of westing but i'd be committed to 2 x 3 day trips. So i'm looking at a modified plan stopping in rome instead of naples. that A turned out very well. Got a very reasonable quote at one third of my best price in naples. Flights also a bargain and booked. And scheduled airlines = no mortgage required for checked bags in july. 6 weeks would be a long time for my wife to go without checked baggage...

 

[temptress]

Not really an easy option. Going north up the Portuguese coast is not easy going ever. I would recommend you do this bit without the family.

There are plenty of delivery companies that would move the boat for you. Take a look in the advert section in YM or pbo and check the references.

We used to provide this but are on our way to Port Stanley and points beyond for the next few years

Good luck

 

[macd]

Going north up the Portuguese coast is not easy going ever.

Sorry, but that's not so. Usually not easy, maybe. But 'never' is a very long time.