Nautical on tour........& pics

[Nautical]

Last weekend saw us this time in Empuriabrava delivering and commissioning a 45 and thought some might like to see what Spainish Med boating is like.

While you lot were battling gale force winds and lashing rain at the weekend we were sun soaked and getting nicely burnt to a crisp! but having said that, really hot boating does have its draw backs, working on a boat in high temps knocks the stuffing out of you and I was cream crackered at the end of each day and am sporting a lovely burnt forehead and fried shoulders! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Unlike South of France the other week where everything is spotless and well organised Spain tends to be a bit hit and miss and there are some fairly 'ropey' areas around the bay of Roses. Berthing and services tend to be much cheaper, 14m berth in Empuriabrava is 7000 euros pa as oppossed to £9000 in Hamble. Lift off transport and into the water 160 euros...£280 in Hamble!. Boat service people are very much take it or leave it and don't expect lightening fast service either.

I guess you pays your money and takes your choice with Med boating, cheap and cheerful but so so service and facilities or expensive and go for the glamour in the SoF.

Boat finally arrives (what is it with Transport co's, never arrive when they say, all geared up to get on with it and no boat!)

View from the boat yard, Empuriabrava is the second largest canal system next to Venice, furthest berth into the development takes you almost an hour to get out to open sea!.

Heading out to sea from the canals, some very tight spots on the way out for two bigger mobos to pass.

Crossing the bay of Roses.

Lots of these rocky lumps sticking up closer to shore so you have to be carefull approaching many of the coves and bays.

A little cove called Cala Joncois where we stopped for a lovely lunch of fresh salad, smoked salmon and champers to christen the boat with the new owner.

Enterance to Roses Marina further up from Empuriabrava where a lot of the bigger stuff berth.

Enterance back in to Empuriabrava which you have to be careful with as there is a dog leg just inside and if you meet a big boat coming out can get a bit tight so no whizzing in or bigum thumpum /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif.

Back on the berth, one thing for sure they pack'em in!, 4.40m width between the poles and boat is 4.20m beam so a hell of a tight fit, sweated buckets getting her in for the first time in front of the new owner, thankfully it was my lucky day and went ok.

All in all a great long weekend if a lot of hard work and hope you like the pics.

Next sees Nautical tours off to Italy to Lavanga so will be interesting to see the how Italian Med boating feels.

Apologies if some see the above as a bit of promo thing but when I started to come on here over a year ago many were talking about med boating and how good/bad/etc it was like and I was always dying to see what it was all about so I hope its taken in the manner intended.

Hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend.

Trev

P.S. Many thanks to 'Courageous' for recommending the Hotel Part Sallins, definitely the best hotel in the development with balcony overlooking the marina. Thanks also for the resturant recommendation, the 'Churrasco' across from the Hotel does the best monkfish I have ever tasted.

Tother interesting thing about Empuriabrava is that it has one of the biggest Skydiving centres in the Med, a constant stream of adrenaline junkies doing their thing. At one point I counted twenty of them plumeting to earth doing all their trick stuff. At least once a day a few get it wrong and end up landing on the road (in the middle of traffic) or plonking themselves into the water! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Nautorius]

Re: Nautical on tour..............

Trev,

In that heat working is a [--word removed--], but with a nice play afterwards I am sure it is all worth it! Keep up the rhetorical and pictures, the adventures are great!

Paul

 

[tcm]

good stuff, nice pics. I suppose you aren't *entirely* sampling "french med boating" and "spanish med boating" but useful info all the same.

Frexample, you landed in a dutch-owned french marina (la rague) and hence they have English (actually, probly the best on fr riviera for this), whereas some other some places speak french only - and over vhf in antibes for example will pointedly refuse to communicate in any other language than french, which (altho i do have some french) i reckon is simply bl8odyminded or actually illegal.

So i think there can be a bit of variation - french marinas aren't uniformly ace, and spansih aren't uniformly slightly less ace.

One big noticeable difference for more casual visitors (wherea nautorious you are landing getting them to do serious craning/launhing stuff, yes?) is that a french marina is really no more than a boat park with limited and heftily-protected shower blocks which are often open only part of the day.

Whereas quite a few spanish marinas are well ahead in terms of clubhouses, marineiros helping and swimming pools etc.

But again, v intersting so please - more tour pix.

 

[hlb]

Not at all. Just nice to see some one going some where and doing something interesting.

 

[Nautical]

Yes indeed, fair comment indeed. My experiences to date are obviously limited to the easiest marinas to get a larger boat delivered to so a bit skewed I suppose. Pehaps Empuriabrava is not typical of Spanish marinas as it was built as far back as the 1970's so some of the areas are a bit 'tatty' looking. Sotogrande on the other hand is excellent and does have loads of other things within the area like golf clubs etc.

I would say the Spainish marina bods are more freindly towards British boaters but they do take their time to get anything done.

I am still on a learing curve and part of my 'sampling' is so we can decide where we would like to have our own boat next year, have to say I am still leaning towards SoF but maybe Italy will change that. I had my boat at Lavanga earlier which is spitting distance from Portofino et al which I love but it is much harder to get to from the IOM and not your long weekend type juant whereas Nice is just a couple of hours and a twenty minute taxi ride to the nice marinas.

Wonder what your thoughts are having experienced many Med marinas, given a choice what would be your favourite bearing in mind travel time is a consideration. Thanks again.

 

[Nautical]

Thanks Haydn, Just scribbling some notes for the 39 jaunt from Hamble to IOM and if ok by you will PM you with outline and see what you think. Fuel stop on the Irish sea leg? any thoughts, trying for just one so half way point would be ideal.

 

[tcm]

good question! But travel time not the only consideration. Door-door time a key issue so la rague worse than antibes in that respect. Skyrocketing fr taxi costs makes this a key thing - tho the train from airport (nice at augustin) or of course car hire (cheaper to rent car for a weekend than cab even to antibes...)

Despite it's faults, we chose antibes. It's nearish the airport, with proper town nearby so les of "marina in middle of nowehere". But for a smaller boat forexample i would praps not be there: shower blocks are sparse and distant, and it is too long a walk from smaler-boat pontoons to town, really.

A plus for us is that we have some french but near-zero spanish. Tother way around spain would be higher up the list.

Other considerations are that southern spain has noticeable longer season. But on flip side, it can be a bit ouch hot for some lily-skinned brits, and whereas you can get car to sfrance, buit much doing the same for a 1 or 2-week hol in more distant spain.

Cost another factor. Spainsh marinas generally cheaper. But there again, french marinas are likley nearer more/better restaurants.

crusing area as well- hence balearix v nice and varied, whereas coastal places can be "left or right today hm?" . riviera not as bad as some bits of spanish coast with lickle offshore islands, tho not as good as balearix.

Another weathr issue is that majorca likley a bit windier than riviera, lots more likley to have good sailing hence non-smooth moboing in balearix. St trop windier than la napoule, which itself windier than Nice. Though with balearix you can hide away in one bay/coast regardles of wind direction as pointed out by Deleted User/

and so on - all lead to differet choices, all personal.

good luck

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Having experienced both SoF and Spanish boating out of Denia and Palma, it's not fair to generalise. €7000 for a 14m berth is pretty cheap for Spain. You'll pay more in Denia and a lot more in Palma or Portals plus the visitors berthing fees can be astronomical in Spain. You can easily pay €80/night on the mainland and upto €180/night in Ibiza for a 15m berth. But fuel is a bit cheaper in Spain as is servicing and so is the general cost of being a tourist in terms of taxis, caffs, hotels restaurants but, despite your monkfish, restaurant food is generally crappier than SoF
As tcm said we like the Balearics because being islands you can always find a sheltered bay somewhere and the Balearics as a whole are v attractive IMHO but I certainly would prefer SoF to mainland Spain. The other issue is weather. In my limited experience the coastline between Barcelona and Marseille is subject to the Golf de Lion weather pattern which means plenty more windy days than in Cote d'Azur and Mallorca/Ibiza. This may be one of the reasons why Empuriabrava is a bit cheaper than other Med areas
Excellent report and pics again

 

[Nautical]

Again Mike, fair comment and yes the wind is always an issue up that way, you could set your watch by it....13.00hrs and it starts to blow up and by 18.00 back down again regular as clockwork.

I guess the more glitzy feel of the SoF is what is also luring me, methinks if your spending big dosh on a boat you might as well live the lifestyle. For me (and others will disagree) having £1/2 m in a sexy yacht and then skimping on berthing charges or fuel seems a bit pointless. We will only use the boat six or eight times a year so want to enjoy every minute of it and if it costs a little more, hey ho, decent family holiday is £3 -£4k a pop anyway.

Eating out is also a big issue for us, we love good food and wine and it is all part of the time away from the office getting R&R. Like most we don't really cook on board just breakfast and light lunches/picnics and then something scrummy in the evening at a nice resturant. So as you say SoF offers better than Spain, although the rest I was recommended was pretty darn good by any standards but more of a one off than the norm for Spain.

Still makes me laugh at shows n' stuff when people complain that ...'it does'nt have a big four ring stove and where's the domestic size frezzer and how will I get the pressure cooker in there?. I have yet to meet anyone that buys a 40-50 sports cruiser that cooks three course meals on board everyday yet they will base their decision on buying the boat cus Mrs boaty can't cook a squillion pound turkey in the oven!, should have bought a Winebago instead !.

Will be doing Palma in a couple of months so will give that a good shufty too but I believe getting a berth in the Portals is a nightmare.

Thanks for your input, great stuff.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Well you have'nt met my SWMBO then! She enjoys cooking on board occasionally and with Med restaurants being so crowded in season, its often the only option if you want to eat. We'll cook on board perhaps 1 evening in 2 or 3 and then there's kids to think about as well. No point in wasting €100 a throw in a fancy restaurant if all they want is a burger and a night in front of the PS2. Then what are you going to do when you're anchored overnight in a deserted cala? Often you cant beat a good meal on board swinging gently to the hook. So cannot agree with you at all on galley features. SWMBO looks for a galley with good cooking facilities and also good storage as well
And a domestic sized fridge is a definite plus as well. In the Med heat obviously food goes off v quickly so it needs to be stored in a fridge. Then what about all the booze? You have to be able to keep several bottles of wine and a bunch of tinnies in the fridge. Who wants to drink beer which has been cooking at 40deg

 

[longjohnsilver]

Keeping stuff cool

Surely the bilge is the place to store your cans of shandy ............................................................... /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Nautical]

Don't get me wrong I am not saying no facilities I am talking about bringing the whole kitchen with you!. Sure (our stuff anyway) comes with ceramic hob, microwave, oven, domestic size fridge freezer (just not a chest freezer) cockpit fridge, cockpit grill, optional ice maker etc but in proportion to the amount of use it will get and size of boat. You can cook a big family meal if you want but you are not going to cook a 20lb turkey and all the trimings for 12 people.

Personally I'd rather have the essentials and ability to knock up a decent meal if required but not at the expense of saloon space where we spend most of the time loafing and entertaining with drinkie poohs etc.

Maybe the flybridge fraternity are a different amimal and the boat is seen as more a liveaboard second home where speed, handling and bang for bucks are not so important but more cruising and loafability. I would certainly agree with you if buying 60' of flybridge jobbie as you are more likely to be entertaining bigger groups of people and living longer periods on board but a 40' sports cruiser is never going to match the galley of a big flybridge boat and why would it need to anyway.

Would be interesting to see (med based anyway) whether a sports cruiser gets more sea time than a flybridge and is peoples use of one or the other different.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Med Flybridge v Med Sportscruiser

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Sportscruisers tend to be used for dayboating in the Med and few seem to be slept on overnight so galley features are secondary. Flybridge boats on the other hand tend to be more used as second homes and therefore galley features are much more important. We are a prime example of this in that as we dont have a Med property, the boat is our home whenever we visit it. There is no option to sneak off early to go back to our UK house if the weather is bad
Our first Med based boat was a Targa 48. A fair sized boat you might think but once you've spent a few days on board, the accomodation starts to become very poky especially when you're forced downstairs because the cockpit canopy leaks (as they all do). So, for the way we use our boat, a flybridge boat with a decent galley is much more useable.
I dont think one type of boat gets more sea time than the other. Just like anywhere else it depends how often the owner visits and how keen to get out to sea he is