Moving from Torquay to Spain

[Andy Bav]

As some of you may know we moved Gemini of Torquay to Sant Carles in late July - the realisation of a thought process we started in Easter. With hindsight it needed quite a bit of project management but and as it got close to its conclusion I was thankful of 3 days wriggle room that reduced my stress levels as actions from our friends across the channel created operation stack and the haulier had to cancel the job before ours . The worst case would be 5 of us at Barcelona airport with no boat to go to. Thankfully "the plan came together".

Fact finding in Spain ...The early signs were promising on the 16th of May

Berth selection was hard and thirsty work ...

But we were sold on the place - view from marina bar terrace

Not boaty but back home for proud moment - #2 son scoring opening try at Twickenham

Doing Day skipper was a bit heart wrenching as we know of some lovely places in South Devon and visiting by boat for last time did give us second thoughts ...

Salcombe

But weather whilst packing up on last Sunday before move confirmed right decision ...

She was serviced and AF'd boat before the move and I was very happy with work by AK Marine.

... and craned out at Torquay 6 days later for her move to Spain

Could not have been happier with Simon at Boat shift who had to contend with personal and professional challenges... as well as the French, but a pit stop on the A303 ..

..before making it to France

...and into Spain

..before offloading at Sant Carles

..and onto her new berth

.. and her first trip out to the next marina down the coast - 15 mins away

 

[Whitelighter]

Great pics Andy.

What berth are you on?

 

[Sneds]

Agree, great pics and story, quite envious!

 

[Andy Bav]

We are on N301 - the one in the picture above actually.. As good as an alongside berth but needs a bit of a last minute pirouette to get in, but it makes it easier for 2 of us to handle..

May see you soon?

 

[Medskipper]

Yes, saw your boat on its mooring as I'm in SCM for a couple of weeks, looks very good.

 

[Whitelighter]

We'll be there at some point.

Looking like sept 10/11 but that may go back a couple of weeks. Still awaiting boat paperwork

 

[John100156]

Welcome to SCM - where lots of us Brits are berthed!

We moved out from TQ for similar reasons in September 2008 - we were berthed close to Medskipper, whom arrived shortly thereafter, at the end of 'N' pontoon. We are both now berthed on 'L' pontoon.

I'm sure you will love the place, the facilities are good and its a very well run marina by MDL. We returned last week and we're out again in two weeks time for a couple of weeks!

 

[julians]

Sant carles seems pretty popular with the brits, and you can see why,being relatively close to the balearics etc. But whats the boating like if you just want to go out for the day,and not a significant voyage? Is there much within say 30nm,any nice bays,beaches etc,or do you have to get across to mallorca for that sort of thing?

 

[Andy Bav]

We have only been out twice but both times ended anchored in the northern extremety of the lagoon - a few miles from the marina and we were the only boat there. Didn't get to the beach which looked golden as we were too busy swimming and diving off the boat - a novelty for us especially without a "shorty" at least, but wife's biggest annoyance us constant rocking and rolling at anchor, but we were solid as a rock.

Once we get over the novelty factor we want to try Peniscola 18nm away and then further down the coast, and as you say the Islands are tempting, but c100nms away. For us the big step is the med, and for what we want SCM ticks all the boxes. But 3 years ago we had a cuddy on a trailer in Torquay so where we will be in 3 years time I don't know...

 

[Gentlemanracer]

Great pics Andy.

D
+1

Can't wait to get down there & sample this heady stuff, two weeks to go, Yipee!!

 

[alt]

Makes me want to make the move... some day, some day.

Hope you have many happy years down there.... we'll be looking for advise in the future i'm sure

 

[Greg2]

Great pics. Would love to do some warm weather boating at some point. Trouble is I like having the boat twenty minutes away. Maybe we need two boats......

 

[Hurricane]

Great pics. Would love to do some warm weather boating at some point. Trouble is I like having the boat twenty minutes away. Maybe we need two boats......

No - two boats is a definite no no.
You always would regret not using the other one.

We live in Torquay and I always thought that we would have a boat at home.
Been there 8 years now and prefer to do our boating in the Med.
Rather spenc the time travelling to Spain than having a second boat in the UK

 

[sprocker]

Great pics Andy, maybe you wont miss Torquay after all.............

 

[Wavey]

Will you lot please stop going on about the Med and in particular Sant Carles

Seriously though, I'm sure you'll have a fabulous time out there. I might just have to book a surprise long weekend for SWMBO that just happens by some curious coincidence to be somewhere in the area

 

[CLOUD9]

Great photos Andy. Glad to see that all is going well. Keep the reports coming. We are seriously considering the move at some point, so interested in all the pros and cons. Found myself increasingly looking at old threads to get a feel for the experiences of others who have made the move. Rick

 

[Andy Bav]

Great photos Andy. Glad to see that all is going well. Keep the reports coming. We are seriously considering the move at some point, so interested in all the pros and cons. Found myself increasingly looking at old threads to get a feel for the experiences of others who have made the move. Rick

Will do Rick.

From our perspective, the move was a lot less of an upheaval than had she been berthed closer to home. When she was in the UK, "popping to the boat" wasn't an option, it was planned well in advance. I had a local firm wash her down every 2 weeks and when she needed a service or work doing I had to arrange for a skipper to take her to Darthaven or be available to let engineers on board etc so we were used to the logistics of keeping a boat at a distance. Travel wise from a time perspective its not much more than what we do now. What we have resigned ourselves to though, is losing the weekends when we looked at the weather and grab an opportunity to get out, but what we have gained [hopefully] is an earlier start to the season, a later finish and a high probability that when we do go to the boat we can sit in the sun and enjoy it.... that said its raining in Sant Carles today !

 

[Gentlemanracer]

Great pics. Would love to do some warm weather boating at some point. Trouble is I like having the boat twenty minutes away. Maybe we need two boats......

For us, a boat is really only a weather window. Some places have longer agreeable weather windows than others!

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Very nicely told story, thanks for posting. Congrats on making the move.

 

[John100156]

Sant carles seems pretty popular with the brits, and you can see why,being relatively close to the balearics etc. But whats the boating like if you just want to go out for the day,and not a significant voyage? Is there much within say 30nm,any nice bays,beaches etc,or do you have to get across to mallorca for that sort of thing?

The lagoon just outside the marina is an excellent place to drop the hook for the day, you have options, a small bay close to a restaurant on stilts (Xiringuito's) where the holding is excellent, many off us leave our boats there and take the dinghy to lunch. Then there is the NE side of the lagoon where you can also drop the hook and get to access miles of sandy and often deserted beaches.

As has been said, Peniscola with its castle is around 18NM South where there are miles of beautiful sandy beaches, busy in summer, but remember the beach in Sant Carles is a blue flag one and excellent for kids. Then another say 10NM South of Peniscola is Las Fuentes (close to the new airport just opened Castellon) - we took relatives there for three days just to break up the stay in SCM a few weeks ago. It was flat both ways which was good, SWMBO's cousin gets scared even if he can see his reflection in the sea..... We tend to go South quite a lot as there are lots of smaller marinas which you can hop into for lunch, then there is Valencia of course which is an 80NM easy run from SCM.

But my favourite is the hop over to Mallorca or Ibiza, there are often other boats going over in summer so you can usually tag along in company.

On the whole a great and economical place to keep a boat and at least a ten month season to enjoy, going out again in 10 days time.....!