Summer in Scotland, Winter in.... ??

Sea Change

Sea Change

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Say I wanted to cruise the West Coast of Scotland in the summer, then head to warmer climes to ride out the winter.
What would be a short list of destinations that are within achievable distance and provide a climate that would allow reasonably comfortable life aboard.
At the moment I'm thinking Galicia or thereabouts, but maybe too wet/windy?
French canals, perhaps?
Or just keep heading south...?
 
Winter in the Canaries....after all....summer in Scotland ends on the 25th June....it should give you time.... If you like the travelling bit you could keep going and have Christmas in the Cape Verdes.....winter in the Caribbean.......spring in New England....and back to Scotland for the 21st June......Ta..Daaaa
 
Sea Change said:
Say I wanted to cruise the West Coast of Scotland in the summer, then head to warmer climes to ride out the winter.
What would be a short list of destinations that are within achievable distance and provide a climate that would allow reasonably comfortable life aboard.
At the moment I'm thinking Galicia or thereabouts, but maybe too wet/windy?
French canals, perhaps?
Or just keep heading south...?
Click to expand...

The Sof is often cold, overcast and drizzly over the winter; usually beautiful until October, and sometimes you can eat out at Christmas, but that's on a blue moon. So the winter weather lasts from mid- November to March, not much better than the UK.

my daughter worked in Spain as a teacher, close to Valencia. Quite decent winter weather, much warmer than France but it does rain quite a lot.

The algarve east of Faro has good winter weather, and the nature reserve of the Ria Formosa that runs along the coast makes it into a fabulous sheltered boating area. I can recommend Tavira, an old Portuguese town.

how about Gibraltar?
 
Canaries are about twice as far as I was hoping to have to go. Also I don't think it'll be necessary to seek out a winter that is warmer than the summer I'll have just finished. So long as it isn't too close to freezing, and so long as it doesn't lash down with rain/snow/sleet, then I'll consider it a worthwhile upgrade.

What's the latest time of year that a Biscay crossing is sensible?
 
Oh, you can time things nicely, and Canaries has surely got to be a serious consideration. Biscay can be awful in the "okay" times and vice versa, but it gets a bad press as those with short holidays or a deadline (hi there, ARCies) sometimes set themselves a too-narow window. You can migrate gently south through late summer and pick your time. The left turn east to Gib restricts you to left/right coast hopping on a actually-not-so-nice coast or holed up in a marina when the more likely "nice weather" and wider variety of cruising options is in the Canaries. Well, ok, the best option is to waft over to the carib for xmas till may and be back in Hibernia for June, and start again. I did this (not scotland, but europe-carib for a few years) but i gotta say it's serious travelling, really.

The spanish rias are super-protected, long winding big rivers going way inland - only teensy drawback could be lack of English spoken in that part of Spain. But it's only another 5ish days to Canaries, which is much more er international - english spoken and spanish useful rather than quite essential as in the NW spain area.

So, a week ish gets you to v southern England, another week max to the rias, another to canaries, going quite gently.
 
Sea Change said:
Say I wanted to cruise the West Coast of Scotland in the summer, then head to warmer climes to ride out the winter.
What would be a short list of destinations that are within achievable distance and provide a climate that would allow reasonably comfortable life aboard.
At the moment I'm thinking Galicia or thereabouts, but maybe too wet/windy?
French canals, perhaps?
Or just keep heading south...?
Click to expand...

The annual average temperature range in the Canaries is 23° to 28°.
 
Cheap, Cheerful & Warm Wintering

We have an almost identical thread (cheap, cheerful & warm wintering) currently running on this forum. To reduce work load possibly the Mods could merge them?
 
nortada said:
We have an almost identical thread (cheap, cheerful & warm wintering) currently running on this forum. To reduce work load possibly the Mods could merge them?
Click to expand...

ooh, not the same at all, frinstance the "cheerful" aspect, not specified here :-)

I should really bang on a lot more about going to the carib for the winter - no need for any marina fees at all, and warm weather that actually stays warm even when it gets dark cos the sea is warm too. Sit at anchor the whole season in blue water. Massive savings on marina fees, food, clothes, laundry, heating gear.
 
October or even September is already (potentially) iffy ... I had an insurance company exclude Biscay from 15th August, and Fastnet 79 was 13th August I think? May- July gotta be best time... but the storms are well forecast, don't "spring up" out of nowhere, so doable most times of the year with plenty of time...
 
tcm said:
ooh, not the same at all, frinstance the "cheerful" aspect, not specified here :-)

I should really bang on a lot more about going to the carib for the winter - no need for any marina fees at all, and warm weather that actually stays warm even when it gets dark cos the sea is warm too. Sit at anchor the whole season in blue water. Massive savings on marina fees, food, clothes, laundry, heating gear.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. The only difficulty I found with the Caribbean was actually staying in it. Down wind easy sailing until one day you find yourself in Florida. Then try to get back to Martinique (for instance).

This would be a good thing for the OP. In a good year, I guess, he could end up back in Scotland.
 
Unsurprisingly I recommend Cyprus....climate, culture, cuisine, countryside, crime (low), and language.

The main marinas are Limassol (brand new, very expensive, central Limassol), St Raphael (eastern upmarket tourist area, new,cheaper but watch out for the add-ons, very busy), and Larnaca (older, very busy in winter, next to commercial harbour.).

Zygi (twixt Limassol and Larnaca) not recommended because the dusty village has nothing but fish restaurants and little else.

I however, would recommend the smallest: Latchi on the west coast. Cyprus as it used to be but being upgraded and extended. Lovely small town and close to the restaurants of Polis. See you there ?
 
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