Spanish Marinas

[Garry & June 'Friendship']

Presently researching where to spend next winter and cannot quite figure out the cost of electricity and water in Spanish marinas... we are a married liveaboard couple, with normal average energy demands which includes running a dehumidifier frequently at night, and have been quoted 4.10eu m3 and 0.26eu kwh + vat... are there any couples who have overwintered and can give us an idea as to what this equates to in real life and a rough idea of monthly cost. We are presently in Lagos Portugal and whilst not cheap everything is included so I would like to weigh up the difference. Many thanks.

 

[Yngmar]

For water, one cubic metre is 1000 litres. As you know how big your tank is and how often you refill it, you should be able to figure this out pretty easily. Don't forget to add whatever you use when washing down the deck with the marina hose (which you can work out by flow rate, based on how long it takes to fill up your tank, i.e. if filling an empty 300l tank takes 20 minutes, then washing the deck for 10 minutes uses 150 litre).

For power, add up the watts used every hour, so if your dehumidifier on a low setting uses 300 W and you run it for 12 hours a day, that's 3.6kWh or almost 1 EUR per day. Much more if you also use electric heating - same formula. If you want to know exactly how much you use, add a simple AC power meter to your AC setup - or if you have one of the meter-maids in your shore power cable, read it off that.

 

[KellysEye]

Our favourite Spanish marina was Rota, a proper Spanish village and no all day English breafasts, you won't need a dehumidifier. Contact details are telephone: +34 956 840069. E-mail address is: rota@eppa.es.

 

[Tradewinds]

I run a dessicant dehumidifier 24/7 on my 12m boat (Suffolk not Spain!). It's plugged in via an in-line consumption meter which I bought recently.

Up to last weekend.
Hours run 858
Usage 105Kwh
ie 0.122Kwh per hr of use or €0.032 per hr + IVA at your rates.

Can't imagine your dehumidifier in Spain would be working harder than mine in Suffolk though the type of dehumidifier must have a bearing on cost.

HTH

 

[Trident]

Check out Yacht Port Cartagena - really nice safe marina right in the heart of the very best small town in Spain.

On average for two people in a cat we spend about 8 euro a month on water (and thats being quite extravagant with it) and 15 a month on electricity - most of that is for water heating and a little heating late at night in the 3 "coldest" months (most days all through winter here we're in t shirts until the sun goes down) - some other friends on a 12m mono spend 30 euro on electric but whenever we go to their boat its sweltering from fan heaters. I guess much of this depends on how energy efficient your boat is and how well insulated.

 

[Garry & June 'Friendship']

Many thanks all for your replies its been very helpful.

 

[westernman]

Presently researching where to spend next winter and cannot quite figure out the cost of electricity and water in Spanish marinas... we are a married liveaboard couple, with normal average energy demands which includes running a dehumidifier frequently at night, and have been quoted 4.10eu m3 and 0.26eu kwh + vat... are there any couples who have overwintered and can give us an idea as to what this equates to in real life and a rough idea of monthly cost. We are presently in Lagos Portugal and whilst not cheap everything is included so I would like to weigh up the difference. Many thanks.

Those prices of water and electricity are typical of Spanish marinas and are quite reasonable. The water price is very similar to UK metered and French household prices (all water in France is metered). The electricity is a little bit expensive but not extortionate.

 

[Contest1]

Marina del las Dunas , Guardamar de Segura. Electricity and water included in the price. On line price list. Handful bof liveaboards, good restaurant and nice Spanish town nearby.

 

[7htas]

In September, I was in a place called Garrucha, which isn't far from Cartagena. I believe the marina is much cheaper than the aforementioned.

Nice little town, not many English people there.

 

[Trident]

Garrucha is a nice town but has two big problems - its more expensive than Cartagena being parts of the massive local authority run group and more importantly is bloody lethal in a blow or with swell running - when we were there most people couldn't even get on their boats and I had to help the marineros secure a cat that was bucking so hard they almost went on top of the pontoon and a week later friends watched in horror as a woman was flung off her boat and went between the hull and the pontoon. Thankfully the two guys trying to tie up the boat managed to pull her out of the water before she got crushed. I would never go back there unless flat calm was predicted ...

 

[Sea Devil]

You will find that Almirimar is by far the cheapest marina in Spain and they are keen to do deals for all winter - I like the place a lot and have found that water and electricity are very cheap - try emailing them on infomarina@almerimarpuerto.com for exact prices.

michael

 

[[27631]]

Almerimar may be marginally the cheapest...but you may as well stay in the UK ..bar the temperature...as go there.Everywhere you look 'full english breakfasts' bars full of beer gutted brits watching football on big screen tv.,large english colonial type community,it is nauseastingly ...'little britain'in the sun...they even have some english woman transmitting daily activities on the vhf net...Rowena or some such...I suggest Cartagena or Rota as earlier suggested are much nicer...But horses for courses I guess !!Been there many times as a short stopover...always glad to leave..

 

[Mistroma]

You will find that Almirimar is by far the cheapest marina in Spain and they are keen to do deals for all winter - I like the place a lot and have found that water and electricity are very cheap - try emailing them on infomarina@almerimarpuerto.com for exact prices.

michael

Almerimar wasn't the cheapest when I checked in 2014. I think that the daily charge for water and electricity was about 3.25 Euro per day. Nobody checks water but you need a special connector for power and need to go to office and pay for each day that you use it. So 6 months would add almost 600 euro to charges over winter. I don't think that their mooring rate was the cheapest either. They wouldn't even consider any special discount in 2014, perhaps that has changed (we didn't even bother to ask this year).

I stayed in Aguadulce and seem to remember that my actual bill would have been 800 euro less than Almerimar. In fact we lifted out for about 5 months and didn't need power. Unfortunately, I deleted to notes I had with the actual figures.

Aguadulce was by far the cheapest option for us and we returned there last November. I think that I fell into a lower length category and also got a large discount over advertised prices. It's a very nice little marina and everyone is friendly but only a few people living on board all winter. Not at all like Almerimar as it doesn't simply consist of apartments, it is a proper town with Almeria nearby.

We loved Cartagena and will visit again but it was much more expensive than Aguadulce.

Locals say that Almerimar get a lot more wind & swell than Aguadulce. We have noticed that ourselves when friends were based in Almerimar and we compared notes. They'd often get 40-50knots and we'd only get 30-35knots. Wind always seems to come along the coast from SW or NE and the marina is well sheltered from both directions.

 

[jordanbasset]

Oaky it was back in 2010 we over wintered in Alemerimar but with that proviso this was our thoughts on it.
When we arrived we were initially not impressed with the concrete jungle that makes up the marina, it appeared souless, but by the end of the first week it won us over and we decided to stay the winter.
Yes there were two British Bars and one Irish Bar, OMG, how terrible, but it did mean I could watch the occasional game of football, again I am sure a terrible sin on my part. But these were more than outweighed by the more than a dozen Spanish bars/restaurants. And here's the thing, if you did not want to go into the British Bar you did not have to, no one kidnapped you off the street.
The marina also had 3 chandleries, one of which was very good. There were a wide selection of contractors in the marina who could do work on your boat, everything from Stainless steel work to canvas repairs.
It also had a good sized supermarket and ATM machine within a couple of hundred yards of the boats.
Yes there was a radio net each morning, but again it was not compulsory to turn on your radio to listen to it.
Almerimar is home to a fair number of sailors who have swallowed the anchor and set up base there. They come in very useful for their knowledge of the area and organising activities. Yes I know it is terrible people were offered the chance to go on walks (car pooling with the residents meant we went on some great walks), take part in fitness classes, quiz nights etc. Also Friday nights we all met up in a local bar and had a few drinks and something to eat. Excellent nights and very good fun. Again though none of this was compulsory.
As to the swell, if you were in the outer pontoons you were subject to a lot of wind, but most liveaboards were tucked up well into the marina prtotected by the apartment buildings around you. Very litle wind and no swell to speak of.
As to price, including water and electricity, it was significantly cheaper than any where else.
To summarise it was one of the best winters we have had and certainly the best as liveaboards, friends we made there we still have, brilliant times.
I do not like comparing to other places if I have not over wintered there, as it is difficult to get a true feeling for it from just a few days. But if I had to give an opinion I really did not like Aquadulce, it seemed to have no atmosphere and there were very few people in the marina and more expensive than Almerimar.
Cartagena was better, nice town, but again perhaps because we were not there very long, seemed little in the way of a community feeling. But again some people like that
My advice to any one thinking about it would be to do some research on current prices and go in and check them out for a week or so and make your own mind up.

 

[Sea Devil]

And here's the thing, if you did not want to go into the British Bar you did not have to, no one kidnapped you off the street.
The marina also had 3 chandleries, one of which was very good. There were a wide selection of contractors in the marina who could do work on your boat, everything from Stainless steel work to canvas repairs.
It also had a good sized supermarket and ATM machine within a couple of hundred yards of the boats.
Yes there was a radio net each morning, but again it was not compulsory to turn on your radio to listen to it.
Almerimar is home to a fair number of sailors who have swallowed the anchor and set up base there. They come in very useful for their knowledge of the area and organising activities. Yes I know it is terrible people were offered the chance to go on walks (car pooling with the residents meant we went on some great walks), take part in fitness classes, quiz nights etc. Also Friday nights we all met up in a local bar and had a few drinks and something to eat. Excellent nights and very good fun. Again though none of this was compulsory.
As to the swell, if you were in the outer pontoons you were subject to a lot of wind, but most liveaboards were tucked up well into the marina prtotected by the apartment buildings around you. Very litle wind and no swell to speak of.
As to price, including water and electricity, it was significantly cheaper than any where else.
To summarise it was one of the best winters we have had and certainly the best as liveaboards, friends we made there we still have, brilliant times.
I do not like comparing to other places if I have not over wintered there, as it is difficult to get a true feeling for it from just a few days. But if I had to give an opinion I really did not like Aquadulce, it seemed to have no atmosphere and there were very few people in the marina and more expensive than Almerimar.
Cartagena was better, nice town, but again perhaps because we were not there very long, seemed little in the way of a community feeling. But again some people like that
My advice to any one thinking about it would be to do some research on current prices and go in and check them out for a week or so and make your own mind up.

Just want to say I totally agree with all the above and we visited there twice in 2015.

I think Almirimar is far cheaper on a 'winter deal' than any other Costa Marina. Compared to all the other marina's between it and Gibraltar there are far fewer ex pats and it is much less touristy. As Jordan says you really do not have to only go the Brit way -- we live in Spain and speak Spanish so we use all the Spanish Bars and facilities but actually find MacGowans a really pleasant change. It is possible to overdose on Spanish food... Have a look at my site - http://www.michaelbriant.com/cruise_1995.htm - and last years summer cruise - Cartageana is a lovely town but it's miles to the Supermarket and the prices in the bars and restaurants considerably more than Almirimar who's Spanish visitors are fairly local.

Back in the day when I lived aboard and spent winter in some foreign port I always found Almirimar the very best value for money and with the best facilities - Excellent supermarket, self service washing machines or service wash, inexpensive British and Spanish bars and restaurants. A first rate sail-maker and an upholsterer, probably the best English speaking chandlers on the Costa and a first rate boat yard where you can DIY or have local trades do it.

All things are opinion and taste so all I can do is say it is one of many places in the Mediterranean that works for us.

Michael

Certainly it is not as beautiful as Cartagena - in fact the architecture is not brilliant but it's a really nice place to be and we enjoy stopping off there for a few days on our wat to or from the Eastern Med.

 

[[27631]]

Almerimar..long term...especially if you have female company...the showers and toilets there are dire/absolute rubbish..an area of plastic half the size of the Isle of Wight inland of you,and nearest sensible useful town is El Ejido...about 5 miles away...as stated good chandlers in marina...and you can live on your boat and work on it in the yard..