Mediterranean Cruising

[Erre]

I am considering spending a year or so cruising the Mediterranean but have little local knowledge. Of course, this region is very well served by many diverse publications and there are very useful Pilots commonly available. I have alse enjoyed such reading as the Alard Coles guide which has many useful tips.

So I am hoping that forumites might be able to share known links to online Mediterranean cruising blogs or suchlike that will aid preparation and add to interest and insight.

Please therefore reply with any links you feel would be of either navigational, technical or general interest. My area of particular interest is the Med' west of Turkey. Thank you

 

[John100156]

Hi Erre,

Well to kick this off, I moved my boat a Targa 34 to MDL's new marina in Sant Carles De La Rapita, Spain in September, 2008. I had some reservations, I had not cruised the Med. before, except a short time at its entrance, Gib., late 2007.

I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far, it really was far easier than I had expected.

I like the area I am located in, easy to get to the Balearics, or up to Barcelona and great just to play around locally. I have some pilots but very rarely use them, I simply use my chart plotter and local charts. The more experienced Med skippers will be along soon I am sure, they have helped me a lot with any queries that I have had.

The season lasts at least 10 months; I was last out there mid-December, some neighbours were sunbathing on the pontoon! The water was like glass. Go for it!

I have been out there now for 16 months and just renewed my berthing contract for this year. What do I miss? Trips up the Dart when berthed in Torquay perhaps, excellent UK Coastguard definately, but other than that nothing!

If you want some useful guides, search out Hurricane's threads, he has posted several with lots of pictures of when he brought Jenny Wren around from the UK and more recently trips to Malta and around Mallorca.

Best of luck!

 

[Nick_H]

I am considering spending a year or so cruising the Mediterranean but have little local knowledge. Of course, this region is very well served by many diverse publications and there are very useful Pilots commonly available. I have alse enjoyed such reading as the Alard Coles guide which has many useful tips.

So I am hoping that forumites might be able to share known links to online Mediterranean cruising blogs or suchlike that will aid preparation and add to interest and insight.

Please therefore reply with any links you feel would be of either navigational, technical or general interest. My area of particular interest is the Med' west of Turkey. Thank you

Try the liveaboard forum on here, and check out the tag lines at the bottom of people's posts, quite a few of them have blogs of their travels, including lots in the med.

 

[jfm]

I am considering spending a year or so cruising the Mediterranean but have little local knowledge. Of course, this region is very well served by many diverse publications and there are very useful Pilots commonly available. I have alse enjoyed such reading as the Alard Coles guide which has many useful tips.

So I am hoping that forumites might be able to share known links to online Mediterranean cruising blogs or suchlike that will aid preparation and add to interest and insight.

Please therefore reply with any links you feel would be of either navigational, technical or general interest. My area of particular interest is the Med' west of Turkey. Thank you

Sounds a great plan. You'll figure it out mostly by common sense and the pilot books, though the guides like Heikell and Adlard don't help with the subtleties of how to get a berth, how to "queue" for fuel, how to get water if you're mostly out on anchor, detax fuel different practices in France and Italy, berth prices, etc. Ask away on here though

Meantime a couple of trip reports I've put on here the last few years and a Costa Brava one from Deleted User
Italian riviera http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70377
Menorca http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206657
Costa B http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174081

 

[Erre]

Thanks to each poster above - lot sof good common sense advice. Thank you.

Elsewhere, it was suggested that the CA would be a decent source of information so that is something to be considered also.

Special thanks to you JFM for very pertinent links.

 

[Erre]

Hi Erre,

Well to kick this off, I moved my boat a Targa 34 to MDL's new marina in Sant Carles De La Rapita, Spain in September, 2008. I had some reservations, I had not cruised the Med. before, except a short time at its entrance, Gib., late 2007.

I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far, it really was far easier than I had expected.

I like the area I am located in, easy to get to the Balearics, or up to Barcelona and great just to play around locally. I have some pilots but very rarely use them, I simply use my chart plotter and local charts. The more experienced Med skippers will be along soon I am sure, they have helped me a lot with any queries that I have had.

The season lasts at least 10 months; I was last out there mid-December, some neighbours were sunbathing on the pontoon! The water was like glass. Go for it!

I have been out there now for 16 months and just renewed my berthing contract for this year. What do I miss? Trips up the Dart when berthed in Torquay perhaps, excellent UK Coastguard definately, but other than that nothing!

If you want some useful guides, search out Hurricane's threads, he has posted several with lots of pictures of when he brought Jenny Wren around from the UK and more recently trips to Malta and around Mallorca.

Best of luck!

Hi John100156

'Just thought I would thank you for creating exactly teh ambiance that attracts me to teh whole idea! You paint a very attractive picture and identify a number of the key factors such as extended seasons etc. Thanks!

 

[Hurricane]

We're relatively newbies to the Med.
But as John's post above, we are at the MDL marina in mainland Spain but we've travelled a bit.
Looking at jfm's post above, I can add some on Mallorca.

Here are some more links.
This was late October/early November.
The previous month, we had actually put the boat to bed for the winter (well at least resigned ourselves to no more cruising for the season anyway).
On arriving at Sant Carles, we found a fantastic weather forecast for the next week so - off we went.

These are very long winded posts - lots of pics and some videos too - all of the same trip - the first is a bit boring - mainly of Barcelona but the rest show how stunning Mallorca can be.
We are definately going back this year.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219116

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219216

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219244

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219324


Edit
I've now picked up the actual track from the boat - here it is (or was)

 

[Erre]

We're relatively newbies to the Med.
But as John's post above, we are at the MDL marina in mainland Spain but we've travelled a bit.
Looking at jfm's post above, I can add some on Mallorca.

Here are some more links.
This was late October/early November.
The previous month, we had actually put the boat to bed for the winter (well at least resigned ourselves to no more cruising for the season anyway).
On arriving at Sant Carles, we found a fantastic weather forecast for the next week so - off we went.

These are very long winded posts - lots of pics and some videos too - all of the same trip - the first is a bit boring - mainly of Barcelona but the rest show how stunning Mallorca can be.
We are definately going back this year.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219116

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219216

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219244

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219324


Edit
I've now picked up the actual track from the boat - here it is (or was)

Wow! Plenty of reading ahead methinks. Thank you Hurricane, a great effort on your part. All much appreciated. Cheers